The new Drew Barrymore flick is based on a true story, the premise of which is that it was a minor event that turned into a huge news event.
Do you remember it happening at the time (1988)?
It was mostly a TV news story because someone had a video camera. The whale equivalent of a little girl falling down a well (everybody remembers that one, right?).
People on the scene were trying to cut away enough ice to give the whales a spot to surface to breathe. But they were injuring themselves against the sharp surface of the ice for some reason. Then finally a Soviet icebreaker managed to make it’s way through the ice so the whales could travel out to sea.
I was a kid (7 or 8 years old) then, and it’s the kind of story I would have loved, so since I don’t remember it, I assume it didn’t get much coverage in my area, or the grownups in my life weren’t talking about it.
I remember Joan Loundon(?)on Good Morning America telling me about it.
I even remember the Bloom Country parody with 3 Thanksgiving turkeys trapped in the ice.
I don’t remember any details, but I have a vague feeling that late-night comics at the time were making quips about Alaskan grey whales.
EDIT: Along the same lines as the Bloom County parody mentioned above.
Were they killed by . . .
. . . oh, never mind.
Really vague recollection. My partner and I had just gotten together, and we weren’t very focused on the rest of the world.
I remember it but hadn’t thought of it in more than 20 years (not since I was a last called Obi Wan, and that’s a name I haven’t been called in a long time…).
I don’t remember it, but I remember that Star Trek movie.
This. I was twenty years old in 1988 and have no recollection of this at all.
As God as my witness I thought turkeys could swim
I had long forgotten it, but when I saw Drew on the Colbert Report last week it came back to me. There was also the story of Humphrey the “Wrong Way Whale” in the Sacramento River around the same era.
IIRC, weren’t there also some Inuits who wanted to hunt and kill the whales, but that the media circus made it impossible.
My recollection (which may be wrong) is that the Inuits were helping.
“Well, we’re gonna ea..”
“EASE! Ease them out to pasture!”
And yup, remember it clear as day. I got into a heated argument with a co-worker about whether or not it was worthwhile spending taxpayer money on freeing them.
You are correct Operation Breakthrough - Wikipedia.
I remember a great deal of to-do on the evening news day after day, but I thought it happened in 1990 or 1991. There’s even a reference in Niven and Pournelle’s “Fallen Angels.”
I was about 21 at the time. Had a lot on my mind. I have a vague recollection.
I don’t remember it at all, and this is the kind of thing I would’ve loved at 35. But I was traveling a lot during this time, so I might’ve missed it. Working on Navy ships instead of behind a desk meant missing a lot of current events.