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INTEGRAL BOOKS
An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Horticultural Hall
300 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
www.shambhala.com

Frontispiece by Michael Garfield

© 2009 by Sean Esbjörn-Hargens and Michael E. Zimmerman

Case Study I © 2005, 2009 Gail Hochachka
Case Study II © 2005 Brian N. Tissot
Case Study III © 2005 Darcy Riddell
See Credits for further copyright information.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Esbjörn-Hargens, Sean.
Integral ecology: uniting multiple perspectives on the natural world / Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, and
Michael E. Zimmerman; with case studies by Gail Hochachka, Brian Tissot, and Darcy Riddell;
foreword by Marc Bekoff.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
978-1-59030-466-2 (hardcover: alk. paper)
978-1-59030-767-0 (pbk)
978-0-8348-2446-1 (eISBN)
1. Human ecology—Philosophy. 2. Nature. 3. Human beings.
I. Zimmerman, Michael E., 1946– II. Title.
GF21.E75 2009
304.201—dc22
2008032370
To Tatiana Rose, the queen of all those unseen at Sea Frog Haven

—SEAN ESBJÖRN-HARGENS
To my wife, Teresa, and my daughter, Lizzie

—MICHAEL E. ZIMMERMAN
We do not easily know nature, or even know ourselves. Whatever it actually
is, it will not fulfill our conceptions or assumptions. It will dodge our
expectations and theoretical models. There is no single or set “nature” either
as “the natural world” or “the nature of things.” The greatest respect we can
pay to nature is not to trap it, but to acknowledge that it eludes us and that our
own nature is also fluid, open, and conditional.
Hakuin Zenji put it “self-nature that is no nature / . . . far beyond mere
doctrine.” An open space to move in, with the whole body, the whole mind.

—GARY SNYDER,
No Nature: New and Selected Poems
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Preface • Sean Esbjörn-Hargens
Acknowledgments
Foreword • Marc Bekoff

Introduction: Whose Environment Is It?

PART ONE
The Historical Context and Conceptual Framework of Integral Ecology

1 The Return of Interiority: Redefining the Humanity-Nature Relationship

2 It’s All About Perspectives: The AQAL Model

3 A Developing Kosmos

4 Developing Interiors

PART TWO
The What, Who, and How of Ecological Phenomena

5 Defining, Honoring, and Integrating the Multiple Approaches to Ecology

6 Ecological Terrains: The What That Is Examined

7 Ecological Selves: The Who That Is Examining

8 Ecological Research: How We Examine

PART THREE
The Who, How, and What Framework Applied

9 Ecological Harmony and Environmental Crisis in a Post-Natural World

10 Practices for Cultivating Integral Ecological Awareness

11 Integral Ecology in Action

PART FOUR
Applications of Integral Ecology in Self, Other, and World

Case Study I: Integrating Interiority in Sustainable Community Development:

A Case Study with San Juan del Gozo Community, El Salvador • Gail
Hochachka

Case Study II: Integral Marine Ecology: Community-Based Fishery

Management in Hawai’i • Brian N. Tissot

Case Study III: Evolving Approaches to Conservation: Integral Ecology and

Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest • Darcy Riddell

Conclusion: The Integral Ecology Advantage

Appendix: 200+ Perspectives on NATURE: Major, Minor, and Emerging

Schools of Ecology, Environmental Studies, and Ecological Thought
Further Reading: The Integral Ecology Bookshelf
Notes
References
Credits
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1.1. nature, Nature, NATURE

Figure 1.2. The ego and the eco before the collapse

Figure 2.1. AQAL diagram

Figure 2.2. The Big Three

Figure 2.3. The 4 quadrants of an individual

Figure 2.4. The 4 quadrivia of a lake

Figure 2.5. Basic outline of a mandala

Figure 2.6. Symbolic features of a mandala

Figure 2.7. Detailed mandala

Figure 2.8. Three-dimensional mandala

Figure 2.9. Validity claims

Figure 2.10. The departments at a typical university

Figure 3.1. The AQAL map

Figure 3.2. Typical ecological hierarchy of span

Figure 3.3. Size, depth, and span

Figure 3.4. Individual and social holons

Figure 3.5. Interiors and exteriors of individual holons

Figure 3.6. The 4 quadrants of the physiophere, biosphere, and noosphere

Figure 4.1. The 4 quadrants in human development

Figure 4.2. Psychograph

Figure 4.3. Wilber’s color spectrum of consciousness

Figure 4.4. Three views of the universe

Figure 4.5. Quadrant absolutisms

Figure 5.1. Some historical trends of scientific ecology in the United States

Figure 5.2. Primary metaphors of several schools of ecology

Figure 5.3. 25 main approaches to ecology

Figure 5.4. Some representative schools

Figure 5.5. Approaches within the 4 terrains

Figure 5.6. Representative schools within the 4 terrains

Figure 5.7. The view of the Lower-Right quadrant of nature from different
altitudes

Figure 5.8. No single tree!

