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A Whale for the Killing

Farley Mowat

4.14 · Rating details · 1,187 ratings · 85 reviews

In the 1960s, Farley Mowat was living in the tiny fishing community of Burgeo on the southwest coast of Newfoundland. When an 80-ton fin whale became trapped in a nearby saltwater lagoon, Mowat rejoiced: here was the first chance to study at close range one of the most magnificent animals in creation. Some local villagers thought otherwise, blasting the whale with rifle fi ...more

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Paperback, 217 pages

Published July 28th 2005 by Stackpole Books (first published 1972)

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Nov 06, 2010 Kogiopsis rated it it was amazing

I have been, as long as I can remember, passionate about the ocean and about whales in particular.
This book... this book left me furious, astonished, apopleptic, nearly teary-eyed, frothing with rage, and most of all ready to march up to Canada and punch the lights out of the arsewipes who killed that whale.
So there's Mowat's writing power for you. And between those moments of emotion were the peaceful bits, when beauty and hope crept back into my heart... and nope, someone in the town got a six ...more

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Jun 09, 2019 Jason rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: made-in-canada

What a tale by Canada's infamous author Farley Mowat.

Mowat, famed for his non-fictional accounts on nature, threw together a captivating story so well-written, it felt as though it was a fictional thriller. A Whale for the Killing is a heartbreaking story, pumped full of hope, sorrow, fury, and helplessness.

A Whale for the Killing is essentially the non-fictional Moby Dick. Although the book itself is short, it's scope is as massive as Moby Dick, and equally entertaining.

This book took me on What a tale by Canada's infamous author Farley Mowat.

Mowat, famed for his non-fictional accounts on nature, threw together a captivating story so well-written, it felt as though it was a fictional thriller. A Whale for the Killing is a heartbreaking story, pumped full of hope, sorrow, fury, and helplessness.

A Whale for the Killing is essentially the non-fictional Moby Dick. Although the book itself is short, it's scope is as massive as Moby Dick, and equally entertaining.

This book took me on an emotional roller coaster, and it's no surprise to me that Mowat was able to achieve the success he achieved with his works. He weaved together such a compelling story here that the pages turned like they might in a thriller. Only this wasn't fictional, it was very, very real. A true telling of the story of a massive mammal trapped in a pond in Burgeo, Newfoundland, and of Mowat's internal and external personal battles in a closely knit community. It told of the treacherous, evil desire of humans to maim and kill anything it sets eyes on, but also of the compassionate, empathetic will of certain people to do the right thing.

The stark contrast between good and bad in this book is what made it thrilling. But what makes it near genius is that Mowat really gets at the heart of human nature (even when he describes himself): human beings are complex, with both good and bad intentions intermingled and equally capable of shining through even our best intentions of suppressing them. He captures this beautifully.

I think that the reactions to this book might be vastly different from one reader to the next. There will be cultural factors determining whether you feel the actions of the gun-wielding men are evil or not. But for me, I felt only contempt and anger towards these men. Certainly, a part of this is the fact that I'm separated by these events by decades, which means I've been raised in a time when it's generally understood that killing whales is bad. Decades ago, much less was understood of whales and it was perhaps not as well realised the global impact killing these crucial contributors of our ecosystem could have. I also live in a country that views guns, or the use of guns outside only necessary hunting, to be confusing and irrational. In hindsight, it's easy to be angry.

That said, this book is still relevant and timely, especially with the rapid rise of global warming and the ever present extinction to which certain whale species are still exposed. With decades more knowledge and scientifically factual information on whales, it's upsetting that whaling is still prevalent in ocean waters to this day. Illegal or not, it's astonishing to me that humans seem almost irreparably ignorant to the irreversible actions of over-fishing and whaling, and of the dangers exposed to even their own human survival.

This is a cautionary tale. I would say this book is historically important to the point that it might be useful in our schools. This book should be read and understood by young people. But, more importantly, it should be read and understood by adults. The depletion of this single mammal (a mammal to whom, by the way, we share an enormous amount in common) would be catastrophic.

On Mowat's writing. Superb skill technically, and his narration is captivating. This is a book that could have been bogged down by whale facts and whaling lore (which is something Moby Dick famously suffered from) but doesn't. As much as the whale in the pond is a focal point of the narrative, this book is more about the human beings than the whale, ultimately. It's an examination of interactions between human and whale, between human and human, and between human and community.

How sad that Mowat is no longer around to tell more stories. It's a good thing his writing remains relevant. I'm heading out today to get another one of his books. I recommend you do, also.

Onwards. ...more

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Dec 31, 2014 Hollowspine rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Although I found the subject of Mowat's novel to be both interesting and horrifying I didn't get to the novel that I expected to read until the last portion of the book.

