A good friend brought over this recent article from the NYT "A conversation with whales", for Sena to read. I ended up reading it today during my lunch break. It's an article about scientists using a daring method (free diving) to conduct research on whale communication. I am torn: one part of me is fascinated, and loves reading this interesting information about these amazing creatures. Another part of me, however, cringes, and all I can think is "Leave them alone".
Call me jaded, but I fear that the research we are doing on whales is going to cause them more harm than good. It will open our awareness about them, yes, and that can be good because it may make more of us care about them. But it will also allow us to invade their space, interfere with their lives, and most likely someone will figure out a way to profit from this research, and that cannot be good for the whales. Just leave them alone.
Why can't we just be OK knowing that there are things out there that we don't know, that we should not know? Why can't we just appreciate the mystery of life, but always try to control it and interfere? We've caused too much suffering already with our scientific research. There are so many examples of research being used to make a profit, causing terrible suffering for animals: just look at the meat industry; or animal testing.
But going back to the whale article: if, as is suggested in the article, someday we find a way of communicating with whales, what do you think they would tell us? Do you think it's anything we don't know already? Anything we can't figure out by having an honest look at the world and inside ourselves?
Peace
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