WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:03:18.407 --> 00:03:20.993 "I'm trying to start a conversation," 4 00:03:21.076 --> 00:03:24.913 is the most basic way you can say it. 5 00:03:29.543 --> 00:03:32.796 I am going to put a speaker in the ocean and talk to a whale 6 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:34.548 and hope it talks back. 7 00:03:46.101 --> 00:03:48.395 If this work is successful, 8 00:03:48.979 --> 00:03:51.732 it will be the first experiment 9 00:03:51.815 --> 00:03:55.027 where we have actively engaged in a dialogue with a humpback whale. 10 00:04:49.581 --> 00:04:52.626 People have been studying humpback song for 40, 50 years. 11 00:04:56.505 --> 00:05:00.926 And still, no one really knows why they sing. 12 00:05:20.988 --> 00:05:22.281 Birds have song. 13 00:05:24.116 --> 00:05:25.576 And other whales have song. 14 00:05:28.912 --> 00:05:33.250 But humpback song... is even more elaborate. 15 00:05:37.087 --> 00:05:38.088 They have rhythm. 16 00:05:40.632 --> 00:05:41.842 Timed breathing. 17 00:05:45.262 --> 00:05:47.306 Rhyming and repetition. 18 00:05:56.190 --> 00:05:58.525 Hours of patterns within patterns. 19 00:06:01.987 --> 00:06:05.073 With no clear beginning or end. 20 00:06:09.536 --> 00:06:12.789 I think humpback song is complex communication... 21 00:06:14.499 --> 00:06:17.419 on a scale that has no analog that we know of. 22 00:06:21.131 --> 00:06:22.508 Except us. 23 00:06:45.822 --> 00:06:48.408 My stepfather was a classical pianist. 24 00:06:53.247 --> 00:06:55.541 When he sat down to teach me the piano, 25 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.421 he told me to play one note and to close my eyes and listen... 26 00:07:04.758 --> 00:07:06.301 until the sound disappeared. 27 00:07:12.307 --> 00:07:16.645 He wanted me to understand the sound by experiencing it. 28 00:07:28.782 --> 00:07:30.993 This is a lot easier when you're on land. 29 00:07:31.827 --> 00:07:34.288 So then you go to set the timer. 30 00:07:35.998 --> 00:07:38.458 So this system communicates with this box? 31 00:07:39.543 --> 00:07:43.213 Took ten years to lay the groundwork 32 00:07:43.297 --> 00:07:48.886 before we could even begin to build the playback files to play to the whales. 33 00:07:52.723 --> 00:07:55.601 -Good. It's live. -Nice. 34 00:08:01.315 --> 00:08:02.357 Oh, yeah. 35 00:08:02.441 --> 00:08:03.859 -It's working? -Yeah. Very well. 36 00:08:03.942 --> 00:08:05.277 -Great. Good. -Okay. 37 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:07.154 -Power on? -Power's on. 38 00:08:08.572 --> 00:08:09.698 Yes. 39 00:08:18.165 --> 00:08:20.667 Yeah, that's the one it's gonna struggle with. 40 00:08:21.835 --> 00:08:24.087 That's it. This is the-- That's the playback call. 41 00:08:24.171 --> 00:08:26.423 That was the actual call that we will be playing-- 42 00:08:26.507 --> 00:08:27.799 Or one of the calls. 43 00:08:28.675 --> 00:08:30.594 Yeah, we'll need to adjust it a little bit. 44 00:08:30.677 --> 00:08:33.804 Yeah. I mean, we could reduce the volume. 45 00:08:34.681 --> 00:08:35.933 Maybe-- 46 00:08:36.850 --> 00:08:39.520 Something's clipping. You may need to adjust. 47 00:08:39.602 --> 00:08:41.897 -Well, it's clipping from the recording. -Oh, okay. 48 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:43.815 Yeah. The clipping's from the recording. 49 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:48.028 So these recordings haven't been filtered, they haven't been adjusted at all. 50 00:08:53.450 --> 00:08:54.701 That's good. 51 00:08:58.539 --> 00:09:01.124 -Something's not quite right. -No. Something's not right. 52 00:09:01.208 --> 00:09:03.418 I am trying to fool the whale. 53 00:09:04.920 --> 00:09:06.797 I should be transparent about that. 54 00:09:09.383 --> 00:09:11.343 I'm trying to convince the humpback 55 00:09:11.426 --> 00:09:14.805 that there is another whale in the water that is vocalizing. 56 00:09:16.306 --> 00:09:20.394 We were just brainstorming a few things, and we might have stumbled upon... 57 00:09:21.228 --> 00:09:25.440 So playback experiments in the past made a lot of terrible sounds by accident. 58 00:09:27.109 --> 00:09:31.113 This is how it works. For half of the verse it's the real song. 59 00:09:33.949 --> 00:09:35.701 The last time they did playbacks, 60 00:09:35.784 --> 00:09:37.995 they ended up sounding like a humpback whale on helium. 61 00:09:38.078 --> 00:09:39.997 And this is the reconstructed one. 62 00:09:43.166 --> 00:09:45.586 And then they wondered why no one responded. 