The first two thirds of the book is all a, somewhat angry, rant about the evils of mankind, specifically of those who seek modernization. For a while Mowat was basically preaching that Frontiersmen = Good and Businessmen = Bad (women didn't figure into the equation at all). The good people of Burgeo (a very small and remote regio Although I found the subject of Mowat's novel to be both interesting and horrifying I didn't get to the novel that I expected to read until the last portion of the book.

The first two thirds of the book is all a, somewhat angry, rant about the evils of mankind, specifically of those who seek modernization. For a while Mowat was basically preaching that Frontiersmen = Good and Businessmen = Bad (women didn't figure into the equation at all). The good people of Burgeo (a very small and remote region of Newfoundland) relied upon themselves, they didn't need the distractions and wastefulness of catalog ordered speedboats or pure breed dogs. But then the evil modernizing bureaucrats had to move in and start developing business in the area, thereby destroying natural habitat, destroying the rugged living of the inhabitants and destroying a way of life that for years had gone without the meddling of government regulation.

Although I sympathized with the Burgeo people wanting to get on with their ways and keep their traditions away from the fisheries and processing plants which pay extremely poorly, the way that Mowat went about describing it made me feel that he was celebrating ignorance and stubbornness, rather than valuing traditions.

Of course, once we get to the real purpose of the novel, the story about the whale which gets trapped in Alridge's Pond (a look at Google Earth is illuminating, not only for a look at the 'pond' but also Mowat's own house!) it is the locals, as Mowat puts it, poisoned by the modernizing of the Island, who decide to turn the great creature into nothing more than a moving target.

In his fight to save the whale Mowat alienates those with whom he'd been attempting to assimilate for many years. By voicing his opinion of their right to shoot anything that moves, he becomes just another city bloke trying to take away their native rights and traditions. It being well known that anyone who was hungry could take to the woods to get some 'country meat' (basically a euphemism for poaching elk or other game), a right that Mowat doesn't have a problem with, why should it not be the same with the large meat of the sea?

It seemed to me throughout the narrative that it was more that the People of Burgeo feeling that they were beyond the law that endangered the whale. Maybe if the place had not been so far away from modernized society, there would not have been so many yahoos with guns shooting anything that moved.

I also thought it was disheartening how even the towns people who didn't agree with the shooting of the whale couldn't even bring themselves to talk about it for fear that...someone wouldn't like them? Small towns are terrible places. It reminded me a bit of living in a small town in rural Iowa, except that bigger cities were always close at hand for me so I could escape the narrow minded outsider disdaining world of that town. I can't imagine wanting to become one of such a group. ...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Verne rated it it was amazing

Emotionally, this was one of the most gut wrenching books I've ever read. Farley Mowat is one of the best writers ever. ...more

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Jun 23, 2019 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: drama, canadian

Once again Farley Mowat has reduced me to near tears with his extraordinary writing. This book published in 1972 incredibly and realistically captures the blind aggression of human nature, the power of will to do the right thing and be the right kind of man and all those caught in-between. After I read this book, I had to wiki the plight of whales today to see if any progress had been made in protecting them, and although there are some increases, the situation remains bleak with many species un ...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Owen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: canada, non-fiction, autobiography, newfoundland

"A Whale for the Killing" chronicles the unlikely and you might also say, unseemly doings in a small Newfoundland outport in the 1960s. In what soon proved to be a run of bad luck, one of the largest of the sea mammals, a Fin whale, found itself trapped in a huge body of water near the town of Burgeo. It had managed to just slide over a rocky underwater escarpment and get into the bay, but try as it might it could not get out again.

Farley Mowat's part in the story is rather extraordinary and I w ...more

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Nov 29, 2020 Elaine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, canada, nature, environment

Man, why didn't I read more of Mr. Mowat's book. He's Canadian AND nature lover.

I can't believe this story was first published in 1972, before I was born. What a classic! I wonder, if this incident happens in current time (2020 when I wrote this review) and main communications were not telephone or telegrams, would the whale be saved?

What a heart wrenching story.

I like this sentence, "... Whale could have smashed up our boats as easily as we would smash a couple of eggs. Considering what peopl ...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Braden A. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I'm not sure that I can fault Farley Mowat's "A Whale for the Killing" for being "too preachy" since that is very much the intent of the book, but Mowat switches styles and tones a few times (particularly in the first 120 pages) which makes the read feel a bit uneven. He can't seem to decide whether he wants to tell the story of what happened with the whale in Burgeo, educate readers on the biology and families of whales, or simply write an essay on the evils of the whaling industry. He could ha ...more

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Nov 16, 2015 Mrs. Lee rated it it was amazing

A difficult yet necessary read.

