Balaena: Stories about whales

Two deeply personal stories about whales reveal how awe and trauma can shape a life's path. Brittany Munson’s journey begins with childhood wonder at killer whales in Free Willy and SeaWorld’s Shamu show, leading her to dream of becoming a trainer. But after the 2010 death of a SeaWorld trainer, she confronts the ethical cost of captivity and abandons her dream—only to find fulfillment years later in the wild, when she finally sees orcas in their natural habitat off the coast of Alaska. Her story is one of identity lost and reclaimed through science and storytelling. Maya Santangelo’s dive into a 1915 whaling shipwreck in Antarctica starts as a reluctant chore, but transforms into a profound revelation. What she discovers is not just a ship, but a vast graveyard of blue and fin whale bones—evidence of industrial-scale whaling that nearly wiped out these giants. Amidst the eerie beauty of marine life thriving on the wreck, she confronts the legacy of exploitation and the fragile hope of recovery. Together, these stories expose the emotional weight of ecological memory and the power of personal experience to reframe our relationship with nature.