In the final episode of our whale series, we learn about fecal plumes, shipping noise, and why Moby-Dick is still worth reading. (Part 3 of "Everything You Never Knew About Whaling.")

• SOURCES:
  • Michele Baggio, professor of economics at the University of Connecticut.
  • Mary K. Bercaw-Edwards, professor of maritime English at the University of Connecticut and lead foreman at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
  • Hester Blum, professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis.
  • Eric Hilt, professor of economics at Wellesley College.
  • Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for the marine life program at the Animal Welfare Institute.
  • Maria Petrillo, director of interpretation at the Mystic Seaport Museum.
  • Joe Roman, fellow and writer-in-residence at the Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont.

• RESOURCES:
  • Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, by Joe Roman (2023).
  • “Racial Diversity and Team Performance: Evidence from the American Offshore Whaling Industry,” by Michele Baggio and Metin M. Cosgel (S.S.R.N., 2023).
  • “Why 23 Dead Whales Have Washed Up on the East Coast Since December,” by Tracey Tully and Winston Choi-Schagrin (The New York Times, 2023).
  • “Suspected Russia-Trained Spy Whale Reappears Off Sweden’s Coast,” by A.F.P. in Stockholm (The Guardian, 2023).
  • “International Trade, Noise Pollution, and Killer Whales,” by M. Scott Taylor and Fruzsina Mayer (N.B.E.R. Working Paper, 2023).
  • “World-First Map Exposes Growing Dangers Along Whale Superhighways,” by the World Wildlife Fund (2022).
  • “Lifting Baselines to Address the Consequences of Conservation Success,” by Joe Roman, Meagan M. Dunphy-Daly, David W. Johnston, and Andrew J. Read (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2015).
  • “Wages, Risk, and Profits in the Whaling Industry,” by Elmo P. Hohman (The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1926).
  • Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville (1851).

• EXTRAS:
  • “Why Do People Still Hunt Whales? (Update)” by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
  • “How Much Does Discrimination Hurt the Economy?” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

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