Figure 6.1. The 4 terrains

Figure 6.2. Quadrivia of an oak tree

Figure 6.3. Quadrants of a frog

Figure 6.4. Qualitative and quantitative sciences used to study organisms

Figure 6.5. Quadrivia of toxic emissions

Figure 6.6. The 12 niches of environmental concern

Figure 6.7. The 4 terrains and 12 niches

Figure 6.8. Representative ecological approaches per niche

Figure 6.9. An Integral analysis of ecofeminist schools

Figure 7.1. Kellert’s stages of children’s values of nature and animals

Figure 7.2. Kahn’s two possible environmental lines of development

Figure 7.3. The dignity and disaster of each ecological self

Figure 7.4. Important lines of development

Figure 7.5. Some general differences between Eco-Holists and Eco-

Integralists

Plate 1. Various ecological lines

Plate 2. The 8 ecological selves

Figure 8.1. The 8 fundamental perspectives

Figure 8.2. The 8 methodological zones

Figure 8.3. The outside quadrivia of an animal

Figure 8.4. The inside quadrivia of an animal

Figure 8.5. An IMP approach to animals

Figure 8.6. An IMP analysis of Ecowise

Figure 9.1. Five types of harmony with nature

Figure 9.2. Nature mysticism lattice

Figure 9.3. Varieties of nature mysticism

Figure 9.4. Commonly cited historical causes of the eco-crisis

Figure 9.5. Cultural splitting of modernity and postmodernity

Figure 9.6. The 4 terrains of an eco-crisis

Figure 9.7. The various eco-crises of the 8 eco-selves

Figure 10.1. The 4 terrains of ecological awareness

Figure 10.2. Examples of Integral Ecology practices

Figure 10.3. ROPE weaving and climbing

Figure 10.4. ROPE climbing: body

Figure 10.5. ROPE climbing: mind

Figure 10.6. ROPE climbing: Spirit

Figure 10.7. Sample format of Integral nature observation

Figure 11.1. Categorizing barriers to sustainable consumption

Figure 11.2. Eddy’s Eco-AQAL model

Figure 11.3. The 4 terrains of sustainable design

Figure 11.4. The 4 terrains and 12 niches of daylighting

Figure 11.5. Green infrastructure in the 4 quadrants

Figure 11.6. Hamilton’s Integral City framework

CASE STUDY I: INTEGRATING INTERIORITY IN SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT

Figure I.1. Map of Jiquilisco in El Salvador

Figure I.2. An Integral approach to community development

Figure I.3. Exterior and interior dimensions of methodologies used in each

phase of the research
Figure I.4. Trends observed in worldviews of participants

CASE STUDY II: INTEGRAL MARINE ECOLOGY

Figure II.1. Map of West Hawai’i illustrating the location of the nine
Fishery Replenishment Areas (FRAs)

