Documentary, The Great Whales -Originally aired in 1978-National Geographic Society
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00:00They are the largest creatures on earth, creatures of mystery, masters of a dark and shadowed world
00:14human eyes have seldom seen. One of the rarest and most awesome experiences in nature is this,
00:27an encounter with the living whale. More than 40 million years ago early ancestors of modern whales
00:39adapted to the deep. They have flourished here but retain a fateful dependence on the
00:46sunlit world above. Like man they are mammals, warm-blooded creatures who must breathe to live.
00:57One thing about whales is not a mystery. We know precisely how many of them die. As
01:20for the rest, we have barely glimpsed this most extravagant and spectacular animal of all.
01:30Led by pioneering scientists, man and whale today are slowly drawing closer and in these
01:46first tentative contacts, a tantalizing question rises. What does a whale do with the largest brain on earth?
02:07Encouraged by experience with whales in captivity, the first explorers now seek the animals in their own environment.
02:29Join us now as we enter the domain of giants, the secret world of the great whales.
02:59the world of the great whales.
03:06In an age of environmental alarm, the 1970s may well be remembered as the time of the whale. Surging interest and concern for whales
03:24have created such odd spectacles as this, a 50-foot sculpture of a fin whale placed on display in a San Francisco park. The intent of the artist, to create a sympathetic bond between man and whales. For the fate of the world's largest animal
03:31lies in human hands, for the world its the world's largest animal lies in human hands. For the fate of the world's largest animal lies in human hands. And to understand that the whale is in peril one must first appreciate that this can be
03:4050-foot sculpture of a fin whale placed on display in a San Francisco park.
03:47The intent of the artist?
03:48To create a sympathetic bond between man and whale, for the fate of the world's largest
03:54animal lies in human hands, and to understand that the whale is in peril, one must first
04:00appreciate that such a colossal and unlikely creature exists at all.
04:11The whale has always cast an unusual shadow in the human consciousness.
04:16There is first of all sheer amazement that living flesh can assume such scale.
04:22Often the whale has been seen as an agent of supernatural powers.
04:26But above all, the whale has evoked man's cunning and ferocity.
04:31We have pursued the leviathan relentlessly over hundreds of years.
04:38The scene is centuries old, a stranded whale dead or dying, and men at work with knives
04:45and axes.
04:47In the earliest accounts and legends, the whale was feared, the animal that swallowed Jonah
04:53and only released him at God's command.
05:01At first, man had little power over whales.
05:04When a carcass drifted ashore, there was feast and celebration, but to hunt such a creature
05:10in the open sea was all but inconceivable.
05:13Then, a man first took the life of a whale and survived to boast of it.
05:19A new and romantic hero was born, the whaler.
05:27First in European and Asian waters, then spreading to the remotest seas, the pursuit of whales promised
05:34wealth and spawned adventure.
05:37By the mid-1800s, Americans of New England dominated whaling.
05:42Their land was thin and rocky, but the oceans were rich in whale flesh and whale oil.
06:02It was a brutal and risky life.
06:04Often it was difficult to say whether whales or men were in greater danger.
06:09All boats were sometimes dragged for miles, and ordeal whalers whimsically called a Nantucket
06:15sleigh ride.
06:36Most New England in wooden ships continued into the early 1900s, when these films were taken.
06:42But by then, a new era of whaling had dawned, a time of steam and steel.
06:56The hand-thrown harpoon had given way to a deadly cannon with an explosive warhead.
07:02With the range and speed of modern ships, whalers could easily penetrate polar seas, where
07:08great whales mass in large numbers.
07:18Whalers learned how to inflate whale carcasses with compressed air to keep them afloat.
07:24It was a crucial discovery.
07:26Many whale species that would otherwise sink and be lost when killed, now were fair game.
07:31By dissecting harvested whales, scientists had confirmed a surprising fact.
07:38The whales' anatomy left no doubt that their prehistoric ancestors were land animals with
07:43four legs.
07:45Although whales bear a superficial resemblance to fish, under the skin they are more closely
07:50related to animals like camels, sheep, or elephants.
07:54But what was the natural behavior of these monsters?
07:59One fearful impression lingered, popularized in the pages of an immortal novel, Moby Dick.
08:06Can whales do that?
08:09Why, bless me, whales can do anything.
08:11A whale can jump up like an earthquake and come down on you, like a mountain that somehow
08:17put to sea.
08:18A whale can stave in the ribs of the biggest ships, swallow whole crews, pick its teeth with
08:23the oars.
