"No living
animals have captured our imaginations as have the great
whales... They fire our imaginations and stab at our emotions. They
inspire our art, literature, and music. And so they should. The
indescribable blend of grace, power, and beauty of a whale as it glides
underwater, leaps toward the sky, or simply lifts its flukes and
slides into the sea symbolises a vanishing poetry of the wild."