Readers wanted. Provincetown library's annual Moby Dick Marathon begins Friday
"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."
So begins Herman Melville's classic tale of "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale," which will be read aloud by volunteers over the course of three days as the Provincetown Public Library's 2023 Moby Dick Marathon gets underway Friday and continues until Sunday.
Appropriately, the Center for Coastal Studies, also in Provincetown, is getting in on the action with a special kick-off event on Thursday, April 27, offering "Learning from behavior: What biologgers can tell us about how whales recover from entanglement," both in person and via Zoom.
"The library has been doing this for eight years, although it is our sixth in-person marathon because, during the pandemic we had online events for two years," said Provincetown Library Director Amy Raff. "It began as a way to acknowledge Provincetown's whaling history."
Provincetown was nearly on a par with New Bedford by 1870 in revenue from whaling.
According to the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum, by 1870 the town was one of the wealthiest in the state because of revenue from whaling, and nearly on a par with New Bedford — which is where Moby Dick's narrator, Ishmael, stops before heading to Nantucket and joining the crew of the whaling ship Pequod, led by the revenge-hungry Captain Ahab.
This year's reading marathon will take place Friday, April 28, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, April 29, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, April 30, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The library divides the book's reading into 111 time slots. Some readers take on more than one passage as the entire, unabridged version of the book is read.
Yes, there is still time to sign up as a volunteer to read.
"We still have some slots available, mostly Saturday evening. Inevitably there will be some last-minute cancellations as well," said Raff.
Interested readers should email her at ptownmobymarathon@gmail.com
"People are encouraged to come be in the audience also," she said.
Anne Hutchinson reenactor Brent Thomas, "our favorite early colonial feminist and excommunicated Puritan," will open the marathon reading, said Raff. There will also be a special performance by theater company Sailor Beware (Joe MacDougall, Priscilla Manning, Cella Mariani, Jody O’Neil, Lynda Sturneron) at 10 a.m. Saturday.
Thursday's kick-off program will be led by Jenn Tackaberry, a research associate with the Humpback Whale Studies Program and a Level 4 responder for the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team at the Center for Coastal Studies.
Whale rescue experts will be part of the weekend reading marathon in Provincetown.
"We have collaborated with the Center for Coastal Studies since the beginning. It gives the marathon depth to relate the narrative to the current situation with whales — to learn about the work people are doing to save the whales that were once hunted from off these shores," Raff said.
Tackaberry's ongoing research brings together her many years of involvement in long-term studies of individuals, tag-based behavioral research, and disentanglement work.
According to the Center for Coastal Studies, "despite an international moratorium on commercial whaling, the unintentional killing of whales is far too common."
"Currently, accidental entanglements are a leading cause of death of baleen whales. Disentanglement programs help to offset these unnecessary impacts, and multi-decade population studies have been key to understanding their long-term impacts," the organization notes in a description of Tackaberry's presentation.
Tackaberry will explain how biologgers (tags) are used to study behavior, what she is learning about whales in different feeding areas, and how those differences may clarify how individuals recover from entanglement.
The program is free to attend, but registration is requested by visiting https://coastalstudies.org/event/moby-dick-marathon-presentation/
Heather McCarron writes about climate change, environment, energy, science and the natural world, in addition to news and features in Barnstable, Brewster and Falmouth Reach her at hmccarron@capecodonline.com, or follow her on Twitter @HMcCarron_CCT
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Whale behavior study added to annual Provincetown 'Moby Dick' reading