08:24Mind, lad, if God ever wanted to be a fish, he'd be a whale.
08:28Believe that, he'd be a whale.
08:53A whale can make.
08:54Why, boy?
08:55It's all about shipping.
08:56Ah!
08:58Ah!
08:59Ah!
09:00Ah!
09:01Ah!
09:02Hi!
09:04There you go!
09:06Ah!
09:07Oh!
09:08Oh!
09:09Ah!
09:10Ah!
09:11Ah!
09:12Ah!
09:13Ah!
09:14Ah!
09:15Ah!
09:17Ah!
09:18Ah!
09:19Let's go!
09:20Ah!
09:21Herman Melville's whale was an angry white ghost of terror and destruction.
09:36This for millions would remain an overwhelming impression.
09:39Not until recent years has another and more realistic portrait of the whale become popular.
09:48The training in captivity of smaller whales and dolphins has done much to temper the frightening
09:53legacy of Moby Dick.
09:55To the delight of millions, these sea mammals have proved to be responsive and spectacular
10:00entertainers.
10:18Though some whales seem familiar in captivity, we have only vague ideas of their life in
10:34the wild.
10:36Killer whales, for instance, are highly social animals roaming the seas in groups called pods.
10:42They are predators, hunting fish and sea mammals, including other whales.
10:48On the tail of a larger gray whale, tooth marks probably testify to a killer whale attack.
10:56Like most of the great whales, grays have no teeth.
10:59Their mouths are lined with baleen, a kind of strainer which traps the minute sea organisms
11:05on which they feed.
11:10The sperm whale is the only great whale with teeth.
11:14And it possesses the largest brain of any animal.
11:18Moby Dick was a sperm whale.
11:20And the species has been widely hunted for its huge yield of oil and spermaceti, a prized
11:26ingredient of cosmetics.
11:30The sperm whale is dwarfed even by a small whale like the killer, which may attain 30 feet.
11:35The smaller great whales, like the humpback, are commonly 45 feet long and weigh more than
11:4135 tons.
11:43Sperm whales are larger still, growing to 60 feet and more.
11:48And the blue whale dwarfs all other animals.
11:52Larger than any of the dinosaurs, it can attain a weight of 196 tons.
11:57Its massive body may span 100 feet, about the size of a jetliner seating more than 100 passengers.
12:07In laboratories and oceanariums around the world, experience with captive whales may eventually
12:13provide some insights into whale behavior in the wild.
12:18Killer whales at Marineland in California recently attracted worldwide attention.
12:23The news spread swiftly.
12:25Corky, a 20-foot female, was giving birth.
12:31Captured as it happened by amateur cameras, this is the first birth of a live killer whale
12:37ever photographed.
12:47In 10 seconds, the baby must take its first vital breath of air.
12:54There is jubilation among the Marineland staff.
13:07The parent whales, Orky and Corky, are long-time residents of the park.
13:13It's like celebrating the parenthood of close friends.
13:27The next baby.
13:28The baby.
13:29All right.
13:30Here, here.
13:31Hey, here's to the next baby.
13:35The stadium tank is closed to the public so that the new calf will be undisturbed during
13:42its first days.
13:46The sounds made by the calf and his parents are carefully noted.
13:51Killer whales use clicking sounds to navigate underwater, and their various calls may be a
13:56sophisticated form of communication.
13:59Scientists are eager to see how the calf's vocabulary develops.
14:03I think we just got some time.
14:08More time than the dolphin, like the feeling that I have.
14:11But something appears to be wrong.
14:13The baby does not nurse immediately.
14:15No one can say whether this is normal behavior or not.
14:18Because, like, this morning when I was watching it, it was doing, when it was in the middle
14:22of the tank, I saw it obviously playing with it, you know, discovering its sonar.
14:25It was just moving its head back and forth.
14:27Well, it seems to be not terribly excited or embarrassing.
14:30Yeah.
14:31When it gets hungry, it'll probably start looking around.
14:33You see, it's such a simple thing for the baby just to turn around and go to the nipple,
14:38and it doesn't.
14:43Anxious days pass, and the calf still has not fed.
14:47The mother is watchful and attentive.
14:50But often the calf seems oblivious of her and the requirements for his survival.
14:55An around-the-clock vigil continues as observers seek the causes of his disturbing behavior.
15:01This little calf is driving us nuts with its apparent improvements, and then, particularly
15:09in the mornings, and then resuming back to the stereotype swimming mode that doesn't
15:14show any encouragement at all.
15:17It makes making a definitive decision as to how to handle the animal a very difficult one,
15:24because, of course, the best way to do it is the natural way, but we feel we're running
15:29out of time.