Figure II.2. 4-quadrant analysis of West Hawai’i community-based

management of the aquarium fishery

CASE STUDY III: EVOLVING APPROACHES TO CONSERVATION

Figure III.1. Great Bear Rainforest

Figure III.2. Examples of rainforest activism in the 4 quadrants

PREFACE
SEAN ESBJÖRN-HARGENS

In hindsight, it now seems inevitable that our paths would not only cross but
that we could become companions in and explorers of Integral Ecology. As
Michael published Contesting Earth’s Future (1994), the first environmental
philosophy text to draw heavily on Ken Wilber’s analysis, I was heading to
Africa, where I would encounter Wilber’s writings. Separately, and at the
same time, we were developing much of what is presented in this book. Thus,
for over five years both of us were independently connecting Wilber’s integral
analysis to ecological issues and environmental thought. As a result of our
efforts we had both become friends with Ken Wilber. Wilber brought us
together and introduced us in the summer of 2000 by inviting us (along with
several others applying Integral Theory to ecology) to Boulder, Colorado, for
the first Integral Ecology Center meeting, hosted by the recently formed
Integral Institute.1 Soon after this meeting, Wilber’s A Theory of Everything
was published. Within its pages occurs his first published usage of the phrase
“integral ecology.”2
Over the next several years, Michael and I stayed in touch and compared
notes as we both taught academic courses in Integral Ecology and wrote
articles connecting the Integral Model to ecological issues.3 In April 2002 the
Integral Institute hosted another Integral Ecology meeting. This time the focus
was to discuss the possibility of writing a textbook on Integral Ecology.4 Over
the next few months, the two of us began sketching out the contents of such a
book and starting writing articles that would eventually become chapters.5
It is our hope that this book supports a new kind of ecology, one that is
informed by the strengths of many approaches and methods, while at the same
time exposing the limits and blindspots of various perspectives. May this
book serve a flourishing of mutual understanding between differing
perspectives.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with any long-term project with a scope as large as this one, there are
many to thank and acknowledge. To begin with, we want to recognize Ken
Wilber for his brilliant mind and open heart, his friendship, and his guidance
in manifesting this book through countless hours of review and conversation.
Annie McQuade has done the heavy lifting, placing our word clay into the
editorial fire and creating a durable text with a nice glaze. We are deeply
indebted to her intellectual labor, sense of humor, and much-needed
encouragement all the while being patient and persistent with our big life
transitions (I became a father, and Michael moved his family across the
country). We were blessed to have a strong seasoned team at Shambhala with
Kendra Crossen, Liz Shaw, Chloe Foster, Lora Zorian, and Hazel and Sara
Bercholz sharing legs in our publishing triathlon and ultimately carrying the
project across the finish line. Matt “Wrench” Rentschler had the laborious job
of tending to endnote editing details that would drive most people to drink.
Not only did he do a superb job on this task, but he also provided some
important content research for chapter 9. Jon Geselle provided his embodied
presence and sharp mind while reading the entire manuscript and made many
important suggestions that greatly improved the text. For many years Jon has
been a sounding board for many of the ideas presented here and has
consistently helped refine the theory and praxis of Integral Ecology.
Throughout the project Stan Salthe provided valuable conversation and
feedback on the content of the manuscript. Marc Bekoff’s support and
generous foreword are greatly valued. Brad Reynolds did a wonderful job
providing all the tables and figures, of which there are many. His skill and
aesthetic sense has greatly enhanced the book. Likewise, Michael Garfield’s
work on the 4-quadrant frog frontispiece and cover art is superb. If only all
authors could have such skill and vision tending to their book covers. Clint
Fuhs supported us in unpacking Integral Calculus—lighting up the path where
few have gone. Nick Hedlund and Carrissa Wieler did important research
locating key quotes and texts for chapter 9. Yotam Schacter did a meticulous
job of scanning the case studies in part four. Gail Hochachka, Brian N. Tissot,
and Darcy Riddell have provided valuable illustrative case studies of Integral
Ecology in action for part four. These case studies do the important work of
connecting our theoretical musings with the concrete details of application.
Similarly, we are appreciative of all those who have provided us with
examples of Integral Theory applied to ecological and environmental issues:
Cameron Owens, Wade Prpich, Kevin Feinstein, Brad Arkell, Brian Eddy,
Barrett Brown, Cynthia McEwen, Will Varey, Mark DeKay, Ian Wight, Chris
Reidy, Gail Hochachka, Tim Winton, Nick Wilding, Marilyn Hamilton, Kevin
Snorf, Joel Kreisberg, John Dupuy, Chris and Ilsa Preist, David Johnston, and
Stephan Martineau. Integral practitioners Ingrid Bamberg and Dan Wheeler
have provided much support and camaraderie in various forms.
In addition, I want to acknowledge that a profound debt is owed the wild
places, in particular the rocky shores of the Pacific Northwest and the
redwoods of Northern California (especially those at Sea Frog Haven, which
held me in the final stages of this process connecting me to what in many
respects is all that matters!).
An equal recipient of my appreciation is Michael Zimmerman. Michael has
not only served as mentor, colleague, and friend, but he has also been a fellow
explorer seeking more Integral frameworks and articulations of our
relationship with the natural world. I consider it a rare opportunity to be able
to work so closely with someone as philosophically astute and open-hearted
as Michael. It has been a total joy to collaborate on this project with him.
Thanks goes out to my mom, Rochelle “Rody” Hargens, for her unmatched
mother’s love and all the support she has given me from the beginning. She
has truly made this book possible. And I bow to her for allowing me to
explore, unaccompanied, the woods around our house in Shelton—it was
there that the seeds of Integral Ecology were planted. Deep gratitude goes to
my dad, Gary Hargens, for all the times he placed us in the wilderness:
hunting blacktail deer, stalking the elusive pine mushroom and the tasty
“yellow trumpet” chanterelles, fishing for cutthroat trout and Chinook
salmon, and sitting in freezing water at the break of dawn, shotguns in hand,
listening to mallards and canvas backs cut the air above us.
Gratitude also goes out to Joe Yuska at Lewis & Clark College Outdoors
for all his mentoring in loving the outdoors; Stefan Aumack, John Barrett, and
Matt Couch, who accompanied me on many camping trips in the Pacific
Northwest and the Southwest; Bill Rotschaefer; my crews with Northwest
Youth Corps; faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies: Sean
Kelly, Brian Swimme, Robert McDermott, Jorge Ferrer, Steven Goodman,
Agana Chatterji, and Richard Shapiro; my biological father, Jerry Frye; the
Bay Area Integral Community; my students at John F. Kennedy University,
the California Institute of Integral Studies, Fielding Graduate University, and
the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology; the people of Bhutan; my integral
interlocutors Kevin Snorf, Forest Jackson, Andre Marquis, Barrett Brown,
and Frank Poletti; and especially to my beloved wife and dharma companion,
Vipassana Esbjörn-Hargens; she more than anyone has been an anchor and an
inspiration—I simply cannot imagine having done this book without her daily
soul illumnation, which has continually revealed deeper layers of Being to
me.

