In a former life, I was a chemist, and I worked with some pretty nasty stuff, ranging from nuclear waste to organic reactions involving cyanide. That's why the references to the canal's contaminants worry me. If you do a little digging on the internet, you'll find out why:

A cruise up the murky Gowanus Canal is a journey into the heart of darkest Brooklyn. These sell-out excursions focus not on romance, fine dining or savoring the Manhattan skyline. Instead, throngs lining the boat railings observe rust-belt factories along the waterway, forming a forbidden jungle. One shocked passenger described the scene as "post-apocalyptic." Rusting bridges span overhead. Junkyard dogs snarl and bark from littered banks. Only the presence of dead rats and trash break the colorful sheen of oil on water that prompted the local sobriquet, "Lavender Lake."

Those murky depths conceal more than the remains of vanished mobsters. Mercury, lead, PCBs and other contaminants lurk below. The tour boat turns back at Butler Street to reveal the waterway's inherent design flaw; a single inlet dead-ending against concrete embankments bars New York Harbor's strong tides and their fresh diurnal doses of oxygenated water in the 1.8-mile channel. Still, hopes are high that restarting an 88-year-old flushing tunnel may be the first significant step in restoring what once was a lovely tidal creek that meandered through salt marshes.

Here's an update on the canal cleanup efforts. They're making slow progress... but that doesn't mean it's a clean place yet. In fact, the news story mentions recent oil contamination at the exit of the canal.

So, if you have a friend in the US, write to them and let them know that it isn't just the whale in the Gowanus Canal whose life could be endangered. It's whales around the whole world whose lives are in the balance. Let them know how they can help!