63 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:48.422 -You clear out everything. -Yeah, you lose all the noise. 64 00:09:48.505 --> 00:09:50.048 And here you have the waveform. 65 00:09:50.132 --> 00:09:52.968 Blue is the input and red is what we're listening to now. 66 00:09:53.051 --> 00:09:55.053 -And red is what we're hearing now. -Yeah. 67 00:09:55.137 --> 00:09:57.723 And you basically are just working with signal? 68 00:09:57.806 --> 00:10:00.142 So, you don't have any issues with the spectrogram? 69 00:10:01.226 --> 00:10:04.688 All the clicks and everything would be thrown away. 70 00:10:04.771 --> 00:10:06.398 That's a great idea. 71 00:10:06.481 --> 00:10:11.528 The only issue I see is that most humpback calls aren't tonal. 72 00:10:12.487 --> 00:10:14.781 I mean, they're amplitude-modulated calls. 73 00:10:14.865 --> 00:10:17.826 And they're short. So a lot of them are these sort of... 74 00:10:20.871 --> 00:10:22.956 calls that aren't harmonic and aren't tonal. 75 00:10:23.040 --> 00:10:24.249 That's amazing. 76 00:10:24.791 --> 00:10:26.418 You do it real well. 77 00:10:26.502 --> 00:10:29.755 Then it's just, again, I think, gonna be about clarity. 78 00:10:30.964 --> 00:10:32.591 -I think we should try it. -Yeah. 79 00:10:39.056 --> 00:10:43.101 If you were to listen to all the whales around the world at the same time, 80 00:10:44.561 --> 00:10:46.480 most of those sounds would be calls. 81 00:10:48.398 --> 00:10:51.902 Sometimes they occur in series that change order. 82 00:10:51.985 --> 00:10:54.488 Sometimes they occur one by one. 83 00:10:59.701 --> 00:11:00.869 But they're short. 84 00:11:01.662 --> 00:11:04.039 And we understand very little about them. 85 00:11:07.334 --> 00:11:09.169 But of all of the humpback calls... 86 00:11:10.087 --> 00:11:12.172 I think one is the most important. 87 00:11:16.468 --> 00:11:17.719 The whup. 88 00:11:21.098 --> 00:11:24.852 This call is produced, we think, by everyone. 89 00:11:26.228 --> 00:11:30.232 This is an animal that has the potential to produce infinite numbers of calls. 90 00:11:33.151 --> 00:11:35.654 Why is this call unique? 91 00:11:35.737 --> 00:11:37.531 Why is this call special? 92 00:11:38.115 --> 00:11:41.618 And the best way to start finding that out 93 00:11:41.702 --> 00:11:44.621 is by playing it to a whale and seeing how the whale responds. 94 00:12:00.053 --> 00:12:02.222 This is the question I've been preparing for. 95 00:12:05.559 --> 00:12:08.979 This is the one that I fought for when I was 25 and I started this. 96 00:12:11.565 --> 00:12:16.028 And this was the one that I rallied for when I started my PhD. 97 00:12:20.073 --> 00:12:22.993 And I have to make sure the science is impeccable. 98 00:12:33.795 --> 00:12:36.507 This is the very beginning of how we understand 99 00:12:36.590 --> 00:12:39.927 how humpback whales perceive the world. 100 00:12:41.595 --> 00:12:45.849 And how humpback whales perceive each other through sound. 101 00:13:11.625 --> 00:13:13.252 My mum loved the ocean. 102 00:13:18.298 --> 00:13:20.342 And she always wanted to be an oceanographer, 103 00:13:20.425 --> 00:13:22.928 but women weren't allowed out on boats. 104 00:13:25.097 --> 00:13:27.015 So she became a geographer instead. 105 00:13:32.813 --> 00:13:35.691 She never lost her love of the ocean, and she definitely... 106 00:13:37.150 --> 00:13:38.735 transmitted that on to me. 107 00:13:46.410 --> 00:13:49.121 Exactly. That's an important thing. 108 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.585 Noting the weird, noting the different, is the best thing you can do. 109 00:13:54.668 --> 00:13:56.920 Because that will jump out at you 110 00:13:57.004 --> 00:14:00.257 if we notice these individual-level differences. 111 00:14:01.049 --> 00:14:02.593 Make a note. 112 00:14:02.676 --> 00:14:07.055 Scientists had always thought that songs were only used for mating. 113 00:14:07.139 --> 00:14:08.765 We got a nice pattern. 114 00:14:08.849 --> 00:14:12.186 So, a violin, a bark, 115 00:14:12.269 --> 00:14:14.229 and I'm pretty sure that's gonna be a whup. 116 00:14:14.313 --> 00:14:17.399 So these are, like, three perfect exam-- 117 00:14:25.032 --> 00:14:28.452 But as I listened to a decade of recordings from the South Pacific, 118 00:14:28.535 --> 00:14:30.370 I saw the same songs turning up 119 00:14:30.454 --> 00:14:33.040 in populations separated by hundreds of miles. 120 00:14:34.041 --> 00:14:37.044 But it's important that we're seeing the structure, right. 