Book details

240 Pages
Publication date: March 2017
Imprint: Benevento
Kurt de Swaaf

The Spirit of the Ocean

None dives deeper, none is louder, none has a bigger brain. Whether it is saving stranded whales on a beach or the legendary Moby Dick, the impact of its physical size, when it suddenly appears at the surface and just as quickly disappears, is a source of inspiration for writers and is fascinating to mankind. Kurt de Swaaf tells the story of one of these mysterious ocean giants and an exciting research expedition in his emotionally absorbing and scientifically-based book.

Years ago, the rescue of Physty the whale that was stranded just off the coast of Long Island attracted attention from around the world, and sure enough it was possible to get him back afloat and release him back into the wild.

This book tells Physty‘s story from his own perspective. We dive down to the unfathomable depths of the ocean with him and follow his journey from the Pacific to the far north. This conveys the largely unknown life of these highly intelligent animals in a unique way and is based on the most recent
scientific evidence. A second plot line tells the story of the marine biologist Kalliopi Gkikopoulou, an expert on the language of sperm whales, who is on the search for the ocean giants as a member of a research expedition in the Mediterranean.

 


»The author packs his knowledge about natural science into exciting and touching accounts of adventure.«
Berner Zeitung


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Author

Kurt de Swaaf

KURT DE SWAAF, born in the Netherlands to parents of Austrian-German descent in 1963, is a biologist and science journalist. He attended university in Heidelberg, focusing his studies on water ecology and marine biology. He writes for Terra Mater, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Der Standard.