15:33Soon after, the decision is taken to intervene and attempt to save the calf.
15:43As the parent whales are distracted, the calf will be given an injection of an appetite stimulant.
15:49It's a tense moment.
15:51Though these killer whales are normally gentle, they could react violently when the calf is seized.
15:57Now, keep his head up very gently, easing forward, easing forward, easing forward, and go forward a little.
16:10Further, further, further.
16:14Ready?
16:15Yeah.
16:16I think she's getting mad.
16:33Yeah.
16:34Go ahead.
16:35Go ahead.
16:36Let him go.
16:37Have me do.
16:38Okay.
16:39We were anxious to note the behavior of the calf as it was undergoing restraint.
16:46And I think, as you saw, there wasn't much of a response.
16:50And this has been, of course, our concern all along with this calf,
16:53that it hasn't been a particularly responsive individual to the mother,
16:57to external stimuli, to anything.
17:00So I'm quite concerned about that.
17:02Despite repeated attempts to help, the calf does not nurse and steadily loses weight.
17:15He continues to circle the tank, scraping his head against the concrete wall.
17:21Our night engineer called me and said that the calf wasn't doing well.
17:33I came on in, and the calf was up next to the wall.
17:36And I knew it was in trouble.
17:38It was difficult to say how much trouble.
17:40So we just stayed with it, or I did for a while.
17:51And then the calf slowly sang.
17:55Corky attempted to get it to the surface and didn't make it.
18:00And the calf didn't show really any response to want to come to the surface.
18:04And that was the end.
18:10The loss of the calf is keenly felt.
18:25He probably suffered brain damage during labor,
18:28and may have been doomed from the beginning.
18:35There's hope that Corky will someday bear another calf successfully.
18:39But now, for men and whales at marine land, there is a period of grieving.
18:54In death as in life, whales often defy human understanding.
18:58Mysterious strandings sometimes result in the death of a hundred whales or more.
19:04Despite extensive research, we still cannot explain what drives these whales to such a sad and apparently pointless end.
19:15In July of 1976, an especially puzzling stranding was recorded on film in Florida.
19:21Thirty Sudorka whales came into shallow waters.
19:25They seemed in good health, but would certainly die from overheating by the sun if they remained here long.
19:30Their chorus of strange sounds could be heard up to fifty feet away.
19:36The whales showed little fear of humans and calmly allowed well-wishers to wet their backs and apply lotion to minor sores.
19:49Most of the time, the whales were afloat and perfectly free to save themselves.
19:54As one observer noted, they seemed placidly bent on self-destruction.
20:03Finally, on the third day, one whale died.
20:07He was a large male and may have been a leader of the pod.
20:11Soon after, the remaining whales seemed more willing to move,
20:15and a concerted effort was made to drive them out to sea.
20:18Though at first reluctant, the whales made their way to safety.
20:28Did this pod of whales follow their ailing leader ashore and remain with him until they knew that he was beyond help?
20:35Scientists refuse to describe whale behavior in such human terms,
20:40but many laymen who witness such incidents become convinced
20:43that whales have emotional ties and a social order rivaling our own.
20:52At a U.S. naval base in Hawaii, a whale named Morgan has demonstrated
20:57that trained whales can be far more than acrobats and clowns.
21:01Morgan has gone to sea, accompanying a navy vessel, but swimming free and on his own.
21:24Morgan is a pilot whale, and small by whale standards, 13 feet long and 1,200 pounds.
21:30Holding this special device in his mouth, he has been trained to retrieve dummy torpedoes from the ocean bottom.
21:38Morgan can plummet to 1,500 feet and more, deeper and much faster than any human dive.
21:45Relying on his biological sonar, he can navigate in total darkness,
21:50and he also can adjust readily to changes of pressure underwater.
21:55Relying on an acoustic signal transmitted from the target.
22:00The possibilities of cooperation between man and whale in the sea are largely unexplored and seem full of promise.
22:04But fears that military research could lead to the use of whales and dolphins on suicide missions in combat have obscured the success of experiments like this one.
22:13And the great whales, whose physical strength could be matched by singular mental powers remain far beyond our reach.
22:20Mysterious denizens of the open seas.
22:22Here at SeaWorld in San Diego lived the only great whale ever to be studied in captivity for any length of time.
22:31Captured as a baby, she was a two-ton infant gray whale named Gigi.
22:41She did well in captivity and provided a unique opportunity for intimate and sustained study.
22:48Sue Bailey, once an employee of the park, remembers.