SEAN ESBJÖRN-HARGENS
Sebastopol, Calif.
August 2008

I want to recognize Sean for being such an outstanding partner in this

enterprise. Never have I worked with someone so closely on a writing project
of this magnitude and complexity. Sean always lived up to his agreements in
all areas. I am honored to have worked with him and to have learned so much
in the process. Likewise, I am deeply indebted to Ken Wilber, whose
visionary and integrative thinking has played such an important role in my
continuing academic and personal development. Sean has already
acknowledged many of the people whom I would like to thank, including all
those associated with the Integral Ecology branch of the Integral Institute.
I would like particularly to thank Stan Salthe for engaging in a most
stimulating dialogue with Sean and me during the writing of this book. Stan is
a formidable integrative thinker.
I want also to thank my students, who allowed me to explore with them
Integral themes in several different courses, and who forced me to go back to
the drawing boards on more than one occasion through persistent and
insightful criticism of some of the positions that I put forth. In my view,
Integral thinkers must above all be self-critical, and thus must always be
willing to learn from others.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Teresa, and my daughter, Lizzie,
who supported me in the years of traveling and writing required to complete
this volume. I dedicate this book to them.
We are, I hope, about to see a significant increase in integral thinking on
many different ecological fronts. Yet, I have learned not to be attached to the
consequences of my efforts, which may or may not bear fruit. Gratifying it is
to take a stand with Sean and many others on behalf of this glorious planet
and the life forms that thrive upon it.
May my intentions be honorable!
May all beings be happy!
May Divine blessings be on all Creation!

MICHAEL E. ZIMMERMAN
Boulder, Colo.
August 2008
FOREWORD
MARC BEKOFF, PhD

THE PUBLIC LIVES OF ANIMALS: BRINGING INTERIORITY TO THE SURFACE

Integral Ecology is a wonderful book—but actually, it’s many books in one.

Its scope is enormous, and the authors are to be congratulated for getting so
much important and timely information between two reasonably spaced
covers (considering the scope of their project—to integrate 200 perspectives
on the natural world—even 800 pages is reasonable).
Our relationship with animate and inanimate nature is a complex,
ambiguous, challenging, and frustrating affair. Many people claim to love
nature and to love other animals, and then, with little forethought, concern, or
regret, go on to abuse them in egregious ways, far too numerous to count. I
often say when someone tells me that they love various landscapes or animals
and then partake, either directly or indirectly, in subjecting them to intentional
pain and suffering or wanton destruction, that I’m glad that they don’t love
me!
The messages in the book with which I agree are far too numerous to
mention, but among them is a strong call for integrated holism, compassion,
and respect for our one and only planet. The authors also make the important
work of Ken Wilber more accessible to a new audience in ecology and
environmental studies who might not have previously known about it. This
book is a wonderful example of interdisciplinary lateral thinking grounded in
a multiple methodological approach. The authors also note that science isn’t
value-free. That science is value-free is a myth, and I think that when we
realize that this is the case, we do better science. Science isn’t the only show
in town. We need to blend scientific data (what I call “science sense”) with
intuition, common sense, indigenous knowledge, and qualitative research, as
we try to comprehend the world in which we’re immersed.
As I read this book I often thought of Thomas Berry’s claim that each and
every individual is a member of a communion of subjects. The authors insist
on returning “interiority” to the conversation about humankind and nature.
Any ecological view that doesn’t consider the depths and interconnections
among all components of nature is only a “partial ecology” rather than an
“integrated ecology” and misrepresents the magnificent webs of nature that
abound all over the place. By providing a framework for ecologists to include
the interiors of organisms and environmentalists to include the interiors of the
general public (e.g., by taking into consideration the three major worldviews
of traditional, modern, and postmodern), the authors provide a great service to
the field of ecology and environmental studies. Integral Ecology articulates a
way of doing ecological science that investigates the behavior, experience,
systems, and cultures of organisms.
The science of ecology has excluded the interiors of ecosystem members
for too long! The experiences and lives of animals and all sorts of vegetation
are all bound into a social nexus, and all members are indispensable for
maintaining the integrated whole of nature. Let’s not forget that vegetation
can also have social lives. Suffice it to say, and to risk being trite, the deep
reciprocal interconnections among members of the earth community are such
that we’re all in this together, and we all need others we can lean on. A view
of nature that sanitizes, reduces, and simplifies the complex interrelationships
that exist is bound to tarnish and diminish the appreciation that people have
for what’s out there and to result in a feeling of alienation. This feeling of
alienation can then feed back and produce more alienation.
Many scientists are also control freaks, but once they realize that full
control isn’t a reality and that reductionism misrepresents nature, a clearer
view of the magnificence of nature emerges, along with greater appreciation
for her splendor. All branches of science are burdened by uncertainty, but this
doesn’t mean that we don’t have enough information to offer solid
explanations with strong predictive value. We need to be able to live with
uncertainty and give up control. This is not to be antiscience but to accept the
world as it is.
ANIMAL PASSIONS AS PUBLIC INTERIORITIES

