Leviathan, The History of Whaling in America with Eric Jay Dolin
May 25, 2011
Hosted by Rob Moir
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Episode Description
Eric Jay Dolin, calling from Marblehead, tells us about the history of whaling with a bit about the beginning of the whale watching industry and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Discover how Capt Smith had he caught whales would have set up a colony in Massachusetts before the pilgrims. Whaling started in Boston in 1640 with Samuel Maverick setting up a whale processing shop on Noddles Island, now East Boston, for “drift whales.” Eric Dolin explains why first Nantucket and then New Bedford became the capitals of the 19th century “oil barons.” American whaling ebbed away not due to a lack of whales to kill but due greatly to the finding of oil and the rise of new energy technologies. The similarities between business and social challenges than and today are startling. Tune in for whale struggles, greasy prosperity, killings just for corset stays, and the Wanderer’s last voyage.
Moir’s Environmental Dialogues
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Variety Channel
With the knowledge of Carson and the courage of Achilles, individuals are steadfastly going the distance to defend wildlife and ecosystems from assaults of environmental degradations and destructions. Join environmental studies scientist Dr. Rob Moir for lively dialogue and revealing narrative inquiry into how individuals are overcoming the obstacles turning forlorn hope into effective actions for oceans, rivers, watersheds, wildlife and ecosystems. Discover how listening to individuals, thinking locally, and acting in concert with other, you can act to save ecosystems. Got environmental stewardship? Become an Eco-steward. Act to bring about a greener and blue Planet Earth.
Rob Moir
Rob Moir is director and founder of the Ocean River Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Moir, an educator and scientist, has been a leader of citizen science and efforts to clean up Salem Sound and Boston Harbor, as founder of Salem Sound Harbor Monitors & Salem Sound 2000, later president of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, and through his appointment by the Secretary of Interior to the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership. He was formerly Curator of Natural History at the Peabody Essex Museum, Curator of Education at the New England Aquarium and Executive Director of the Discovery Museums in Acton, MA. Dr. Moir was awarded a Switzer Environmental Fellowship from the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, and the James Centorino Award for Distinguished Performance in Marine Education by the National Marine Educators Association, which he later served as president. He was Sea Education Association’s first assistant scientist to work consecutive voyages of the R.V. Westward in 1979 and 1980, an advancement officer for his alma mater, Hampshire College and serves today on the boards of his alma mater, Cambridge School of Weston, Ocean Champions, and the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters. Dr. Moir has a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies and a Masters of Science and Teaching from Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, NH and certificate of studies from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.