121 00:14:37.127 --> 00:14:40.672 So we've got a big squeak, and then a lower frequency unit, 122 00:14:40.756 --> 00:14:43.592 then the big squeak and some lower frequency. 123 00:14:43.675 --> 00:14:46.094 And so, if you think about it as a structural thing... 124 00:14:47.262 --> 00:14:50.724 I've realized song had to be much more than just mating. 125 00:14:54.520 --> 00:14:56.647 Small changes are introduced to the song. 126 00:14:59.525 --> 00:15:03.946 And then all of the singers learn those changes and the song evolves. 127 00:15:05.739 --> 00:15:06.949 It steps forward. 128 00:15:08.909 --> 00:15:12.037 Songs are then passed across distant populations. 129 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:15.499 And as this repeats, 130 00:15:15.582 --> 00:15:20.045 they become the shape of what thousands of whales sound like collectively. 131 00:15:23.715 --> 00:15:26.635 All of this is a cultural phenomenon. 132 00:15:28.095 --> 00:15:29.471 So, from Australia, 133 00:15:29.555 --> 00:15:33.267 it first spreads to New Caledonia, 800 miles away. 134 00:15:34.935 --> 00:15:37.646 They all learn the song within a couple of months, 135 00:15:37.729 --> 00:15:40.065 which is ridiculous that animals can learn 136 00:15:40.148 --> 00:15:43.443 this very long, complex display so rapidly. 137 00:15:45.612 --> 00:15:49.116 The songs go from west to east every time, 138 00:15:49.199 --> 00:15:52.035 connecting an ocean of whales with culture. 139 00:15:54.746 --> 00:15:56.248 I'm trying to complete a map 140 00:15:56.331 --> 00:15:58.959 of where song sharing is found in the South Pacific. 141 00:16:01.587 --> 00:16:03.088 To find its edges. 142 00:16:05.299 --> 00:16:08.135 To find out where this humpback culture ends. 143 00:16:42.836 --> 00:16:46.131 -Enough? No ways. -No, I think that's enough. Stuff it in. 144 00:16:46.215 --> 00:16:48.425 Come on, Zin. What's this? 145 00:16:50.802 --> 00:16:52.054 Up here. 146 00:16:53.430 --> 00:16:54.598 What do you think, Zin? 147 00:16:56.683 --> 00:16:58.018 Seem all right? 148 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:03.440 Fieldwork's always a challenge, 149 00:17:03.524 --> 00:17:07.653 'cause you're away from people you care about. 150 00:17:10.739 --> 00:17:12.950 But I thought... 151 00:17:13.032 --> 00:17:17.412 On occasion, I've managed to get Matt to come to the field site with me. 152 00:17:20.207 --> 00:17:22.125 And we discovered he gets seasick on boats. 153 00:17:22.209 --> 00:17:24.502 So... that didn't work so well. 154 00:17:25.087 --> 00:17:26.672 You need to put the stove fire off. 155 00:17:26.755 --> 00:17:28.549 -I know, I know, I know! -See the smoke? 156 00:17:29.591 --> 00:17:30.759 Did you open the-- Yeah. 157 00:17:30.843 --> 00:17:33.095 Step one, Ellen always sets off the smoke alarms. 158 00:17:36.098 --> 00:17:38.058 -You all right? -Yeah. 159 00:17:41.311 --> 00:17:42.563 Thanks, buddy. 160 00:17:45.524 --> 00:17:47.484 I don't even know where to start. Okay. 161 00:17:48.443 --> 00:17:49.820 -Delegate, Ellen. -Pardon? 162 00:17:49.903 --> 00:17:52.865 Delegate. Delegate things to me. 163 00:17:52.948 --> 00:17:54.157 Okay. 164 00:17:54.241 --> 00:17:58.620 Can you get all the stuff off the washing line that is dry. 165 00:17:58.704 --> 00:17:59.830 Yes, I can. 166 00:18:03.208 --> 00:18:07.546 You know, we have absolute minimal communication coming up, 167 00:18:07.629 --> 00:18:08.714 and that sucks. 168 00:18:08.797 --> 00:18:10.090 And it's really hard. 169 00:18:10.174 --> 00:18:12.426 And I think it's much harder for you than me, 170 00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:16.471 because I'm surrounded constantly by people-- by the team. 171 00:18:17.097 --> 00:18:19.016 Plus, you've got something to do, right? 172 00:18:19.099 --> 00:18:21.768 There's no rest, really, on fieldwork. 173 00:18:21.852 --> 00:18:25.189 When you're really interested in something and really passionate about it, 174 00:18:25.272 --> 00:18:27.608 it's just the obvious thing you want to do. 175 00:18:27.691 --> 00:18:29.359 I love being in the field. 176 00:18:30.110 --> 00:18:33.363 It makes me super happy, and I absolutely love it. 177 00:18:33.447 --> 00:18:36.450 And I wouldn't want to stop doing that, 178 00:18:36.533 --> 00:18:38.243 but it is really hard to go away. 179 00:18:38.327 --> 00:18:41.079 It's just best to try and not think about it, I guess. 