A mother sperm whale surfaces in the North Atlantic as her young albino calf swims beside her. It"s an especially photogenic moment for these underwater powerhouses, which spend much of their time in the dim depths over 1,000 feet below the waves. You"re meeting them to commemorate the day in 1841 when a young Herman Melville set out from New Bedford, Massachusetts, on a whaling voyage to the South Pacific that would help inspire his masterwork "Moby-Dick." Today at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Melville fans will begin a marathon public reading of the novel—an annual event that lasts a leviathan 25 hours.
Celebrating whales—and a whale of a tale
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
A place fit for the gods
-
Celebrate International Women’s Day
-
In search of a ‘great’ pumpkin
-
The meeting point of the winds
-
Greece celebrates its independence
-
Anybody out there?
-
High seas commerce
-
‘Hello’ from zero degrees longitude
-
Mountains fit for a queen
-
A fair that s star-studded
-
A peek at an explosive peak
-
A day to take a moment
-
A seabird gets schooled
-
Sanday Island and the North Sea, Scotland
-
Traffic jam on the caribou highway
-
Meet our fuzzy Earth Day mascot
-
A little bit of Wonderland in New York City
-
Happy trails for the 21st century
-
A cliff-hanging complex of temples
-
Busy building wetlands