Joan McIntyre

Joan McIntyre (December 19, 1931 – June 22, 2016), also known as Joana McIntyre Varawa, was an American author and anti-whaling activist. A high-ranking member of Friends of the Earth in the early 1970s, she founded Project Jonah in 1974 to give focus on the specific goal of preventing whaling. After several successful and unsuccessful campaigns, she left the organization in 1983 due to excessive conflicts and politicking and later moved to Fiji.

Childhood and education McIntyre stated that she was always interested in social issues during her teenage years, joining political school groups to protest matters like the use of the A-bomb.

Career Spending several years after graduating as both a producer and occasional commenter for the Pacifica Foundation non-commercial radio stations, During this time period, she was made special projects coordinator for the group, but felt by 1972 that the amount of projects and large scale issues, such as the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the SST Concorde, were too numerous to manage. She was later inspired to a different focus by John C. Lilly's book The Mind of the Dolphin and by the news she received while broadcasting ecology programs on the practices of whale hunting that were occurring.

By 1983, she had stepped down as president of Project Jonah, having become "fed up" with the politics involved and how much of people's "good intentions usually turn into either stupidity or righteousness". That same year, she published the book The Delicate Art of Whale Watching, which contained her collected musings and observations throughout her life on the nautical events she had participated in.

Personal life and death During her early career, McIntyre lived in Bolinas, California, She died in June 2016.