Tag Archives: Burn 2

Betty Tureaud's "WhaleCall" at Burn 2, 2012

Detail from Betty Tureaud’s “WhaleCall” at Burn 2, 2012

A notecard accompanying this interactive exhibit stated the following:

Whales: “Goodbye Cruel World”We’re not whale psychologists, but according to Yves Paccalet, a French naturalist, over-hunting is causing loneliness in the surviving whales and can even make them “lose the will to live”. The highly intelligent and sociable mammals could be “so exhausted from their combat with humankind that they have simply have given up the fight,” according to him.

Paccalet, who worked with world famous marine pioneer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, explains: “To reproduce, whales need a large number of individuals to ensure that they meet, frolic and excite each other. Otherwise, the species may give in to a kind of sexual melancholy and simply stop breeding.”

October 2012