Concerning my own work, the authors generously note that I’ve been working
for decades on trying to get others to realize that other animals have rich and
active minds and emotional lives. In the authors’ words, I’ve been studying
the “interiors” of organisms despite the fact that most of my colleagues ignore
them or write them off as nonexistent. Toward this end, I’ve been arguing for
an interdisciplinary holistic approach and methodological pluralism that
counters strong tendencies toward narrow research endeavors that ignore
cross-disciplinary collaboration, foster reductionism, and stimulate territorial
behavior among different disciplines among many of my colleagues.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
for if it had jammed, the line would surely have snapped and the
whale been lost.

“The winch was then started and the whale drawn slowly toward
the ship.”

The burst of speed was soon ended and the whale sounded for ten
minutes, giving us all a chance to breathe and wonder what had
happened. When the animal came up again, far ahead, the spout was
high and full, with no trace of blood, so we knew that he would need
a second harpoon to finish him. I was delighted, for I had long
wished for a chance to get a roll of motion-picture film showing the
killing of a whale, and now the conditions were ideal—good light,
little wind, and no sea.
I ran below to get the cinematograph and tripod and set it on the
bridge while the gun was being loaded. The winch was then started
and the whale drawn slowly toward the ship. He persisted in keeping
in the sunlight, which drew a path of glittering, dancing points of
light, beautiful to see but fatal to pictures. I shouted to Captain
Andersen, asking him to wait a bit and let the whale go down, hoping
it would rise in the other direction. He did so and the animal swung
around, coming up just as I wished, so that the sun was almost
behind us. It was now near enough to begin work and I kept the
crank of the machine steadily revolving whenever it rose to spout.
The whale was drawn in close under the bow and for several minutes
lay straining and heaving, trying to free himself from the biting iron.
“Stand by! I’m going to shoot now,” sang out the Gunner, and in a
moment he was hidden from sight in a thick black cloud.
The beautiful gray body was lying quietly at the surface when the
smoke drifted away, but in a few seconds the whale righted himself
with a convulsive heave. The poor animal was not yet dead, though
the harpoon had gone entirely through him. Captain Andersen called
for one of the long slender lances which were triced up to the ship’s
rigging, and after a few more turns of the winch had brought the
whale right under the bows, he began jabbing the steel into its side,
throwing his whole weight on the lance. The whale was pretty “sick”
and did not last long, and before the roll of motion-picture film had
been exhausted it sank straight down, the last feeble blow leaving a
train of round white bubbles on the surface.
 A sei whale at Aikawa, Japan. This species is about forty-eight feet
long and is allied to the finback and blue whales.

Andersen and I went below for breakfast and by the time we were
on deck again the whale had been inflated and was floating easily
beside the ship. When we had reached the bridge the Gunner said:
“I don’t want to go in yet with this one; we’ll cruise about until
twelve o’clock and see if we can’t find another. I am going up in the
top and then we’ll be sure not to miss any.”
I stretched out upon a seat on the port side of the bridge and lazily
watched the water boil and foam ver the dead whale as we steamed
along at full speed. Captain Andersen was singing softly to himself,
apparently perfectly happy in his lofty seat. So we went about for two
hours and I was almost asleep when Andersen called down:
“There’s a whale dead ahead. He spouted six times.”
 “‘There’s a whale dead ahead. He spouted six times.’”