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Dec 08, 2018 Kurt Vosper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It was hard to say what I felt about the writing in this book. Mowat wrote about this true story from living on Canada's east coast and a Fin whale becomes stranded in a pond off the ocean while chasing herring. The Fin whale is the second largest whale and second largest creature to have lived on the planet. Locals take to pumping hundreds of rifle rounds into the stranded and pregnant female while Mowat tries to have it protected and fed. Eventually Mowat succeeds but too late as the wounds su ...more

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Oct 06, 2020 Alex Rankine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is definitely heavy-handed with its total criticism of industrialisation and modernisation in all forms, at least towards the beginning, but I think that story, once it begins, outweighs this social criticism element (although it obviously still plays an important role).

The author also notes that at the time of publication there was little known data about the subject matter, it also must be noted that there is a clear lack of scientific evidence for the more general claims

I went into thi ...more

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Oct 22, 2018 Hilary rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

A little slower to start and get into, but once the whale arrives I couldn't put it down. The back of the book pretty much gives away what happens, but I still wanted it to be wrong, and had to see how FM was going to try and save this whale. I found myself sickened by what some people will do, so prepare yourself if you are picking up this book to be disappointed by man and what is considered fun and games by some. ...more

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Dec 20, 2016 Elaine Cougler rated it it was amazing

A Whale for the Killing by Farley Mowat is a true account of a stranded whale in a cove near a Newfoundland town. The narrative includes little known facts about whales as well as the sad retelling of this whale's death at the hands of senseless idiots pumping bullets into her and frightening her with their power boats. A disheartening insight into the uglier aspects of human nature. ...more

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Mar 17, 2020 Elaina rated it it was amazing

Farley Mowat is known for his extravagant tales but he is a storyteller and knows very well how to write an eloquent story. There is also much truth to what he says. this book reminds me of a Barry Lopez's writing in how it can portray an animal in a spiritual sense. It's is an incredibly sad story but has a lot to offer on the insight of the animal itself and our relation to it. ...more

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Jan 12, 2021 Murielle Cyr rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

A sad reminder of how vulnerable nature remains at the hands of the dark side of humankind. Great detail presented about the gentle giants of the ocean world and the danger they encounter when they approach the world of those living on dry land. The societal rejection of those who love and want to protect them is also depicted.
This was a difficult read 50 years ago and isn't any easier now. ...more

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Jan 18, 2021 Elcamino rated it really liked it

Mostly a depiction of yet another crime against the natural world, this true story (with the famous Farley spin) could be called Mowat’s echo to Silent Spring. As with many who provided unpopular news, Mowat was a colourful character who, in a very personal way stands as an early ‘canary in the environmental coal mine’.

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Aug 08, 2017 Homayra Adiba rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

For the first time since the trapped whale vanished, I became fully aware of a rending sense of loss. It was dark and there was none to know that I was weeping.. weeping not for just the whale that died, but because the fragile link between her race and mine was severed.

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Jun 16, 2020 Alana rated it it was ok

Wow...I can't believe I read this in school. Maybe grade 5 or 6. I couldn't get interested in it this time. I found it dry and boring. I'm glad that whales are protected now and love seeing them in their natural environment. Such mass destruction in the 50's and 60's. ...more

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May 07, 2017 Belinda Bertrand rated it really liked it

I loved this book even though it's heartbreaking to see how humans treated a trapped whale. Shows how barbaric mankind really is. Mowat is a great storyteller and o highly recommend this book. ...more

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Aug 28, 2017 Rod Innis rated it liked it

A well written but sad story

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Dec 06, 2017 Bailey Scott rated it it was amazing

Oh, Farley. Best conservation writer I know. This one was particularly poignant and there were certainly tears, but there were glimmers of trademark of Farley Mowat hilarity.

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Jun 15, 2020 Mary Mondoux rated it really liked it

I have to be honest, this book troubled me so. I couldn't finish it. A brilliant writer. ...more

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Jun 30, 2020 Mary Mackie rated it really liked it

Upsetting, informative, eye opening, and sad.

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Dec 31, 2020 Mike Elm rated it really liked it

Very very good. A heartwrenching look at mans inhumanity to the rest of nature.