180 00:18:48.086 --> 00:18:49.379 Okay. 181 00:18:51.173 --> 00:18:52.466 Come here. 182 00:18:53.383 --> 00:18:54.468 There we go. 183 00:19:48.146 --> 00:19:51.108 Four hydrophones. Check. Remote. Check. 184 00:19:51.191 --> 00:19:54.403 Four dry bags with collars and GPS units. Check. 185 00:19:54.486 --> 00:19:59.324 Tracker, check. Small black dry bag with boat GPS unit, check. 186 00:19:59.408 --> 00:20:02.452 iPad, check. Green towel is in the backpack. 187 00:20:02.536 --> 00:20:04.288 Goal Zero battery with charging cords 188 00:20:04.371 --> 00:20:06.832 and a Goal Zero solar panel are both in the backpack. 189 00:20:06.915 --> 00:20:08.750 -Black Pelican. -Check. 190 00:20:08.834 --> 00:20:10.961 With camera-- I checked it this morning. 191 00:20:11.044 --> 00:20:13.255 Camera, binos, an extra nine-volt camera battery 192 00:20:13.338 --> 00:20:15.174 and double-A batteries are all in there. 193 00:20:15.257 --> 00:20:19.803 Awesome. Big yellow dry bag, rain jackets, lunch snacks. 194 00:20:19.887 --> 00:20:21.388 Check, check, check. 195 00:20:21.471 --> 00:20:24.683 Okay. Playback speaker. Four life jackets. 196 00:20:24.766 --> 00:20:25.767 Yep. 197 00:20:25.851 --> 00:20:27.519 -Two radios. -Check. 198 00:20:28.687 --> 00:20:31.398 -Personal dry bags and water bottles. -Water. 199 00:20:32.024 --> 00:20:33.483 I've got my water bottles full. 200 00:20:33.567 --> 00:20:35.110 Sunscreen. 201 00:20:35.194 --> 00:20:37.404 Oh, sunscreen, which I wrote on the list. 202 00:20:37.487 --> 00:20:40.490 It's in the bag. We should put it on our faces. 203 00:20:47.289 --> 00:20:52.336 We'll do our first survey down south, and then we'll work our way north. 204 00:20:52.419 --> 00:20:53.754 Okay. 205 00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:02.804 When you're in a place of such beauty, it's easy to forget... 206 00:21:04.306 --> 00:21:06.391 the whales could capsize us. 207 00:21:07.559 --> 00:21:09.811 And the water is cold enough that we would die. 208 00:21:50.227 --> 00:21:51.854 There's somebody out there. 209 00:21:51.937 --> 00:21:53.063 For sure. 210 00:22:02.239 --> 00:22:06.118 In past seasons, I've gone weeks without seeing any whales. 211 00:22:07.744 --> 00:22:11.123 This year we have only a month to survey at least 30. 212 00:22:22.634 --> 00:22:27.181 Okay, hydrophones, it is 10:28, August 11th. 213 00:22:27.264 --> 00:22:30.309 This is Dr. Leanna Matthews here with Dr. Michelle Fournet. 214 00:22:30.392 --> 00:22:32.477 I'm going to clap three times. 215 00:22:37.107 --> 00:22:39.109 Each playback takes one hour. 216 00:22:44.489 --> 00:22:47.576 Below, we'll acoustically track one whale with hydrophones 217 00:22:47.659 --> 00:22:50.162 while our speaker plays whups. 218 00:22:52.623 --> 00:22:54.041 Starting playback. 219 00:22:56.043 --> 00:23:00.047 And above, we'll note everything we see one whale do. 220 00:23:00.130 --> 00:23:01.632 This is called a focal follow. 221 00:23:03.509 --> 00:23:07.596 By linking behaviors we see at the surface with recordings below the water, 222 00:23:08.222 --> 00:23:12.434 I'll have a complete picture of how the whale is responding to our playbacks. 223 00:23:12.518 --> 00:23:15.270 -We'll start at first surface. -Yeah. 224 00:23:34.289 --> 00:23:36.375 Feel like she's gonna pop up right next to us. 225 00:23:36.458 --> 00:23:37.835 Yeah. 226 00:23:54.059 --> 00:23:55.561 Start survey. 227 00:23:55.644 --> 00:23:58.772 First surface. Southwest, 76.2. 228 00:24:05.821 --> 00:24:06.947 Blow. 229 00:24:07.030 --> 00:24:08.866 Never mind. Scratch that. Not our whale. 230 00:24:08.949 --> 00:24:10.659 -That's not our whale. -No. 231 00:24:11.410 --> 00:24:13.871 Blow. West. 232 00:24:14.955 --> 00:24:16.039 50.1. 233 00:24:22.296 --> 00:24:25.090 Blow. Northwest. 234 00:24:28.468 --> 00:24:31.138 Dive. 36.3. 235 00:24:33.182 --> 00:24:34.183 150. 236 00:24:35.017 --> 00:24:37.019 -It is our whale. -Yeah. That's our whale. 237 00:24:37.102 --> 00:24:39.188 Okay. A little white on the dorsal. 238 00:24:39.271 --> 00:24:40.272 -Right? -Yeah. 239 00:24:40.355 --> 00:24:42.024 Yeah. The fluke just made me feel better. 240 00:24:42.107 --> 00:24:43.859 'Cause that other whale was also a black-fluke whale. 241 00:24:43.942 --> 00:24:45.485 I noticed that, and I was like, "Oh, my God." 242 00:24:45.569 --> 00:24:47.404 -But no. This is our whale. -And that was the right fluke. 243 00:24:47.487 --> 00:24:48.822 -That was the right fluke. -Yeah. 244 00:24:48.906 --> 00:24:51.408 Black fluke with kind of speckles. Barnacles on the top. 245 00:24:51.491 --> 00:24:53.160 -Yep. Yep. -Yeah. 246 00:24:53.243 --> 00:24:55.370 Okay. That's the end of our survey. 