South Street Seaport Museum Announces The Wake Of The Whale: Hunter Societies In The Caribbean And North Atlantic Book Talk With Russell Fielding

The South Street Seaport Museum announces The Wake of the Whale: Hunter Societies in the Caribbean and North Atlantic Book Talk with Russell Fielding on Tuesday, October 23 at 6:30pm at the Melville Gallery 213 Water Street, NYC. Doors open at 6:15 PM. Book signing to follow the talk. Books on sale at the event. Tickets are $10 (free for members) and can be purchased at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/10339004

Despite declining stocks worldwide and increasing health risks, artisanal whaling remains a cultural practice tied to nature's rhythms.

The Wake of the Whale presents the art, history, and challenge of whaling in the Caribbean and North Atlantic, based on a decade of award-winning fieldwork.

Sightings of pilot whales in the frigid Nordic waters have drawn residents of the Faroe Islands to their boats and beaches for nearly a thousand years. Down in the tropics, around the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, artisanal whaling is a younger trade, shaped by the legacies of slavery and colonialism but no less important to the local population. Each culture, Russell Fielding shows, has developed a distinct approach to whaling that preserves key traditions while adapting to threats of scarcity, the requirements of regulation, and a growing awareness of the humane treatment of animals.

A rare mix of scientific and social insight, The Wake of the Whale raises compelling questions about the place of cultural traditions in the contemporary world and the sacrifices we must make for sustainability.

Russell Fielding is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at The University of the South. A Fulbright scholar, he has been awarded fellowships from the Nansen Fund, the Faroese Research Council, the University of Montana Global Leadership Initiative, and the American Geographical Society and has been interviewed by National Geographic, PBS, and 18 Degrees North. He served as a consultant on two documentary films, The Archipelago, by Benjamin Huguet, and Faroe Islands: Message from the Sea, by PBS Frontline/World. Since 2005 Fielding has been studying artisanal whaling traditions throughout the Atlantic, with field sites in the Faroe Islands, Newfoundland, and St. Vincent.

The South Street Seaport Museum, located in the heart of the historic seaport district in New York City, preserves and interprets the history of New York as a great port city. Founded in 1967, and designated by Congress as America's National Maritime Museum, the Museum houses an extensive collection of works of art and artifacts, a maritime reference library, exhibition galleries and education spaces, working nineteenth century print shops, and an active fleet of historic vessels that all work to tell the story of "Where New York Begins."