22:51She was a very gentle animal for being as large as she was.
22:54She's the only animal that she was.
22:56She was a very gentle animal for being as large as she was.
22:59She's the only animal that she was.
23:02She was a very gentle animal for being as large as she was.
23:07She's the only animal I've ever worked with that you could visibly go in in the morning and see that she had grown bigger.
23:15And towards the end she was gaining about a half an inch in length every day and about a hundred pounds a day.
23:22And she was noticeably larger every day you worked with her.
23:27One way that we could see this is that she was growing so fast that she was shedding an entire layer of skin every day.
23:34And you'd just scratch her down and her skin would just peel off in sheets.
23:39She was growing so fast.
23:41Gigi developed strong attachments to some of the people around her.
23:45Sue was one favorite.
23:47Gigi would make a variety of eerie but apparently happy noises whenever Sue was near.
23:53Gigi quickly learned to respond to simple signals.
23:59A series of pats on her colossal back announced mealtime.
24:04Due to the flexible baleen lining her mouth she could be safely hand fed.
24:09Gigi grew to 27 feet and seven tons, outgrowing her tank and eating almost a ton of squid a day.
24:27It was obvious she should now be set free.
24:30The best day I had with her was the day right before I let her go.
24:35I spent about six hours in the water with her.
24:38And she was more affectionate really than she ever had been and was more interested in playing.
24:44And I thought a lot about missing her.
24:46She became a very large part of my life for that year.
24:49Early one morning in March of 1972, Gigi is returned to the ocean wilderness.
25:04To Sue, Gigi seemed nervous and frightened.
25:08Sue and Gigi's other keepers wondered how she would react to finding herself suddenly unconfined and on her own.
25:16A radio transmitter was fitted to Gigi's back.
25:21For a few weeks after her release, its signals would allow her to be followed at sea.
25:33Gigi's year-long captivity set a number of records.
25:36She is the largest live animal ever transported by man.
25:40Probably, she is the only great whale to fall into human hands and be released unharmed.
25:46And she is the only great whale, too, that humans have known intimately and come to love.
25:53Well, when we first let her go, they put the stretcher out over the water and lowered it down.
25:58And when she finally swam out of the stretcher, she found herself being a little lost out there, I'm afraid.
26:07I was pretty shook up and doing a lot of crying that day.
26:14I'd been involved with nothing but the gray whale.
26:17And then she was gone and had to take a while to get involved in something else.
26:22After her release, Gigi lingered a while along the California coast and then moved slowly north.
26:43Within two months, Gigi had joined other gray whales making their annual journey to Arctic waters.
26:51The longest known migration of any mammal.
26:55Gigi readapted to the wild.
26:58But of her ways and wanderings in the open sea, we know little.
27:02With all the great whales, she is shrouded in mystery.
27:05We have established that whales inhabit all the great oceans.
27:12And that some species migrate to polar waters in summertime when the food supply is abundant.
27:18Oddly, whales of the northern and southern hemispheres rarely, if ever, meet.
27:24Due to the opposite seasons in the north and south, one group is always heading for its polar feeding grounds,
27:30just as the other is arriving in tropical waters to breed.
27:35And it is mainly in these warm water breeding grounds that scientists have been able to observe natural whale behavior.
27:45Waters around the island of Maui in Hawaii are one breeding ground of humpback whales.
27:51The nearby town of Lahaina was once a major port for reprovisioning Yankee whalers in the mid-1800s.
27:58Everywhere in Lahaina there are reminders of the early whalers and their quarries.
28:05In an age when some whales could face extinction, whaling nostalgia can have ominous overtones.
28:26A new consciousness is growing, a concern more for the whale's future than the whaler's past.
28:34Until recent years, the presence of humpback whales near Maui in wintertime was largely ignored by scientists and conservationists.
28:50A pioneer in local whale research and conservation, Jim Hodnell, was among the first to become interested in the humpbacks.
28:57For the past several winters, he has spent long days at sea watching for tell-tale blows.
29:04Hello?
29:05Oh, right there.
29:06Straight there, right.
29:07Okay.
29:08Okay.
29:09I just saw a breach off Lahaina.
29:10I see.
29:11I don't know where it's going to happen.
29:12The sight of whales triggers a well-drilled routine.
29:13Hudnell and his assistant check camera and diving gear.
29:27Before the whales reappear, Hudnell will be in the water with them.
29:31Can I turn the light meter to on?
29:36More than any man, Hudnell has succeeded in getting close to the humpbacks and filming what
29:41he has seen.