247 00:25:05.714 --> 00:25:06.965 -Contact. -Contact. 248 00:25:07.049 --> 00:25:09.384 -Contact. -Contact. 249 00:25:09.468 --> 00:25:11.094 -Contact. -Contact. 250 00:25:11.178 --> 00:25:12.513 Contact. 251 00:25:31.406 --> 00:25:33.825 Does anybody mind if I take the cheddar one? 252 00:25:33.909 --> 00:25:35.285 Go for it. 253 00:25:39.456 --> 00:25:42.167 Are you guys disappointed that I'm not taking us down there? 254 00:25:43.669 --> 00:25:45.379 -No. -Okay. 255 00:25:45.462 --> 00:25:46.672 It's intentional. 256 00:25:47.548 --> 00:25:49.716 There are too many whales down there. 257 00:25:49.800 --> 00:25:51.552 I don't think we should go down there. 258 00:25:51.635 --> 00:25:53.428 It could get really confusing. 259 00:26:03.981 --> 00:26:05.524 -That's not our whale. -Correct. 260 00:26:07.067 --> 00:26:08.235 That's not our whale. 261 00:26:10.404 --> 00:26:12.322 -These two are not our whales. -Correct. 262 00:26:27.462 --> 00:26:29.548 Oh, what about that splashing whale? 263 00:26:29.631 --> 00:26:30.799 -Yeah. -That's our whale. 264 00:26:31.592 --> 00:26:35.220 Surface. First surface, 185.2. 265 00:26:37.181 --> 00:26:38.182 200. 266 00:26:39.266 --> 00:26:40.851 I'm pretty sure it's our whale. 267 00:26:41.977 --> 00:26:43.770 I'm gonna try and get it in the binos. 268 00:26:49.526 --> 00:26:50.944 Blow. 269 00:26:51.028 --> 00:26:53.655 South, 178.5. 270 00:26:53.739 --> 00:26:56.074 -400. The closer one, yeah? -Yep. 271 00:27:04.208 --> 00:27:06.668 -That's not our whale. -That's not our whale. 272 00:27:07.544 --> 00:27:09.796 Delete that whole last surfacing. 273 00:27:15.677 --> 00:27:19.431 This study has a high probability of failure. 274 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:25.229 The logistics are really complicated. 275 00:27:31.443 --> 00:27:35.781 When there are multiple whales, it's really hard to track just one. 276 00:27:58.095 --> 00:28:03.433 It's the idea that I might be able to contribute to this knowledge. 277 00:28:03.517 --> 00:28:07.479 That that might be my little piece that I can help with the puzzle. 278 00:28:10.190 --> 00:28:15.612 Even in the hardest field season or the crappiest day, 279 00:28:15.696 --> 00:28:17.698 it gets me out of bed every morning. 280 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:22.035 I'm a nerdy scientist... 281 00:28:23.620 --> 00:28:25.080 trying to understand our planet, 282 00:28:25.163 --> 00:28:27.416 trying to understand all the animals on our planet 283 00:28:27.499 --> 00:28:29.418 before they disappear. 284 00:28:37.926 --> 00:28:41.430 So, you haven't had much instruction with a hydrophone before? 285 00:28:41.513 --> 00:28:43.348 -Not much, no. -Okay, cool. 286 00:28:43.432 --> 00:28:48.520 So, general idea, this part can't get wet, that part has to go underwater. 287 00:28:50.147 --> 00:28:52.649 These take ages to wake up on stamina mode. 288 00:28:52.733 --> 00:28:53.734 Yeah, right. 289 00:28:54.443 --> 00:28:56.069 I can hear that through there. 290 00:28:58.989 --> 00:29:01.533 Yeah, that's definitely doing well. 291 00:29:02.534 --> 00:29:07.080 So the whole idea is you pop on a piece of tape, 292 00:29:07.164 --> 00:29:10.626 and then you want to wind it tight but not too tight. 293 00:29:10.709 --> 00:29:12.794 -Right. -You don't wanna strangulate the cord. 294 00:29:12.878 --> 00:29:14.087 Okay. 295 00:29:14.171 --> 00:29:16.965 And the idea for this is to reduce the water frequency rumble? 296 00:29:17.049 --> 00:29:19.009 -That was what you were saying? -Yeah. It... 297 00:29:19.092 --> 00:29:21.678 -reduces those low-frequency vibrations. -Yeah. 298 00:29:21.762 --> 00:29:25.557 So, yeah, this has been passed down from my supervisor's supervisor 299 00:29:25.641 --> 00:29:30.062 to him, to myself, and now I'm sort of introducing it to our lab. 300 00:29:30.145 --> 00:29:31.522 So it's the-- 301 00:29:31.605 --> 00:29:34.608 It's the Australian technique, shall we say. 302 00:29:34.691 --> 00:29:37.194 -Yeah. No, that's perfect. -Okay. 303 00:29:37.861 --> 00:29:39.363 Now we just need the whales. 304 00:29:41.532 --> 00:29:43.659 Yeah, I'm very happy to see you too. 305 00:29:43.742 --> 00:29:46.286 -So glad we can come out with you. -Long time. 306 00:29:46.370 --> 00:29:48.413 I know, I know. It's been ages. Yeah, so... 307 00:29:48.497 --> 00:29:50.374 I only have a couple of weeks, 308 00:29:50.457 --> 00:29:53.961 and I need to get high-quality recordings from different whales, 309 00:29:54.920 --> 00:29:56.338 so I know what's being sung. 310 00:30:12.020 --> 00:30:13.730 Sorry about that. What do you reckon? 