“The click of the camera and the crash of the gun sounding at
almost the same instant.” The harpoon, rope, wads, smoke, sparks
and the back of the whale are shown in the photograph.
 I was wide awake at that and had the camera open and ready for
pictures by the time we were near enough to see the animal—a sei
whale—blow. He was spouting constantly and this argued well, for
we were sure to get a shot if he continued to stay at the surface. The
Bo’s’n made a flag ready so that the carcass alongside could be let go
and marked. Apparently this was not going to be necessary, for there
was plenty of food and the whale was lazily wallowing about, rolling
first on one side and then on the other, sometimes throwing his fin in
the air and playfully slapping the water, sending it upward in geyser-
like jets.
“Half speed!” shouted the Gunner; then, “Slow!” and “Dead slow!”
The little vessel slipped silently along, the propellers hardly
moving and the nerves of every man on board as tense as the strings
of a violin. In four seconds the whale was up, not ten fathoms away
on the port bow, the click of the camera and the crash of the gun
sounding at almost the same instant. The harpoon struck the animal
in the side, just back of the fin, and he went down without a struggle,
for the bursting bomb had torn its way into the great heart.
By eleven o’clock it was alongside and slowly filling with air while
the ship was churning her way toward the station. Andersen went
below for a couple of hours’ sleep in the afternoon, and I dozed on
the bridge in the sunshine. We were just off Kinka-San at half-past
six, and by seven were blowing the whistle at the entrance to the bay.
Three other ships, the San Hogei, Ne Taihei, and Akebono, were
already inside but had no whales. Later Captain Olsen, of the
Rekkusu Maru, brought in a sei whale, but this was the only other
ship that had killed during the day. About eleven o’clock, just as I
came from the station house after developing the plates, and started
to go out to the ship, the Fukushima and Airondo Maru stole quietly
into the bay and dropped anchor. They, too, had been unsuccessful,
and, we learned later, had not even seen a whale.
Before we turned in for the night Captain Andersen said to me:
 “We were just off Kinka-san at half-past six, and by seven were
blowing the whistle at the entrance to the bay.”

“We’ll go sou’-sou’ west tomorrow; that’s a whale cruise. But I’m

afraid there is going to be a big sea on, for the wind has shifted and
we always get heavy weather when it’s blowing offshore.”
The news was not very encouraging, for although I have spent
many days on whaling ships I have never learned to appreciate
perfectly the charm of the deep when the little cork-like vessels are
tossing and throwing themselves about as though possessed of an
evil spirit. Each time, I make a solemn vow that if ever I am fortunate
enough once more to get on solid ground my days of whaling will be
ended.
 CHAPTER VIII
CHARGED BY A WILD SEI WHALE

“We hunted them for two hours, trying first one and then the
other—they had separated—without once getting near enough
even for pictures.”

The ship got under way at two o’clock the next morning, and within
half an hour was pitching badly in a heavy sea. At five Andersen and
I turned out and climbed to the bridge, both wearing oilskins and
sou’westers to protect ourselves from the driving spray. The sun was
up in a clear sky, but the wind was awful. The man in the top shouted
down that he had seen no whales, but that many birds were about,
showing that food must be plentiful and near the surface. Captain
Andersen turned to me with a smile:
 “Don’t you worry! We’ll see one before long. I’m always lucky
before breakfast.”
Almost while he was speaking the man aloft sang out, “Kujira!”
The kujira proved to be two sei whales a long way off. When we were
close enough to see, it became evident that it would only be a chance
if we got a shot. They were not spouting well and remained below a
long time.

“He was running fast but seldom stayed down long, his high
sickle-shaped dorsal fin cutting the surface first in one direction,
then in another.”

We hunted them for two hours, trying first one and then the other
—they had separated—without once getting near enough even for
pictures. It was aggravating work, and I was glad to hear Andersen
say:
“We’ll leave them and see if we can find some others. They are
impossible.”
When we came up from breakfast six other ships were visible,
some of them not far away and others marked only by long trails on
the horizon. We passed the San Hogei near enough to hear Captain
Hansen shout that he had seen no whales, and then plowed along
due south directly away from the other ships. In a short time, one by
one, they had dropped away from sight and even the smoke paths
were lost where sky and sea met.

“Always the center of a screaming flock of birds which sometimes

swept downward in a cloud, dipping into the waves and rising
again, the water flashing in myriads of crystal drops from their
brown wings.”

It was eleven o’clock before we raised another spout, but this

animal was blowing frequently and the great cloud of birds hovering
about showed that he was “on feed.” He was running fast but seldom
stayed down long, his high, sickle-shaped dorsal fin cutting the
surface first in one direction, then in another, but always the center
of a screaming flock of birds which sometimes swept downward in a
cloud, dipping into the waves and rising again, the water flashing in
myriads of crystal drops from their brown wings.
As we came close we saw that the whale was in a school of
sardines, the fish frantically dashing here and there, often jumping
clear out of the water and causing their huge pursuer a deal of
trouble to follow their quick turnings. But he managed his lithe body
with wonderful rapidity, and ever before the fish left him many yards
behind was plowing after them, his great tail sending the water in
swirling green patches astern.
We were going at full speed and came down to half when a
hundred fathoms away, but we could not take it slow, for the whale
was running directly from us. I got two pictures of the birds and from
where I was standing beside the gun could plainly follow the animal
in his course. As he rose about sixty fathoms ahead and turned to go
down, his back came into view and just behind the fin a large white
mark was visible.
“That’s a harpoon scar,” said Andersen. “It is a bad sign. He may
give us a run for it, after all.”
The engines were at dead slow now, for the whale had surely seen
us and might double under water, coming up astern. Andersen was
ready at the gun, swinging the huge weapon slightly to and fro, his
feet braced, every few seconds calling out to the Bo’s’n aloft, “Miye
masu ka?” (Do you see him?)
We had been waiting two minutes (it seemed hours) when the
Bo’s’n shouted:
“He’s coming. He’s coming. On the port bow.”
In a second the water began to swirl and boil and we could see the
shadowy form rise almost to the surface, check its upward rush, and
dash along parallel with the ship.
 A sei whale showing a portion of the soft fatty tongue.

