Meliora Recap: Whales and Whaling in the 20th Century with Prof. Tom Fleischman

Professor Jed Kuhn shares his thoughts on his colleague's lecture.

The cover of an anonymous manuscript album on whaling by the Onassis fleet Source: From an anonymous manuscript album on whaling by the Onassis fleet. OA, “WMS Olympic Challenger” (OAA.SF01.SSF02.S01.F015)

During Meliora Weekend, Professor Tom Fleischman delivered a public lecture on his new research project to a packed audience. His lecture, “Aristotle and the Cachalot,” charted the history of 20th century industrial whaling alongside a social history of whales. The Aristotle in question is Aristotle Onassis, the business magnate and second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy. Professor Fleischman explained that Onassis embarked on a worldwide hunt for sperm whales in the 20th century to capitalize on the global market for whale oil, prized for its use as an edible fat. After recounting Onassis’s (often illegal) hunting activities, Professor Fleischman took the talk in an interesting and unexpected direction. Approaching sperm whales as intelligent historical actors, Fleischman turned to an unusual array of sources—the details of a whale’s life one can learn by examining the rings of her or his teeth, for example—to examine this history from the perspectives of the sperm whales who were over-hunted to the point of near-extinction. Do whales have a sense of history? How can we know what whales’ lives are like outside of direct human observation? What can we learn when we examine human history and cetacean history side-by-side? Professor Fleischman is asking thought-provoking questions situated at the cutting edge of environmental and animal history.