311 00:30:13.814 --> 00:30:17.276 Maybe try there. For the sound, is better. 312 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:19.570 -Yeah. Sounds like-- -And after we can go... 313 00:30:19.653 --> 00:30:20.946 Yeah. That's the best idea. 314 00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:43.093 -Happy to go in? -Yep, ready to go in. 315 00:30:52.811 --> 00:30:56.815 -Uncoil it-- Yep. Perfect. -There we are. 316 00:30:56.899 --> 00:30:59.359 -Right. We're gonna start listening now. -Okay. 317 00:31:06.283 --> 00:31:08.327 I'm listening at level 95. 318 00:31:21.298 --> 00:31:23.675 It may be at the very edge of my hearing. 319 00:31:24.426 --> 00:31:25.928 It might be, yeah. 320 00:31:26.011 --> 00:31:28.305 It's a game of acoustic hide-and-seek. 321 00:31:29.348 --> 00:31:32.893 Let's let all of the-- Yeah, all the cable out. 322 00:31:32.976 --> 00:31:34.811 'Cause it's not sitting vertical, 323 00:31:34.895 --> 00:31:38.023 and I'd rather get as much depth as we can. 324 00:31:39.441 --> 00:31:41.902 Below the surface, a song can be heard 325 00:31:41.985 --> 00:31:45.072 by other whales for dozens of miles. 326 00:31:45.155 --> 00:31:49.743 But my hydrophone struggles to record clearly beyond a mile or two. 327 00:31:56.041 --> 00:31:59.878 Okay. I'm gonna stop that now. File 001. 328 00:32:00.963 --> 00:32:02.798 -Feel it from this way. -Yeah. 329 00:32:08.303 --> 00:32:10.430 The whales sing outside the reef, 330 00:32:10.514 --> 00:32:12.808 but the deeper waters can get so big 331 00:32:12.891 --> 00:32:15.602 that if you're not careful, it could sink the boat. 332 00:32:16.937 --> 00:32:19.481 Let's try down-- Over there. 333 00:32:20.774 --> 00:32:24.653 The water is a window, but it's also a wall. 334 00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:36.915 We can confirm we do have singing going on, 335 00:32:36.999 --> 00:32:39.877 but it is poor to very poor. 336 00:32:39.960 --> 00:32:44.214 Which means he's a long way out. We can't go into that, unfortunately. 337 00:33:08.614 --> 00:33:12.868 Ten years in Alaska and I have never seen so many whales. 338 00:33:13.702 --> 00:33:17.039 I think we're doing a disservice to the playback if we don't... 339 00:33:17.831 --> 00:33:18.832 do a scan. 340 00:33:18.916 --> 00:33:21.126 Like, we're focal following this animal 341 00:33:21.210 --> 00:33:24.046 and doing a playback to this animal, 342 00:33:24.129 --> 00:33:26.882 but that's not the only animal that hears this playback. 343 00:33:26.965 --> 00:33:29.760 Which means that what the animal does is going to change. 344 00:33:29.843 --> 00:33:32.387 Because you and I having a dialogue alone 345 00:33:32.471 --> 00:33:36.517 versus you and I having a dialogue with a group of people 346 00:33:36.600 --> 00:33:38.560 is going to change how much we contribute. 347 00:33:38.644 --> 00:33:40.312 -Yes! -And how much we pay attention. 348 00:33:40.395 --> 00:33:42.481 I think we're having trouble letting go. 349 00:33:42.564 --> 00:33:45.734 Sure. We spent weeks-- I spent months-- I spent years... 350 00:33:45.817 --> 00:33:49.571 -A long time. -...designing these focal follows. 351 00:33:49.655 --> 00:33:52.491 -But when you get there and you do it... -It changes. 352 00:33:52.574 --> 00:33:54.910 ...and you're seeing all these other things... 353 00:33:54.993 --> 00:33:57.621 It doesn't matter how much time I spent designing it. 354 00:33:57.704 --> 00:34:00.415 So what it the most elegant way 355 00:34:00.499 --> 00:34:03.919 to be certain about something we see in nature 356 00:34:04.002 --> 00:34:08.257 without exaggerating it, without hoping for it? 357 00:34:09.132 --> 00:34:12.678 And I feel like, in terms of that question... 358 00:34:14.554 --> 00:34:21.270 A scan is the simplest way to capture the response of a playback. 359 00:34:22.563 --> 00:34:23.772 Strong pivot. 360 00:34:24.898 --> 00:34:25.983 Very strong. 361 00:34:31.362 --> 00:34:32.989 -I think we're-- -Hey, Maggie. 362 00:34:33.072 --> 00:34:35.284 We're making some changes to the protocol. 363 00:34:35.367 --> 00:34:37.369 -It's gonna be scans. -Just scans? 364 00:34:37.452 --> 00:34:38.704 -Yes. -Scans only? 365 00:34:38.786 --> 00:34:40.163 Scans only. 366 00:34:41.206 --> 00:34:44.001 I thought I was only gonna have one whale, 367 00:34:44.083 --> 00:34:47.713 so it made a lot of sense to look at what one whale did. 368 00:34:49.922 --> 00:34:54.678 Instead, I have lots of whales, which was an unexpected surprise. 