I’m all for saving the whales, and today at the Nantucket Whaling Museum, I certainly learned why. The whale hunting process is gory, bloody, and terribly dangerous for everyone involved (especially the whales!). However, as I sat in a wonderful presentation on the whaling history of Nantucket, it was hard not to sympathize with the islanders. They originally came to the island to raise sheep. (Sheep? No wonder they had to turn to the ocean for their livelihood.) Without whales, though, would Nantucket even be the same island it is today? Even though the practice of hunting whales is so horrible and ended up placing whales on the endangered species list, the very essence of Nantucket would not be the same without that part of its history. For that, I can’t judge them too harshly.