The Whale Rider

The whales hover “in the goldened sea like regal airships” (33). The sun begins to set, and the “surface of the sea (is) afire with the sun’s plunge from day into night” (33). The herd waits for their leader to descend between the protective walls of the underwater trench so that they may distance themselves from the Place of the Gods. But the ancient bull whale still mourns his lost master.

The herd is feeding when a flash of bright light hits the sea. Their ear canals bled, and seven claves died. Remembering this from a previous journey, the ancient bull whale leads his herd away from the lethal tide to come. The whale was “afraid of the genetic effects of the undersea radiation on the remaining herd and claves in this place which had once, ironically, been the womb of the world” (33). This trench had been beautiful at one point, but now it was full of dangerous radiation. The herd ascends to the surface and flees the poisoned waters, moving closer to the human-populated islands.