29:42He prefers to dive alone in search of whales.
29:45He has found them to be highly aware of the human presence.
29:48When I go into the water, I try to do it quietly.
29:55And then I just try to blend in with the sea and become another one of the sea's mammals.
30:00And I hope then that they will become curious about my presence and come in for a closer look.
30:09Even when the humpbacks cannot be seen, a chorus of their strange songs can often be heard underwater with the naked ear.
30:17It's a haunting experience, which suggests that many sailors' superstitions and ghost stories
30:23were inspired by whale songs resounding through the hulls of ships.
30:38Hudnell has never forgotten his first close-up encounter.
30:42Eye to eye with a creature 400 times his size, in the whale's element and completely in his power.
30:57All sorts of things go through a person's imagination when you're that close to a whale,
31:00especially when it's the first time.
31:01And I was just very impressed with the look in that whale's eye.
31:04I'll never forget it.
31:05These moments with whales often provoke almost mystical emotions that transcend fear.
31:06The sensation is truly overwhelming.
31:10A humpback looms overhead like a gigantic cloud,
31:11while the songs whelves in the whale's eye.
31:12The sensation is truly overwhelming.
31:13A humpback looms overhead like a gigantic cloud,
31:14while the songs whelves in the whale's eye.
31:15well in the deep like a concerto from some distant alien world.
31:18The sensation is truly overwhelming.
31:20A humpback looms overhead like a gigantic cloud,
31:22while the songs well in the deep like a concerto from some distant alien world.
31:23If you're surely alive,
31:25as the Tai de dez.
31:26is onlywright slippery at sea.
31:27Ah,
31:29No."
31:30The green régler's eye.
31:32Theятно paksical from the weather's eye.
31:33No.
31:35The necklace controlled by the galaxy.
31:36Theあと bland 밖에 rejected.
31:37And,
31:42even if you look at a planet from there,
31:44one hundred thousand white flag on his language.
31:45Now,
31:46now,
31:47well there another one worth saving.
31:50You're sorry.
31:51Rrrrrr!
31:58Rrrrrr!
32:01Rrrrrrr!
32:04Rrrrrr!
32:15Rrrrrrr!
32:17Rrrrrr!
32:19Rrrrrr!
32:21Rrrrrr!
32:23Rrrrrr!
32:29No fear. I've never felt fear near a whale, and I really can't explain that.
32:34They are very big and they do have very powerful flukes,
32:37but all of my experience has indicated that they're very rational creatures
32:41and very slow to anger.
32:44If you don't do anything hostile towards the whale,
32:47the whale will, I think, never do anything hostile towards the man.
32:52And this, in the light of all of the killing that we've done on them,
32:55it's incredible that they should still be so open towards us.
33:01Woo!
33:02Right overhead. Right overhead.
33:04Just looking straight up at them.
33:06That was incredible. They were just hanging down there.
33:09Film and photographs of these extraordinary underwater encounters
33:13have drawn many others to the waters near Maui.
33:16The humpbacks here are uniquely accessible to scientists.
33:20From research vessels, the whales may often be tracked over periods of many hours.
33:25Drs. Ed Schallenberger and Roger Payne observe a travelling pot.
33:31Remember, there's five whales there, so we've got a lot more coming up.
33:34It has been estimated that 250 to 500 humpbacks winter in Hawaiian waters.
33:42They begin to arrive in November and depart in spring.
33:45No one knows exactly where these whales spend the rest of the year.
33:50Eventually, identification of individual whales seen here
33:54and in northern waters may settle this perplexing question.
33:58We're sailing right into the exhaling breath here.
34:01I just got a face bullet a moment ago.
34:04Meagre surface observations like this have had to satisfy students of whale behaviour for years.
34:17But a new and keenly exciting era is beginning for scientists like Roger Payne.
34:23They are beginning to enter the world of the whale and appreciate its astonishing beauty.
34:29So we slipped into the water and swam down and suddenly out of the sort of misty gloom,
34:37which always surrounds you whenever you're swimming,
34:40appeared the largest thing I'd ever seen.
34:42It was like sort of going out in your backyard and finding a dinosaur or something like that.
34:46It was just as incredible.
34:48Swam, passed, and the first thing I remember thinking,
34:51which is a thought that nobody can get away from in these animals,
34:54is their extraordinary grace was the most graceful thing I'd ever seen in my life.
34:58An animal that weighs 50 tons moving with a lightness of motion and a delicacy,
35:03which is not achieved by any other thing that I've seen.
35:13After blowing, a humpback dives.