369 00:34:56.889 --> 00:34:59.433 So I need to know whether or not 370 00:34:59.516 --> 00:35:02.978 the number of whups that each whale is producing 371 00:35:03.061 --> 00:35:05.189 goes up when I produce a whup. 372 00:35:08.358 --> 00:35:11.486 And the best way to do this is to start doing scans. 373 00:35:13.197 --> 00:35:15.908 I mark every whale that I can see all around me. 374 00:35:17.868 --> 00:35:20.954 If, on average, how many whups each whale is making 375 00:35:21.038 --> 00:35:23.498 goes up when I produce a whup call... 376 00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.546 that's really strong evidence that they're using whups to make contact. 377 00:36:20.138 --> 00:36:21.723 Starting playback. 378 00:36:55.924 --> 00:36:56.925 Okay. 379 00:37:01.221 --> 00:37:03.682 We're gonna head that way to give some space. 380 00:37:03.765 --> 00:37:07.644 And then we'll cut back. Slow, we're gonna go slow. 381 00:37:15.402 --> 00:37:18.780 -Thirty seconds out from playback. -Thank you. Thirty seconds. 382 00:37:26.580 --> 00:37:31.126 Group size, four. 131, 500. 383 00:37:33.295 --> 00:37:38.717 Group size, two. 154, 1,000. 384 00:37:38.800 --> 00:37:41.386 145. Group size, two. 385 00:37:41.470 --> 00:37:43.805 -Can you slow down just a little? -Barely. 386 00:37:45.015 --> 00:37:47.100 Range, 200. 387 00:37:47.184 --> 00:37:48.852 Please repeat that azimuth. 388 00:37:48.936 --> 00:37:50.229 142. 389 00:37:51.939 --> 00:37:53.565 Group size, two... 390 00:37:58.403 --> 00:38:00.531 250 yards. 391 00:38:00.614 --> 00:38:03.909 185. Group size, one. 392 00:38:05.202 --> 00:38:09.331 -Please repeat that. I'm sorry. -185. Group size, one. 250 yards. 393 00:38:12.042 --> 00:38:15.379 200 yards. Group size, one. 256. 394 00:38:15.462 --> 00:38:18.382 I am at group size four at 1,000. 395 00:38:19.383 --> 00:38:21.635 -What was the azimuth? -I don't know. 396 00:38:23.762 --> 00:38:25.889 All right. Let's stop and start over. 397 00:38:26.640 --> 00:38:31.562 It's really, really fast, and I haven't had time to really look at this. 398 00:38:31.645 --> 00:38:33.188 I know. And it's-- 399 00:38:33.272 --> 00:38:35.482 Let's delete all of those and start again. 400 00:38:38.527 --> 00:38:41.655 As hard as that was, it was easier. 401 00:38:43.740 --> 00:38:46.618 Than trying to focal follow one animal in all of that? 402 00:38:46.702 --> 00:38:48.912 Yeah. Look at these guys. Look at that. 403 00:39:00.591 --> 00:39:02.426 All right. Start survey. 404 00:39:05.220 --> 00:39:08.348 All right. Group size, three. 159. 405 00:39:22.696 --> 00:39:24.239 I kind of wanna see us. 406 00:39:24.907 --> 00:39:26.992 -When did we start playing back? -11:32. 407 00:39:32.873 --> 00:39:35.667 -That sounds right. -I think that's us. It's quiet. 408 00:39:35.751 --> 00:39:37.669 But again, like, it fits right in. 409 00:39:37.753 --> 00:39:40.631 It fits right in. Oh, yeah. It sounds very, very realistic. 410 00:39:43.675 --> 00:39:44.801 Yeah. 411 00:39:51.225 --> 00:39:52.893 -That's not us. -No, it's not. 412 00:39:52.976 --> 00:39:55.020 -No, we're over here. This is us. -Yeah. 413 00:40:01.443 --> 00:40:04.279 I think the whup is a kind of hello to them. 414 00:40:05.364 --> 00:40:09.409 Possibly, "Hello, I am..." 415 00:40:11.954 --> 00:40:13.330 Which raises the question... 416 00:40:15.207 --> 00:40:17.209 if each whale has their own whup... 417 00:40:18.544 --> 00:40:20.546 could they use it to identify each other? 418 00:40:25.509 --> 00:40:28.637 This is why I'm playing this sound. 419 00:40:29.555 --> 00:40:31.598 Before you can have the conversation... 420 00:40:33.308 --> 00:40:34.977 it helps to introduce yourself. 421 00:40:37.104 --> 00:40:40.232 So, what else did we find in here? 422 00:40:40.315 --> 00:40:43.819 We wanted to see if they were whupping before we started whupping, right? 423 00:40:44.361 --> 00:40:46.363 -That's us. -And that's us. 424 00:40:46.446 --> 00:40:49.241 We don't see a lot of whupping before we started whupping. 425 00:40:54.329 --> 00:40:56.123 They insist on calling back. 426 00:41:02.045 --> 00:41:03.881 Now, it could just be random chance. 427 00:41:03.964 --> 00:41:05.465 Here they go again. 428 00:41:13.056 --> 00:41:14.224 -Oh, Leanna. -What's up? 429 00:41:14.308 --> 00:41:15.809 -Here, come here. -Okay. 430 00:41:15.893 --> 00:41:19.062 -Maggie. We need a push. -Oh, God. 431 00:41:20.147 --> 00:41:21.690 -Oh, God. -We hit the ground. 