IN THE SUMMER of 2007, I travelled to the Azores, an archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhat closer to Lisbon than to Boston. My mission: to close the gap between me and the whale.

I'd been fascinated—obsessed, really—with whales since I was a boy. I put it down to the fact that my mother nearly gave birth to me in a submarine (but that's another story). It wasn't till the year 2000 that I came face-to-face with the real animals, on a whale-watching tour off the coast of Cape Cod. Nothing compares with...