Big Miracle: Soviets helped save whales in American waters

It was not a box-office hit. It wasn’t even talked about much. Maybe because the trailer wasn’t that exciting.  Or limited promotions were done. Too bad. It was a good film based on a true stoy. Yes, Drew Barrymore was there letting you think that this was another syrupy rom com but it’s not. 

Centerstage were the three grey whales trapped in a land of solid snow with only a large hole to breathe in. They weren’t able to get out of their feeding grounds in time for their migration to Baja, Mexico.

Three whales trapped in snow was the story. And everyone wanted a piece of it. The media, the government, Greenpeace. I read that there were hundreds of whales being killed in Iceland that time according to a former Greenpeace person, the time of the Reagan administration but the public was more interested in those three whales. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/the-big-picture-behind-big-miracle/blog/38821/ And almost everyone all over the world covered it even the Filipinos. I heard someone reporting in Tagalog J

And time was running out. The artic chill, was getting heavier threatening to solidify the hole, threatening the survival of the whales. It was already 50 to 70 degrees below zero. Anyway, everyone wants to be part of the whale rescue for PR purposes even the oil company who won a bidding contract to drill in Alaska. They even sent a hoverbarge which unfortunately crashed while being towed in a helicopter by the National Guard.

However, as Nature became the unlikely villain, there were unlikely heroes too, like the Eskimos particularly the Inupiat tribe who are known whale hunters. They used their chainsaws to prevent the hole from solidifying plus the two men in Minnesota who flew to there to donate and use their de-icing machine and of course, the Soviet icebreaker. It was the nearest icebreaker in the area and it was urgently needed because there was a dominant ice ridge separating the land from the ocean.

A Soviet ship entering American waters was supposedly not a possibility because it was the time of the Cold War. Russia and the US were almost mortal enemies then. There should be no way that would happen even if hell freezes over but it did. And that was the big miracle. Added to that is the surprising cooperation of certain people you wouldn't imagine working together, the media, the government, the oil company, Greenpeace, the Eskimos. Together, they drilled holes in the snow so the whales can safely go back to the ocean.

Unfortunately, one of the whales did not make it. But the other two did. But the story was more than the whales, it was the people around it. The whales became the cause that people with different ideologies, beliefs, some enemies in fact, worked together for. That was the bigger story.

With the world in constant turmoil, a story like this becomes a reminder that this can happen, that we can work together for something good despite our differences. That we can set aside our grudges for one another and work together to alleviate any pain we are witnessing in the world. That if we collectively believe in something, we can be united. And one day, if we work together to push reforms that would benefit many people, many endangered animals and even the environment, that would even be a bigger miracle.