Whale Whispers in San Ignacio: A Journey with James Dorsey | Shorewords!

August 17, 2023

Nature meets humanity: Tales from the deep

Whale kisses: For centuries, grey whales have traveled from the Arctic area San Ignacio Lagoon for a protected nursery area. For twenty years, James Dorsey has been a naturalist at the lagoon introducing tourists to these incredible animals. Join Lesley Ewing, host of Shorewords!, in conversation with James Dorsey for tales of the lagoon, the whales, the many people who work to enhance the whale community, and on-going development and climate pressures that might threaten this sustainable human-whale ecosystem.  

Show Transcription
This transcription was generated by a computer. Please excuse any errors.
Lesley Ewing

Hello. I’m Lesley Ewing, host of Shorewords!. This podcast combines two of my favorite things – the ocean and books. I learned to swim before I could walk and looked forward each summer to my family’s vacation at Ocean City, Maryland. As a student I was interested in science and engineering and became an environmental engineer before learning that there was something called coastal engineering. Both my 1 st and 2 nd mid-life crises resulted in me going back to school – first for a Masters of Engineering at UC Berkeley and later for a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. The first crisis also moved me from DC to the SF Bay. The second crisis reminded me how much I liked to read. Getting a Ph.D. while working a 40+-hour/week job meant that my only reading was work reports, text books and technical articles. They were all important and interesting books, but as soon as school ended, I replaced my academic text books with broader literature and realized that the coast was often a character in the fiction and non-fiction that I read. I am still fascinated by every visit to the ocean and remain in awe of what others write about the coast.