35:16It may remain below for more than 25 minutes.
35:19Humpbacks are perhaps the most vocal whales.
35:22Their songs are very long, up to half an hour.
35:25All the whales sing the same song each season, repeating it time after time.
35:31Although the songs appear to be associated with the breeding season,
35:35we are only beginning to learn how the whales behave while singing,
35:39and whether one or both sexes sing.
35:42This humpback is among the first to be filmed in the act of singing.
35:48When the whale became aware of the approaching diver,
35:52the song abruptly stopped.
35:54Then the giant swung around to get a close-up look at Hodnell and his camera.
36:00Turning away, the whale revealed the genital slit near his tail,
36:21proving that this singer, at least, is a male.
36:24In time, we may finally piece together enough observations
36:29to understand why humpbacks sing.
36:32One of the most remarkable sounds in nature.
36:42Dwarfed by his companion, Jim Hodnell swims with the whale.
36:46Gradually, he's coming to know individual humpbacks,
36:48and some of them seem to know him.
36:51Hodnell has come to regard this whale as a friend
36:54and named him Notchie with a deep scar on his back.
36:58The old wound could be the result of a collision with a ship
37:01or a narrow escape from whalers.
37:04Humpbacks have been totally protected from whaling since 1972,
37:08but before that they were slaughtered in huge numbers.
37:12If, as Hodnell suspects,
37:14Notchie is old enough to have known whaling,
37:16his patient and benign disposition
37:19seems all the more remarkable and touching.
37:26Notchie lazes near the surface for a moment
37:29and then moves off with a spectacular display of effortless power.
37:34Late in April, Notchie posed for the cameras
37:43for the last time in this winter season.
37:45He then disappeared,
37:47probably heading for unknown Arctic feeding grounds,
37:51bearing a thousand secrets with him.
37:59A humpback calf lingers near the surface.
38:02Great whales normally bear only one calf at a time
38:13every two or three years.
38:15The survival of great whale species
38:17depends not only on the number of offspring,
38:20but on the intensive care and protection given by the mother.
38:24By spring, the young calf must be strong enough
38:43for the long swim north.
38:45It stays close to its mother during these first
38:48and most vulnerable months of life.
38:54A mother and calf are frequently escorted by another whale,
38:57often swimming below them.
39:01Investigating a diver,
39:03a mother guards her calf by interposing her body.
39:06Her pectoral fins pass close to diver and camera,
39:09but never touch them.
39:10Even in such close quarters, humpbacks show great restraint,
39:14as if aware that they are in total control of the situation.
39:25Finally, a thrust of the mother's fluke seems to signal
39:28that this encounter will now end.
39:39A release of air in massive quantities from the blowhole in mouth
39:42may also be a protective response on the part of the escort whale.
39:46The explosion of bubbles could be intended to frighten or confuse predators.
39:52Both sharks and killer whales have been known to prey on humpback calves.
40:01As observed so far, the behavior of humpbacks is intriguing
40:05to those who suspect that the animal may be highly intelligent.
40:09Certainly they are superbly adapted to their natural environment.
40:13But there are new dangers in the sea for which the whales may be ill-prepared.
40:20Maalaya Bay on the west coast of Maui
40:22is one area where humpback mothers and calves congregate.
40:26A volunteer watch has been mounted on a hill above the bay
40:29to monitor and chart whale movements.
40:32It's a labor of love for the young students who run the lonely station.
40:36Okay, reading on whales at 91 degrees, 36 minutes, 3 degrees, 35 minutes.
40:54It looks like they're headed towards the other side of the bay.
40:58Entering the bay at speeds up to 40 knots,
41:03inter-island hydrofoils pose a serious threat of collision with whales.
41:08There have already been a number of close calls.
41:11The hydrofoil is far faster than any boat whales are used to,
41:14and a special danger to calves that tend to linger near the surface.
41:18Uh, this is C to C to Kamehameha. Kamehameha, over.
41:27KKD 3395, unit 3D. Pull in there, Jody.
41:30Uh, yeah. Kamehameha, there's two pods of whales in your path.
41:33One bearing 98 degrees, 0, 5 minutes, range 1,670 yards.
41:39The second group bears 214 degrees, 16 minutes.
41:43Bearing 1,200 yards.
41:46Uh, just at 120, 2,000 yards.
41:49We are plotting. Thank you.
41:54KKD 3395, roger that. Thank you.
41:58And we're maneuvering to a void.
42:01Right.
42:02Coming hard left.
42:10Clearing him by at least 400 yards.