“Dame (no good), dame, he won’t come up!” exclaimed Andersen.

“Mo sukoshi (a little more) speed, mo sukoshi speed! Dame, dame,
he’s leaving us. Half speed, half speed!”
 “In the mirror of my camera I could see the enormous gray head
burst from the water, the blowholes open and send forth a cloud of
vapor, and the slim back draw itself upward, the water streaming
from the high fin as it cut the surface. Andersen’s last words were
drowned in the crashing roar of the gun.”

Never shall I forget the intense excitement of those few minutes!

The huge, ghost-like figure was swimming along just under the
surface, not five feet down, aggravatingly close but as well protected
by the shallow water-armor as though it had been of steel. Andersen
was shouting beside me:
“He won’t come, dame, dame. Yes, now, now! Look out! I shoot, I
shoot!”
In the mirror of my camera I could see the enormous gray head
burst from the water, the blowholes open and send forth a cloud of
vapor, and the slim back draw itself upward, the water streaming
from the high fin as it cut the surface. Andersen’s last words were
drowned in the crashing roar of the gun. Before we could see through
the veil of smoke we heard the sailors shout, “Shinda!” (dead), and
the next instant the black cloud drifted away showing the whale lying
on its side motionless. I tried to change the plate in my camera, but
before the slide could be drawn and the shutter reset, the animal had
sunk. Apparently it had been killed almost instantly, for the rope was
taut and hung straight down.
In a few minutes Andersen gave the word to haul away, and the
Engineer started the winch. No sooner had the rattling wheels
ground in a few fathoms than we saw the line slack and then slowly
rise. Faster and faster it came, the water dripping in little streams
from its vibrating surface.
In a few seconds the whale rose about ninety fathoms ahead and
blew, the blood welling in great red clots from his spout holes. He lay
motionless for a moment and then swung about and swam directly
toward the vessel. At first he came slowly, but his speed was
increasing every moment. When almost opposite us, about thirty
fathoms away, suddenly, with a terrific slash of his tail, he half
turned on his side and dashed directly at the ship.
“Full speed astern!” yelled the gunner, dancing about like a
madman. “He’ll sink us; he’ll sink us!”
The whale was coming at tremendous speed, half buried in white
foam, lashing right and left with his enormous flukes. In an instant
he hit us. We had half swung about and he struck a glancing blow
directly amidships, keeling the little vessel far over and making her
tremble as though she had gone on the rocks; then bumped along the
side, running his nose squarely into the propeller. The whirling
blades tore great strips of blubber from his snout and jaws and he
backed off astern.
Then turning about with his entire head projecting from the water
like the bow of a submarine, he swam parallel with the ship. As he
rushed along I caught a glimpse of the dark head in the mirror of my
camera and pressed the button. An instant later the great animal
rolled on his side, thrust his fin straight upward, and sank. It had
been his death struggle and this time he was down for good. As the
water closed over the dead whale I leaned against the rail trembling
with excitement, the perspiration streaming from my face and body.
Andersen was shouting orders in English, Norwegian, and Japanese,
and cursing in all three languages at once.
I think none of us realized until then just what a narrow escape we
had had. If the whale had struck squarely he would have torn such a
hole in the steamer’s side that her sinking would have been a matter
of seconds. The only thing that saved her was the quickness of the
man at the wheel, who had thrown the vessel’s nose about, thus
letting the blow glance from her side. It was a miracle that the
propeller blades had not been broken or bent so badly as to disable
us; why they were not even injured no one can tell—it was simply the
luck that has always followed this vessel since Captain Andersen
came aboard.

“Then turning about with his entire head projecting from the
water like the bow of a submarine, he swam parallel with the
ship.”

It should not be inferred that the whale deliberately attacked the

ship with the intention of disabling her. There is little doubt in my
mind but that the animal was blindly rushing forward in his death
flurry, and the fact that he struck the vessel was pure accident.
Nevertheless, the results would have been none the less serious if he
had hit her squarely.
 “I was ... gazing down into the blue water and waiting to catch a
glimpse of the body as it rose, when suddenly a dark shape glided
swiftly under the ship’s bow.”

