Hardy Jones / CreateSpace / 256 pages
Hardy Jones, a legend among marine mammal advocates, has finally penned a memoir of his 30-plus years working to help dolphins. The book is a humble and honest account of his transition from a promising career as a CBS journalist to filmmaker, investigator and dolphin advocate. He vividly relates his first magical encounters with wild dolphins in the Bahamas, which led to a PBS documentary film, called simply Dolphin. This and countless other award-winning films Jones has made for PBS, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and others have done much to shape attitudes about wild dolphins and their homes. From the beauty and majesty of free dolphins, the story turns to documenting the brutal horrors of Japanese drive hunts, starting with Iki Island and his own role in breaking the story of the slaughters to the world in 1978.
Hardy further documents dolphins dying in purse seine nets and delves into the problems associated with marine pollutants—describing the consequences of marine contaminants in dolphins and, ultimately, humans. His moving account of his own brush with death from multiple myeloma, a disease he associates with pollutants in fish he once ate, is touching. The way Hardy responds to this incurable disease will probably increase the admiration the reader will have acquired already for this gentle and dedicated man.