Humpback Whales
1
When I began studying humpback
there was very little funding
for such research.
I'd like to thank
the Pacific Life Foundation
for their unparalleled
generosity in supporting
the conservation of humpback
whales and other marine mammals.
Enabling a better future
is what Pacific Life does;
and their support of a healthy
ocean benefits all of us,
whales as well as people.
NARRATOR:
Our planet holdsa kind of parallel universe.
A place of wonder
where giants roam free.
For thousands of years,
we could only wonder
about humpback whales.
Now, by exploring their world,
we're getting surprising
glimpses into their lives.
A 40-ton adult appears
weightless in its ocean home.
Though longer than a school bus,
these 50-foot giants are nimble.
With a wingspan
greater than most Learjets,
humpbacks are
magnificent acrobats.
(whales singing)
Often seen in shallow waters,
these mammals occasionally dive
to a depth of 1,000 feet.
Each bump on their heads
which may help them
sense their environment.
Today, we celebrate them...
but it wasn't always so.
Whales were hunted
for hundreds of years
and rendered into oil
to light our cities.
When whalers developed
exploding harpoons,
these giants had no chance.
We nearly wiped humpback whales
off the face of the planet.
Then, during the Cold War,
a U.S. Navy observer,
recording the hum
of Soviet submarines,
heard something mysterious.
The otherworldly calls
of humpback whales.
Humpbacks string
their songs together
in a continuous river of sound.
The music of the deep.
(whales singing)
In the 1970s, when these
recordings were studied
by scientists
they recognized that
were actually precise rhythmic
patterns of sound, or "songs."
When record albums
were released,
the humpbacks' songs
changed millions of hearts.
People from many nations
joined together
to support a ban
on killing whales.
The song of the humpback
helped us to begin
to understand, finally,
that whales are
magnificent, complex beings
worthy of protection,
worthy of life.
This was our turning point.
(whales singing)
The South Pacific.
The humpback population here
was hard-hit by whaling.
In Tonga, there were only
In 1978, when the king of Tonga
banned the killing of whales,
the humpbacks here slowly began
to recover, one calf at a time.
Today in Tonga,
there are about 2,000 humpbacks,
a fraction of what once was,
but it's a start.
The humpback resurgence
has now sparked
a whale-watching boom here.
The increased tourism has raised
the standard of living
for the local people,
like Ali Takau.
(toy squeaks)
TAKAU:
My grandfather was a whaler.
He hunted humpbacks
to feed our family.
NARRATOR:
Instead of killing humpbacks,
Ali works hard to save them.
(woman speaking native language)
(kids exclaiming)
TAKAU:
The future of our humpbacks
depends on these children.
I tell the kids
about the whaling days,
so we never have
that kind of killing again.
My job is taking
tourists and scientists
out to see the humpbacks.
NARRATOR:
Now these magnificentwhales have begun to recover.
Each calf is critical
to Tonga's fragile resurgence.
After a full year of pregnancy,
mothers give birth
to a single 14-foot baby.
What's it like to be
a newborn humpback,
floating in a vast blue world,
where your only landmark
is a mountain of mother?
(whales singing)
Humpbacks share
these idyllic waters
with a whole community
of marine life.
The remora fish
come along for the ride.
TAKAU:
Even when the mother sleeps,
from mother's milk.
(high-pitched bellowing)
But after a few weeks,
the calves get bolder,
and they take off on their own.
They're so curious.
(laughing):
And they've got so much energy.
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh
These newborns learn
they double in size.
J "'Oh!
Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Once they get the hang of it,
(laughing):
there's no stopping them.
Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh.
NARRATOR:
Each calf stays with its mother
only about one year
How to migrate
thousands of miles.
What to eat and how to find it.
Who to trust and who to fear.
TAKAU:
Whalers like my grandfather
once targeted
mothers and calves,
because they move so slowly.
I always loved my grandfather,
but he didn't understand
the need to stop killing whales.
NARRATOR:
The killingstopped here in Tonga,
but not everywhere.
Three nations...
Japan, Norway and Iceland...
Still allow commercial
and scientific whaling.
Today, fewer people
kill whales on purpose,
but we now kill them
without even knowing it.
When a ship collides
with a whale,
the world's oceans has doubled
in the last 12 years.
There is something we can do
One solution is
to slow down ships,
migratory pathways of whales.
Here in Tonga,
mothers go for months
To find food, the humpback
whales in Tonga head south
to the frigid, bountiful waters
of Antarctica.
(birds singing)
Many humpbacks in the North
Pacific Ocean migrate to Alaska.
(squawking and squeaking)
(squawking and bellowing)
(barking)
(birds singing)
Dr. Fred Sharpe has been
studying the behaviors
for the past 25 summers.
(boat horn sounds)
Most of the time, humpback
whales in Alaska feed on krill.
These small, shrimp-like
crustaceans thrive here,
in waters enriched by upwelling
currents and glacial nutrients.
The tiny krill
might be harder to catch
but they don't.
FRED SHARPE:
Instead of teeth,humpback whales have baleen.
It's a kind of strainer
that hangs
from the roof of their mouth.
It lets the water through,
but allows them
like the fish and the krill.
(high-pitched bellowing)
When we're trying
it's almost like
you're coming home to family.
NARRATOR:
Fred has studied
these particular whales
for so long...
Bubbles! Bubbles!
NARRATOR:
that he can often tell
who's vocalizing
just by listening.
(bellowing, sputtering
and vocalizing)
SHARPE:
We know who is who,
because each of these whales has
a really distinctive tail fluke.
They're kind of like
a fingerprint.
No two are exactly alike.
(camera shutter clicking)
So... I run the prints.
This is Melancholy.
(bellowing)
I've really come to know him
over the past 20 years,
from studying his behaviors
and even sketching him.
I often see Melancholy
with another male,
who we call Vulture.
(high-pitched vocalizing)
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"Humpback Whales" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/humpback_whales_10371>.
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