After a hasty examination showed that the propeller was

uninjured, the whale was hauled to the surface. I was standing on the
gun platform gazing down into the blue water and waiting to catch a
glimpse of the body as it rose, when suddenly a dark shape glided
swiftly under the ship’s bow. At first I thought it was only
imagination, an aftereffect of the excitement, but another followed,
then another, and soon from every side specter-like forms were
darting swiftly and silently here and there, sometimes showing a
flash of white as one turned on its side.
They were giant sharks drawn by the floating carcass as steel is
drawn by a magnet. Like the vultures which wheel and circle in the
western sky far beyond the reach of human sight, watching for the
death of some poor, thirst-smitten, desert brute, so these vultures of
the sea quickly gathered about the dead whale. I watched them
silently fasten to the animal’s side, tearing away great cup-shaped
chunks of blubber, and shivered as I thought of what would happen
to a man if he fell overboard among these horrible, white-eyed sea-
ghosts.
Within three minutes of the time when the whale had been drawn
to the surface over twenty sharks, each one accompanied by its little
striped pilot fish swimming just behind its fins, were biting at the
carcass.
“Dame, dame, they’ll eat my whale up,” shouted Andersen in
Japanese. “Bo’s’n, bring the small harpoon.”

“Two boat hooks were jabbed into the shark’s gills and it was
hauled along the ship’s side until it could be pulled on deck.”

One big shark, the most persistent of the school, had sunk his teeth
in the whale’s side and, although half out of water, was tearing away
at the blubber and paying not the slightest attention to the pieces of
old iron which the sailors were showering upon him. When the
harpoon was rigged and the line made fast, Andersen climbed out
upon the rope-pan in front of the gun and jammed the iron into the
shark’s back. Even then the brute waited to snatch one more
mouthful before it slid off the carcass into the water. It struggled but
little and seemed more interested in returning to its meal than in
freeing itself from the harpoon, but two boat hooks were jabbed into
its gills and it was hauled along the ship’s side until it could be pulled
on deck. This was no easy task, for it must have weighed at least two
hundred pounds and began a tremendous lashing with its tail when
the crew hauled away. “Ya-ra-cu-ra-sa,” sang the sailors, each time
giving a heave as the word “sa” was uttered, and the shark was soon
flapping and pounding about on deck. The seamen prodded it with
boat hooks and belaying pins and I must confess that I had little
sympathy for the brute when the blood poured out of its mouth and
gills, turning the snow-white breast to crimson. I paced its length as
it lay on the deck, taking good care to miss the thrashing tail and the
vicious snaps of its crescent-shaped jaws. It measured just twelve
feet and, although a big one, was by no means the largest of the
school.

Making the sei whale fast to the bow of the ship.

 When the whale had been finally made fast and the ship started,
the shark, now half dead, was pushed over the side. It had not gone
ten feet astern before the others of the pack were tearing away at
their unfortunate brother with as great good will as they had attacked
our whale.
Andersen and I went below to an excellent tiffin, for which I had a
better appetite than at breakfast, as the sea had subsided. The course
was set for the station to get coal and water for the next day’s run,
but we could not be in before seven or eight o’clock. The gunner lay
down in the cabin for a short nap, and after lighting my pipe I went
“top sides” to the bridge. I had been there not more than ten
minutes, when “puf-f-f” went a sei whale about two hundred fathoms
away on the starboard beam.

A sei whale swimming directly away from the ship. The nostrils or
blowholes are widely expanded and greatly protruded.

The air pumps were still at work inflating the carcass alongside,
and the gun had not yet been loaded. Captain Andersen ran forward
with the powder charge sewed up in its neat little sack of cheesecloth;
and after the Bo’s’n had rammed it home, wadded the gun, and
inserted the harpoon, we were ready for work. The vessel had been
taking a long circle about the whale, which was blowing every few
seconds, and now we headed straight for it.
Like the last one, this animal was pursuing a school of sardines
and proved easy to approach. Andersen fired at about fifteen
fathoms, getting fast but not killing at once, and a second harpoon
was sent crashing into the beautiful gray body which before many
hours would fill several hundred cans and be sold in the markets at
Osaka. The sharks again gathered about the ship when the whale was
raised to the surface, but this time none was harpooned as we were
anxious to start for the station.
It was nearly three o’clock when the ship was on her course and
fully six before we caught a glimpse of the summit of Kinka-San, still
twenty miles away. A light fog had begun to gather, and in the west
filmy clouds draped themselves in a mantle of red and gold about the
sun. Ere the first stars appeared, the wind freshened again and the
clouds had gathered into puffy balls edged with black, which scudded
across the sky and settled into a leaden mass on the horizon. It was
evident that the good weather had ended and that we were going to
run inside just in time to escape a storm.
 CHAPTER IX
HABITS OF THE SEI WHALE

“For many years the sei whale was supposed to be the young of
either the blue or the finback whale, and it was not until 1828 that
it was recognized by science as being a distinct species.”

For many years the sei whale was supposed to be the young of either
the blue or the finback whale, and it was not until 1828 that it was
recognized by science as being a distinct species. The Norwegians
gave the animal its name because it arrives upon the coast of
Finmark with the “seje,” or black codfish (Polachius virens), but in
Japan it is called iwashi kujira (sardine whale).