Herman Melville was the author of a classic book about what we'd now consider an illegal activity, the commercial hunting of whales for oil and meat. But in his day it was a way of life. It is also true that in his day there was not a marine litter problem, with plastic poisoning both mammals and fish.

Herman Melville wrote a number of amazing books about the sea and life aboard sailing ships of the time, of which Moby Dick is the best in our view, the first whaling epic, and an all time Classic, number 17 in the best 100 American novels. It is also one of the hardest to read in full form; witness the number of concise editions and graphic novels.

'A Classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.'  - Marc Twain

We are working toward featuring all the stories written by Herman Melville on this website as a FREE educational resource.

Moby Dick is the story of a great white sperm whale bull that fought back at whalers who tried to harpoon him. The idea came to Herman Melville after he spent time on a commercial whaler, where stories abounded of the sinking of the Essex in 1821 and Mocha Dick, a giant sperm whale that sank around 20 ships, before being harpooned in 1838.

We are equally inspired by the brave whales that fought back, giving marine mammals a voice that has echoed concern for their safety ever since. Today whales face new dangers in the form of man made plastics as fishing ropes and nets and bio-accumulation from micro plastics that are polluting our oceans; hence food supply and ecological conservation.

But, not for profit organizations like the Cleaner Ocean Foundation are not supported by funds as other charities, where diversification prevents registration. We have to find other ways of funding our lobbying for common sense, awareness campaigns and research.

Our hats go off to Herman Melville for putting pen to paper on his mammoth volume and in so doing stirring generations to draw attention to such issues.

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Moby Dick has inspired a great many adaptations, the same basic story finding its way into the making of four films and two television adaptations.

In addition there are 5 comics and illustrated volumes in print, adapted from the original, to make the read easier. Another inspired by Moby Dick is the emerging graphic novel version of a large humpback whale called Kulo Luna.

Kulo Luna is not as big as the whales depicted in Herman Melville's Moby Dick, not a male protecting his pod, rather a defensive mother, only attacking whaling ships that present a danger to herself or her kind.

You can help us to make Herman's works available to everyone as a free educational resource by contributing just the price of a cup of coffee to our campaigns and research. Thank you for caring.

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