THE TWILIGHT SEAS: A Blue Whale's Journey

A lovely, illumining documentary which should take its place along side of Victor Scheffer's Year of the Whale (1969) -- perhaps more softly shaded but covering a comparable cycle. This Little Calf is blue, one of the increasingly rarer species, and he's born in a gale off the coast of Africa with blue eyes which will become as large as grapefruit. The young whale, following his mother who slaps him and prods him with her snout, spends most of his early weeks up top (for air) and eats, eats, eats (mostly krill) with a ""driving need."" They summer in the antarctic waters, face dangerous bergs and harpoons, travel southward and by the close (almost his end) he will be a self-sufficient and confident animal, as well as the largest and strongest around with the power of 47 horses. Carrighar, always a fine naturalist, permits fascinating specifics to swim in and out of her narrative unobtrusively and who can question the dual appeal of both the author and the subject.