Hoyt's theme is preserve killer whales in their natural environment.

Bonuses are interesting asides on the scenery and wildlife, the lumbering, salmon fishing, and the local flavor of northern Vancouver Island. (Roger Caras ABC-TV News)Ī fine record of observations accumulated by patience and cautious persistence.presented somewhat in diary form of the summers with the whales, and interwoven with facts.The result is a well-compounded blend of close-up nature observation, scientific knowledge, and history. Erich Hoyt tells the truth about the orca in his fascinating book Orca: The Whale Called Killer. There is nothing wildlife needs more urgently than truth, for once people understand, people will act with preserved habitat, protective legislation, the tools of conservation. One of the best nature books of the year. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.Īn intensely personal account.Scientific, political, and historical details are woven into a highly readable narrative.thorough appendixes, lengthy bibliography. (Hoyt, in fact, recommended Keiko, the orca who became the star of Free Willy, to Warner Bros.) But Orca: The Whale Called Killer tells the true story of wild orcas befriending humans. The Free Willy films, inspired in part by Hoyt's pioneering writing about orcas, tell the story of a captive orca being returned to the wild. Orca: The Whale Called Killer is Hoyt's exciting account of those summers of adventure and discovery, and the definitive, classic work on the orca or killer whale. Erich Hoyt and his colleagues spent seven summers following these intelligent and playful creatures in the waters off northern Vancouver Island, intent on dispelling the killer myth. Star performers in aquariums and marine parks, killer whales were once considered to be too dangerous to approach in the wild. with grace, insight, wit-and a comprehensiveness that might satisfy even Herman Melville.' He has chronicled his adventures and discoveries. 'Hoyt's passionate sense of kinship with orca makes his account effective as both a science and literature.

Orca by Erich Hoyt