Rhys Richards, a former diplomat, retired in 1999 to write more about New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, Pacific Arts and Artifacts, and whaling history. He has worked extensively on over 60 museum collections, including in the USA, UK and Eire, Japan, Hawaii, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Australia and New Zealand. He has published over 40 books and almost 100 journal articles. Nga Tohora begins in New Zealand waters, and covers whaling for right whales in the southern oceans. He draws on new sources to identify diminishing whale stocks since historical whaling began in the 1780s, and the seriously slow recovery since then.