Summary

Doughty opens her chapter on North Carolina with a description of the death of a grey whale. After dying, the whale's body sinks to the ocean floor where its remains "become the location of a grand banquet that will last decades" (106). Even after the body's organic material has been eaten by scavengers, the whale's carcass "becomes a hotspot of life" as "mollusks and crustaceans set up camp" (106). In both life and death, whales support the environment that surrounds them. Doughty uses the example of a whale's death to segue into an instinctual human desire to also "contribute past your own death" (108). Doughty points out the popularity of this rising desire by asking "How else to explain the increasing popularity of the refrain: 'When I due, no fuss. Just dig a hole and put me in it'" (108). Doughty sees this as a...