42:12Kamehameha, this is C to Silver.
42:14You're definitely past them. Over.
42:16Ah, mahalo.
42:18Okay, thanks a lot, big guy.
42:20Appreciate it very much.
42:21Just to see this over, clear and standing by.
42:23The people of Hawaii are determined to protect their whales.
42:27But commercial and pleasure craft may crowd the humpbacks further.
42:31Eventually, the bay may become part of a proposed U.S. whale sanctuary
42:35and be subject to strict controls.
42:41The young humpback is the hope of a ravaged species.
42:45More than 100,000 of his kind once roamed the seas.
42:49Now, there are perhaps 5,000.
42:53The reason for the decline is clear.
42:55As some men work to protect whales, others continue to kill them.
43:01With the momentum of centuries, despite steadily declining whale populations,
43:06the hunt goes on.
43:08Only two nations now continue open ocean whaling on an industrial scale.
43:21Japan and the Soviet Union.
43:23Five species of great whales are so depleted they are totally protected by international agreement.
43:42Quotas and size limits have been imposed.
43:45But whalers still take females.
43:48And 50% of them carry the essence of their species.
43:53The unborn calves.
43:55With growing awareness of the whales unique and extraordinary qualities,
44:17protest has become highly emotional.
44:20The destruction of whales for use in animal feed, cosmetics,
44:24and fertilizer provokes widespread anger.
44:27As one author has remarked with keen irony,
44:31nothing is wasted but the whale itself.
44:37In recent years, a Canadian-based conservation group called Greenpeace
44:41has taken the crusade against whaling to sea.
44:44The Greenpeace protesters see whaling as a symbol of a wider environmental crisis.
44:50Their leader, Bob Hunter.
44:52And the thing about the whale, the sense about the whale, is it really is the strongest, most powerful image or reality of the whole world.
45:00You get a sense that when you're close to a whale, you're somehow in touch with the world.
45:05And then after you've seen them being torn apart and blasted with harpoons and so on and so forth,
45:11you have this distinct feeling that what's happening there is there's man and this technology and they're blasting away right at the heart of the whole life system of the world.
45:19And this is sort of like the biggest crime of the lot.
45:21It's simply physically it's the biggest crime.
45:24With the location of a Soviet whaling fleet in the Pacific, a unique confrontation begins.
45:34For the Greenpeace crew, this is the culmination of more than a year's fundraising and preparation.
45:40After two months at sea, you wake up one morning and there on the horizon are these harpoon boats and a factory ship all laid out like a set in a movie.
45:50And we were so relieved they finally found them.
45:52And the general feeling was as if we were the Indians swarming down out of the hills and we finally had them surrounded.
45:57So there was that kind of high excitement.
46:00And the next thing we knew we saw one of the whales lying in the water and it turned out to be a very small whale.
46:05And then the emotional part started happening.
46:08And at that point then everybody was so disgusted and, you know, we hadn't prepared ourselves for the fact that the whales would be so small.
46:15I think that's what really amazed us.
46:17And it was so clear right off the bat that what they were doing was taking the equivalent of teenage whales and there were no big ones left around.
46:23What do you say, Paul? How long do you think it is?
46:261975. Greenpeace measures a small sperm whale the Soviets have taken, while a catcher boat from the fleet bears down on them.
46:36Hey, watch yourselves. Watch yourselves.
46:40Threatening the protesters with a fire hose, the whalers reclaim their prize.
46:47Whatever the size of this whale, the average size of whales taken is on the decline.
46:55Presumably, few have escaped whalers to attain great size in old age.
47:00The protest begins in earnest. Small outboard motorboats race to challenge a ten-ship Soviet fleet.
47:11It's assumed the whalers will hold their fire rather than risk hitting the protesters.
47:16But to be effective, the boat crews must place themselves directly between the looming harpoon guns and the fleeing whales.
47:25A Soviet catcher boat is in hot pursuit of sperm whales.
47:31Bob Hunter and a companion man a motorboat just ahead.
47:35And the whales surface just ahead of them.
47:39For a fleeting moment, it seems the protest is succeeding.
47:43And then a harpoon is fired. The harpoon narrowly misses the protesters, strikes a whale, explodes.
47:53The moment has been fatal for the whale, and very nearly for Hunter himself.
47:59There was man and his technology and destruction and greed and everything summed up in such a crystal clear image.
48:14And there was all the beauty and wildness and freedom and endurance of nature summed up in another beautiful image.
48:22And while all these beautiful images and horrible images were going on, I started crying.
48:28And then the next thing I knew, there was this incredible loud bang.