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Aug 31, 2013 John Nelson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

When Canadian conservationist Farley Mowat was living in Newfoundland during the 1960s, a fin whale became entrapped in a coastal cove. Motivated by malice and boredom, some of the locals used the whale for target practice and ripped open its back with a boat's propeller. Later, when the local and provincial governments sought to exploit the whale for publicity, bureaucratic inertia prevented help from arriving, and the whale died from starvation and the infections caused by its injuries before When Canadian conservationist Farley Mowat was living in Newfoundland during the 1960s, a fin whale became entrapped in a coastal cove. Motivated by malice and boredom, some of the locals used the whale for target practice and ripped open its back with a boat's propeller. Later, when the local and provincial governments sought to exploit the whale for publicity, bureaucratic inertia prevented help from arriving, and the whale died from starvation and the infections caused by its injuries before the tide rose high enough to allow it to escape, while its mate waited just outside the cove.

Farley Mowat is not a great writer. He sometimes anthropomorphizes animals and even inanimate objects. His prose is competent but not memorable, and in this book he contiually refers to each whale species as a "nation." I presume this characterization was intended to inject verve into the text, but I found it to be annoying, even more so than when sportswriters do the same thing and refer to the fans of a particular team as the "Bronco nation," or whatever.

Still, the book retains its relevance. The Japanese government heavily subsidizes a commercial whaling operation in the Antartic, falsely claiming claiming that it is conducted for the purpose of scientific research. Hunters from the Faeroe Islands continue to hunt fin whales in the North Atlantic, also sailing under the false flag of "research." As I write this, the annual massacre of dolphins in Taiji, Japan has commenced once again, even though dolphins living in Japanese coastal waters ingest so much mercury that it isn't even safe to eat them. Dolphins and small whales are killed in a number of other locations around the globe, and some tribes of American indians, Eskimoes, Siberian natives, and others claim they have a special cultural right to kill whales. And if another whale became entrapped in a coastal area, I am sure there would be at least a few idiots who would want to take pot shots at it with hunting rifles, as happened in Newfoundland in the 1960s, though the number (thankfully) would be lower today.

So long as lies and stupidity continue to infect human attitudes toward whales, Mr. Mowat's book will retain its timeliness. Hopefully, that will not be much longer. ...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Peacegal rated it it was amazing

In the wake of the Tilikum/Sea World tragedy, I decided to pick up this classic book of humanity’s relationship to the whales. This important book serves as a reminder that there were once—not so long ago--no “dolphin safe” labels, no Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, no everyone-and-her-brother wanting to be a marine biologist, no worldwide communications needed to mobilize people on behalf of animals. There was, for generations, very little controversy regarding how whales should be treated—t ...more

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Oct 02, 2010 East Bay J rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bios-and-memoirs, animal-studies

The events chronicled in A Whale For The Killing read like a horror novel. Ostensibly a book about a whale trapped in the harbor of a small Newfoundland town, the book is really about the many faces of mankind, from the horrible ignorance and cruelty to the righteous indignation and magnanimity of one town's residents, a microcosm for the people of the world.

At the time this book was written, significantly less was known about whales than is known now. The unregulated, wholesale slaughter of wha ...more

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Nov 20, 2013 Martha☀ rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, historical, biography, canadian

During a high spring tide on the south coast of Newfoundland, a 70 ft Fin whale follows a school of herring into a large lagoon and becomes trapped there once the tide ebbs. The locals find her and, through ignorance and cruelty, decide to use her as target practice with shotguns. A few days later, local biologist/naturalist and writer, Farley Mowat, hears about the trapped whale and goes to see her for himself. Instantly appalled by the whale's condition, he takes it upon himself to inform Cana ...more

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Jul 27, 2013 Kate rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-books, canadian-authors

This was a TOUGH read. Not because of the style, or lack of a story, but because of the subject matter. I had to put this book aside twice while reading it because I was just too upset to continue. That being said, I think this is a very important book that needs to be read by absolutely everyone.

Farley Mowat tells a story of a time when he called Burgeo, Newfoundland his sanctuary. When he enjoyed the culture and the people, until a whale is trapped in a local pond and a line is drawn in the s ...more

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Mar 03, 2013 John rated it really liked it

This was a tough read. Mowat does a great job of describing the plight of the whales back in the 1960s when he was living in Burgeo, Newfoundland, as well as telling the story of an unfortunate fin whale that gets trapped in a small ocean-connected pond near Burgeo. Reading about the brutality of the whaling practices of the day as well as the mob-motivated violence done to the trapped whale was very, very difficult. But it was a story that needed to be told and one Mowat tells well. My favourit ...more

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A Whale for the Killing -- Farley Mowat's unique blending of a little fact with a lot of fiction	2	2	Oct 18, 2018 06:15AM

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About Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat

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Farley McGill Mowat was a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.

Many of his most popular works have been memoirs of his childhood, his war service, and his work as a naturalist. His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books.

Mowat studied biology at the University of Toronto. During a field trip to the Arctic, Mowat became outrage ...more