Around the world, I am sure the whale community is aware that they now have friends in Switzerland!

In an amazing and yet sane move by the Swiss government, officials have now banned the keeping of Dolphins in zoo aquariums in Switzerland.

Although a great family movie, the Big Miracle misses the big picture.

Although for some it is very old news, I saw the film “Big Miracle”, based on a true life story about three endangered Pacific Grey Whales trapped in Alaska and the rescue efforts to save them. The unfortunate thing is that the real message was watered down and overlooked!

As is usual with scriptwriters, the story was “much to do with Hollywood” and altered from the real story. The movie, although moving and portraying the mindsets of the people and cultures affected by the “whales plight”, did touch but touch upon the realities of current Inupiat life and the lust for power by oil barons.

The only ones not really represented or understood were the ones the story was really all about – whales! Read the rest of this entry »

Some times I amazed at the press and their PR antics.

You see this all too often. Sensationalism done for notoriety's sake.

Earlier this week, a YouTube video caught the eyes of people all over the internet world. The video captured two things if you look closely: the creation of a ‘bubble net’ used by Humpback whales to corral fish they are about to eat, and then the actual surfacing, or breaching, of Humpback whales between two kayakers and a woman on a paddle board.

It was a rare shot and actually a good one. But then the Press loves controversy:

“Woman Almost Swallowed by Whale!”

Well, sort of. Nearly doesn’t really say that she was swallowed. But anyone reading the headline bites the proverbial lie and goes to the site where such an untruth has been dealt. Read the rest of this entry »

A Gray Whale Juvenile looking out from the water at the boat

As a few of you may have already read about my trip, I have been promising (and been asked) for more pictures and more video.

So here is my first “crack” at a video (call it more a teaser trailer) of an overview of my trip:

The Whales of Baja from Jon Soeder on Vimeo.

To reiterate, in was an incredibly profound adventure and specifically for two reasons.

The first is that the whales came to us in the boat. We had no food, nothing of value that they wanted. But they still came and gently played beneath our boat and throughout the short visit, lift their huge head to look at us and to be touched by a human hand. That is profound in itself, simply because I don’t know where on earth a 40 ton mammal will do that!

I don’t believe any mammal except man that comes close. I don’t even think man does that with other races, much less his own. These mammoth beings could turn the boat over and wreak havoc on the participants. Instead, they lounge and play about the boat. They are gentle and peaceful. And for those skeptics, well, you will have to see for yourselves. Eight people on a boat witnessed this.

And that is not all.

The females with their calves (children) brought them (2 months old – 3 tons) to the boat. In two separate instances and on two separate days, with two different females, the females PUSHED their babies to our boats. They each lifted their children up to the surface! You could look through the clear water and watch this phenomena.

Suddenly you had a “baby” looking at you. And it was looking at YOU! The instinct was to reach out and touch it. And the baby allowed you, responding to your touch by letting you continue to touch it!

There are those of you who call these creatures wild animals. Well, I have to tell you, you are quite mistaken. We treat them as caged animals in Seaworld. BTW, Seaworld has nothing on this – wild whales that let you come up and touch them!

But these whales are free.

A friend of mine asked my why would a whale do this. Well I will tell you what I know.

Gray Whales know that man is now responsible for their ultimate survival.

And so the logical solution is to demonstrate their peacefulness to us – that they wish us no harm. And so they even bring their children to us to touch and possibly bond. And maybe, just maybe, some men and women will take that idea back and help give them a chance at life and living free.

I would love to call myself a romanticist. That would be easy and it would be the end of my story and my experience. Probably some of my readers (more astute and learned) will scoff at my statements. But when a whale comes to you, looks at YOU, and lets you touch it, for me there is no other explanation.

We owe whales a chance at being free, just like we are free. We need to cease the harvesting and hunting of whales.

It is a funny thing how man has evolved.

And it is just my opinion, mind you, but here goes.

