He’d left a tenure-track position at UMass in 2012 to go to work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, studying the effects of warming seawater on northeast whale populations. He measured acidity and temperature levels in the traditional breeding waters of right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, one of the rarest baleens left in the world, hunted to near extinction. The research had been physical—careening around in boats, scuba diving—the most fulfilling work of his life. But then in 2016, his mother was diagnosed with esophageal cancer (proving the veracity if not the efficacy
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