48:33It went off just like a firecracker. It was over within a second.
48:37There was just a puff of smoke, and then there was a thrashing whale in the water.
48:40And we decided to get out of there fast because we'd been warned that the bull whale might attack in a situation like that.
48:46And in fact, he did, but he went right past us, looked at us as he went by, and it was clear that he understood that we weren't the enemy.
48:54Went right past us, went up to the front of the harpoon boat, and just came surging out of the water twice, snapping,
49:01trying to get at the man who had the harpoon.
49:03And the man with the harpoon just reloaded, aimed it down, fired it right in his face, and he went down, and that was the end of it.
49:10The following year, the protest is renewed.
49:15In mid-Pacific, Greenpeace locates the same Soviet fleet, dominated by the 597-foot factory ship Dalny Vostov.
49:27In 1962, the peak of industrial whaling, more than two dozen gigantic factory ships like this scoured the oceans.
49:35Each could dismember and process a large whale within an hour.
49:39In just three years, such methods resulted in the death of more whales than in the peak 25 years of Yankee whaling.
49:46Again, the tactic is to maneuver the small boats between whale and harpoon, a nerve-wracking game of bluff and maneuver.
49:57But after a few skirmishes, the whalers, suddenly and surprisingly, relent.
50:04They were right on top of a pod of whales and closing in on them fast, and when we caught up with them, we got right in front,
50:15and the thing went on for a little while, and they swiveled the cannon around, and then finally, I guess they got an order from somewhere,
50:23and they stopped, slant, clicked the harpoon up, and put the pins in, and shut her down, and they've been sitting here ever since.
50:32They tried to start up again a couple of times, and then we got back in front of them, and they stopped again.
50:37So, they're stopped at the moment. We'll see what happens from here.
50:44In a strange interlude, a truce is tacitly observed.
50:47The hunt stops. Strangers meet in mid-ocean.
50:51They take photographs. Some wave and smile.
51:00Protest and political pressures against whaling will continue,
51:04and the rust-stained Soviet vessels testify that industrial whaling is becoming uneconomic as well as unpopular.
51:12It is possible that industrial whaling will come to an end within a few years.
51:16If it is not ended or severely controlled, few scientists could be optimistic about the survival of many of the great whales.
51:23In San Ignacio Lagoon, on the west coast of Mexico, one may glimpse the more tranquil future all whales could someday enjoy.
51:38After being almost wiped out twice before receiving protection from whaling,
51:45the California gray whale has made a slow but steady comeback.
51:49Now scientists, like Steve Swartz and Mary Lou Jones, pursue the grays,
51:56counting their replenished numbers and observing their behavior in the lagoon.
51:59It was traveling south.
52:01The Swartz study began routinely, a tedious experience familiar to everyone who has tried to get close to such inaccessible and elusive animals.
52:18But then, in February 1977, something happened.
52:28Something so remarkable it seemed almost like a dream.
52:31The tables were suddenly turned.
52:34It was the whales that were investigating the scientists.
52:37Swartz and his companions felt almost numb with astonishment as the whales grew bolder and came closer.
52:45Oh, there you go.
52:52Right underneath you again.
52:54It was really all I could do to see enough in the short amount of time that these first incidents took place.
53:01After spending years of watching whales at a distance and going out of my way to try and approach them and get close to them and take a picture
53:08or just to take a glimpse of what they were doing, here was a whale coming to me.
53:13So that was exciting.
53:15At the same time, it's not that often I'm around such a large animal, so there was fear.
53:20And here's this immense creature showing some sort of interest in the fact that we were there.
53:26The amazing thing about the first touch of the gray whale was the aliveness of the texture of the skin.
53:34The whale was, to my estimate, about 35 feet long, and yet the light touch of my fingertips sent a quiver along its entire length.
53:45And I think she was just as surprised as I was at the touch.
53:48As time passed, the whales seemed to take increasing delight in blowing bubbles, bumping the boats and drenching the camera lens.
54:03Soon, human apprehension gave way to a kind of joyous excitement, although the whales weighed 25 tons at least and could easily have caused disaster.
54:19Hold on. It's going to start to get rough.
54:26Here it comes.
54:31It's coming over.
54:37It is too soon to know the meaning of this incident, and dozens more like it that have been recorded in San Ignacio.
54:45But if our war against whales does come to an end, the future could hold fascinating possibilities.
54:52For in the universal language of behavior, both trust and communication often begin with a simple gesture.
55:01The touch.
55:22Let's go.
55:25Let's go.
55:29Let's go.
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