"The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish" Thus proclaims Ishmael, the narrator and protagonist of Herman Melville's epic novel of Moby Dick (1851), a mere decade before Darwin's publication "On the Origin of Species" (1859). Today every third-grader can tell you that whales are mammals. A notion that seems no longer contested. Yet for centuries, whales, dolphins, and porpoises (cetaceans) defied systemizers and naturalists as to where to place them in the natural order. We'll dive back in time and unravel the scientific journey.

Uko’s interest in nature led him to become a natural history illustrator. Specializing in marine mammal illustration, Uko Gorter has traveled extensively to observe whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals in their natural environment. Uko’s work has appeared in scientific journals, museums, interpretive signs, and many books. The culmination of this work was illustrating all marine mammal species for the second edition of “Marine Mammals of the World: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification”, authored by Thomas Jefferson, Marc Webber, and Robert Pitman (Elsevier Press, 2015). More recently his work was featured in the "Anatomy of Dolphins; Insights into Body Structure and Function (Cozzi et al., 2017), and the Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises (Erich Hoyt. 2017). Uko joined the American Cetacean Society in 2002, and is the current president of the American Cetacean Society.