Back when men wore loincloths and wielded clubs, he survived any way that he could. He had enough problems communicating with his own kind and due to the lack of food, sought anything and everything for shelter or for something to eat. He never really worried about other creatures, he only worried about his own existence.

Move forward a few thousand years. Man has learned technology. He has realized that he has a brain, which sets him apart from other creatures.  His societies and language grows as well as his ability to better survive the elements and feed himself and his family.

Read the rest of this entry »

The fascinating thing I find about “whalescience” is that there have originated some epiphanies regarding whales and by scientific men, believe it or not!

There comes a time, for example, in a cellular physiologist’s life where he/she faces the fact that he/she can tell you that a cell does this or that, what it does, but not WHY it does it, or how it knows how to do it.

It is the same with whales. Scientists have begun, in earnest, to study whales. And I agree that there is a big tendency of anthropomorphizing the whales’ activity as that is the way man does things. He compares actions and activities to himself and his feelings and attitudes with WHY a creature (other than a human) does things “similar” to man. Read the rest of this entry »

BECAUSE THEY CAN!

Women who have gone through menopause are not alone in living far past their ability to reproduce. This trait also been documented among killer whales and pilot whales.

You see, whales and humans live in family groups, and, over time, females develop an increasing stake in helping raise the offspring of others in their community.

The work, provides a supplemental explanation to the grandmother hypothesis (Cant & Johnsone), which suggests that evolution favored older women who used their knowledge and experience to benefit their relatives’ children.

But once a female has offspring and those offspring have bred their own, all within the same community, it becomes more advantageous for the female to help raise those offspring than to continue having her own children, Cant and Johnstone said.

Their new work will be published in the Dec. 22 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The whales’ story…

Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent blog of mine, I alerted you all to a recent change of possible events with a Humpback Whale being spotted in Madasgascar.

One of my readers asked, “is this dangerous?”

Interesting point. It is of no danger to the whale, in one sense. But my experience with some scientists and researchers is that they are very “set” in how they view things. When an unusual event occurs they immediately hypothesize, opinionate, etc., as to what could possibly be “wrong” with a whale being spotted in Madagascar.

Scientists, researchers and man know what is wrong with whales and dolphins. They have been monitoring whale migrations for years. They also have been tracking the numbers of whales each year and know that the whale population is decreasing, due to man. That is the danger. That is why all whales are endangered. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent newspaper article in the SPOKESMAN REVIEW, noted that a lone female humpback whale has confounded scientists by traveling a route completely opposite to the normal migration patterns of the species:

“While humpbacks normally migrate along a north-to-south axis to feed and mate, this one – affectionately called AHWC No. 1363 – made the unusual decision to check out a new continent thousands of miles to the east.

Marine ecologist Peter Stevick says it probably wasn’t love that motivated her – whales meet their partners at breeding sites, so it’s unlikely that this one was following a potential mate.

“It may be that this is an extreme example of exploration,” he said. “Or it could be that the animal got very lost.” Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists for many, many years have wondered about the question about whales songs. Behaviorists feel that whale songs are learned whale behavior and nothing else. Yet in recent years, marine researchers have recognized and tracked specific whales, noting that each year, whale songs do change over time. A whale’s basic song stays the same, but there are noticeable changes in the pitch sound and melody in the whale’s song.

I have had several profound encounters with whales. Prior to having actual contact with them, I was always fascinated with their songs. It was if there was a communication being spoken, but what was it?

It’s funny, you know. We have Hollywood movies built around creating languages. Special linguists develop alien languages and these language specialists are paid huge amounts of money to create new languages which seem to communicate (these fake languages are even subtitled in English!). And yet in hearing a REAL new language on this planet, one that has been around for thousands of years, we can’t always decipher what is being said. Why is that?

How many years did it take us to decipher the Babylonian language, much less Egyptian? It was only with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone that man was then able to discover his roots. Read the rest of this entry »