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The Beluga Café: My Strange Adventures with Art, Music, and Whales in the Far North
Animal communication expert Jim Nollman has sung with orcas, plucked a Jew's harp in waters teeming with humpback whales, and shaken rattles in the company of bottlenose dolphins. Now, in this heartfelt and quirky true adventure story, Nollman and two artist friends set out for Canada's vast Mackenzie Delta, electric guitar and underwater sound equipment in tow, to make music with belugas--the elusive white whales of the Arctic.
Traveling the expanses of this beautiful northern land, the three friends unwittingly find themselves at the center of a heated controversy over the Beaufort Sea Why have the whales stopped coming into the Mackenzie Delta, possibly jeopardizing their own calves, who live the first part of their lives in these shallow, warm waters? As they attempt to unravel the mystery, they encounter various intriguing characters now laying claim to the resources of the Mackenzie Delta region--Native people (who are allowed to hunt the whales), wildlife officials, and oil company engineers--all vividly described by Nollman. Along the way, he also conveys both the wonders and the realities of being deep in the wilderness--experiencing the connectedness of all living things while scratching the bites of the world's most fearsome mosquitos.
With its rich and passionate nature writing evoking lovely and remote landscapes, The Beluga Café suggests profound metaphors for our time about animal rights and animal intelligence, the role of science in conservation, the politics of extinction, and the place of art in the epic struggle to save the natural world.
Traveling the expanses of this beautiful northern land, the three friends unwittingly find themselves at the center of a heated controversy over the Beaufort Sea Why have the whales stopped coming into the Mackenzie Delta, possibly jeopardizing their own calves, who live the first part of their lives in these shallow, warm waters? As they attempt to unravel the mystery, they encounter various intriguing characters now laying claim to the resources of the Mackenzie Delta region--Native people (who are allowed to hunt the whales), wildlife officials, and oil company engineers--all vividly described by Nollman. Along the way, he also conveys both the wonders and the realities of being deep in the wilderness--experiencing the connectedness of all living things while scratching the bites of the world's most fearsome mosquitos.
With its rich and passionate nature writing evoking lovely and remote landscapes, The Beluga Café suggests profound metaphors for our time about animal rights and animal intelligence, the role of science in conservation, the politics of extinction, and the place of art in the epic struggle to save the natural world.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
2 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 28, 2025
Strange adventure indeed!
January 20, 2008
I picked this up off the $5 and under table at Chapters and I'm so glad that I did!
I had no idea what to expect, but it really is a great book. The imagery is so vivid, and though it follows two men through the tundra and Arctic, it never gets boring. It should, being that there's not much going on, but Nollman writes it wonderfully.
Beyond that, it explores the whaling traditions of the Arctic and how they're disappearing because the whales are disappearing. It was sad to realize just how much we're screwing up northern ecosystems and the political red tape involved, but it was also very enlightening and eye opening.
Great great book.
I had no idea what to expect, but it really is a great book. The imagery is so vivid, and though it follows two men through the tundra and Arctic, it never gets boring. It should, being that there's not much going on, but Nollman writes it wonderfully.
Beyond that, it explores the whaling traditions of the Arctic and how they're disappearing because the whales are disappearing. It was sad to realize just how much we're screwing up northern ecosystems and the political red tape involved, but it was also very enlightening and eye opening.
Great great book.
July 23, 2011
This is a true story in which the author goes on a journey to the Beaufort sea to communicate with belugas. Jim Nollman the author is an animal communications expert and has been around the world for the last 30 years trying to assess animals reaction to music. This book was an interesting but quirky read.
January 23, 2011
It is as good as the title says: Stories of the north!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews