"Intimate and urgent storytelling… Horwitz’s years of research and observation lend genuine drama to this save-the-whales tale."
— Chicago Tribune
"A strong and valuable narrative… As War of the Whales makes convincingly clear, the connection between naval sonar and deadly mass strandings of whales is scientifically undeniable."
— The Washington Post
"Engrossing… A fascinating, colorful, deeply researched chronicle… A ripping real-life yarn well told"
— Tampa Bay Times
"War of the Whales offers a vivid portrait of unexpected intersections between humans and marine mammals. I, for one, will never again think about whales and marine mammal researchers and Navy maneuvers in the ways I did before reading Horwitz’s book"
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A riveting and groundbreaking new book…It reads like the best investigative journalism, with cinematic scenes of strandings and David-and-Goliath courtroom dramas as activists diligently hold the Navy accountable…a page-turning detective story."
— Huffington Post
"The story is so artfully constructed that you are drawn in and forget that you are not reading a novel…[A] story that is fascinating even if you have no interest in whales or navy sonar…This masterfully crafted book is guaranteed to bring the issues to a larger audience"
— Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"A page-turning ride… Horwitz tells a taut, energetic story"
— Santa Barbara Independent
"A gripping, brilliantly told tale of the secret and deadly struggle between American national security and the kings of the oceans. At once thrilling and heartbreaking, this is a landmark book of deep, original reporting which could alter forever how we view our role as stewards of the seas."
— Bob Woodward, author of All the President's Men
Citation from the Judges (Sue Halpern, Carl Zimmer, and Marie Myung-Ok Lee):
"Horwitz's dogged reporting, combined with crisp, cinematic writing, produces a powerful narrative about the collision of technology in the name of national security and the seemingly quixotic attempt to preserve our living oceans. In exposing this largely unknown story, Joshua Horwitz raises crucial questions about how, as humans, we should regard our relationship to other intelligent, socially complex mammals. He has written a book that is instructive and passionate and deserving a wide audience."
Joshua Horwitz is a Senior Fellow at The Ocean Foundation and the publisher of Living Planet Books which specializes in books by thought leaders in science, medicine, and psychology. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and three daughters.
TWO MEN FACE OFF AGAINST AN ALL-POWERFUL NAVY—and the fate of the ocean’s most majestic creatures hangs in the balance.
War of the Whales tells the true story of how a crusading environmental attorney, Joel Reynolds, stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine surveillance system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound. After marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas, he must confront an oath of secrecy he swore to the Navy in his youth.
When Balcomb and Reynolds team up to expose the truth behind an epidemic of mass strandings, the stage is set for a climactic showdown that pits admirals against activists, rogue submarines against weaponized dolphins, and national security against the need to safeguard the ocean environment.
