Fluke, or, I know why the winged whale sings

Marine behavioral biologist Nate Quinn is researching humpbacked whales off the coast of Maui--in particular, why they sing. The question has Nate and his crew poking, charting, recording, and photographing any large marine mammal that crosses their path. Then, one extraordinary day, a whale lifts its tail into the air to display a cryptic message spelled out in foot-high letters: Bite me. Then, when a roll of film returns from the lab missing the crucial tail shot--and their research facility is summarily trashed--Nate realizes that something very fishy indeed is going on. The weirdness only gets weirder when a call comes in from Nate's big-bucks benefactor saying that a whale has made contact--by phone. And it's asking for a hot pastrami and Swiss on rye.