432 00:41:21.773 --> 00:41:23.108 It creaks. 433 00:41:24.067 --> 00:41:26.486 I'm not helping. I'm not taking part in this. 434 00:41:26.570 --> 00:41:28.488 I will not be sued if something goes wrong. 435 00:41:28.572 --> 00:41:31.116 Are we on the ground? I think we the hit ground. 436 00:41:31.200 --> 00:41:33.160 I'm gonna stand up here and judge you. 437 00:41:33.243 --> 00:41:34.828 Are you saying we can't swing? 438 00:41:34.912 --> 00:41:37.998 Well, if we go further that way, there's less ground, right? 439 00:41:40.334 --> 00:41:42.544 -Ready? -Oh, my God. I'm in tears. 440 00:41:45.547 --> 00:41:47.758 Oh, my God. I'm gonna pee in my pants. 441 00:41:47.841 --> 00:41:49.051 Oh, yeah. Oh, Maggie. 442 00:41:52.346 --> 00:41:54.973 -Here, be careful. -This seems like a really bad idea. 443 00:41:55.057 --> 00:41:56.975 -Can you get your feet up there? -Probably. 444 00:41:57.059 --> 00:41:59.186 I bet if you hold the stick higher-- Yeah. 445 00:41:59.269 --> 00:42:01.104 Yeah, you're just gonna have to jump. 446 00:42:01.188 --> 00:42:02.481 Jump and straddle. Oh, God. 447 00:42:04.233 --> 00:42:06.193 Oh, God. Don't let her hit the tree. 448 00:42:38.141 --> 00:42:40.644 I take things that I love about being here 449 00:42:40.727 --> 00:42:42.771 and set them up in my home. 450 00:42:42.855 --> 00:42:43.856 Like what? 451 00:42:43.939 --> 00:42:45.399 Like, I don't have the Internet. 452 00:42:45.482 --> 00:42:47.442 Yeah. You don't have Internet at your house? 453 00:42:47.526 --> 00:42:49.987 -Yeah, I don't have Internet at my house. -Yeah. 454 00:42:50.070 --> 00:42:51.697 It's really quiet at my house. 455 00:42:51.780 --> 00:42:53.532 I'm far away from noise, 456 00:42:53.615 --> 00:42:56.076 so that when I step outside, it sounds a little bit... 457 00:42:56.159 --> 00:42:57.160 Yeah. 458 00:42:57.244 --> 00:43:00.163 When I wake up in the morning, it feels kind of like waking up in a tent. 459 00:43:00.247 --> 00:43:04.084 Yeah. Transitioning out of being here is exponentially harder. 460 00:43:04.168 --> 00:43:08.172 It takes days to recalibrate 461 00:43:08.255 --> 00:43:11.216 to reality and the real world, and it's just... 462 00:43:11.300 --> 00:43:14.553 That's where I-- That's the thing, is I don't feel like that is reality, 463 00:43:14.636 --> 00:43:15.929 I feel like this is reality. 464 00:43:16.013 --> 00:43:18.599 This is the real world. 465 00:43:18.682 --> 00:43:21.935 Yes, but this is not the real world that we live in all the time. 466 00:43:22.019 --> 00:43:24.855 -Yes. -So we have to reset 467 00:43:24.938 --> 00:43:28.317 to the day-to-day life that we had before this. 468 00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:29.651 And it's hard. 469 00:43:58.931 --> 00:44:01.183 Some things we do are not innate. 470 00:44:05.354 --> 00:44:06.438 They're learned. 471 00:44:10.275 --> 00:44:12.277 They tell us who we're connected to. 472 00:44:14.738 --> 00:44:15.864 And where we belong. 473 00:44:18.867 --> 00:44:20.661 We worked today. We were a good team today. 474 00:44:20.744 --> 00:44:21.745 Yeah. 475 00:44:22.454 --> 00:44:24.164 We took good care of each other. 476 00:44:24.790 --> 00:44:25.958 We laughed a lot. 477 00:44:26.041 --> 00:44:27.584 We laughed a lot today. 478 00:44:30.546 --> 00:44:32.214 You don't need me to cut your hair? 479 00:44:38.679 --> 00:44:41.431 We call these things culture. 480 00:44:50.232 --> 00:44:52.901 The oldest cultures are not human. 481 00:44:56.405 --> 00:44:57.906 They're from the ocean. 482 00:45:02.160 --> 00:45:06.164 For generations, researchers thought they were solitary 483 00:45:07.332 --> 00:45:09.001 when we didn't see them together. 484 00:45:14.882 --> 00:45:17.593 But they haven't been alone for eons. 485 00:45:21.471 --> 00:45:26.852 Forty million years ago, their brains exploded with complexity. 486 00:45:28.979 --> 00:45:31.064 Before we walked upright. 487 00:45:33.150 --> 00:45:34.902 Before we sparked fire. 488 00:45:37.404 --> 00:45:40.782 Consciousness bloomed because they became social. 489 00:45:46.121 --> 00:45:49.666 Regions related to self and community 490 00:45:49.750 --> 00:45:52.544 grew more elaborate than in any other brain. 491 00:45:54.087 --> 00:45:55.464 Including us. 492 00:45:57.341 --> 00:46:00.302 The senses of sight and sound merged. 493 00:46:02.387 --> 00:46:05.974 Allowing whales to see one another through sound. 494 00:46:09.269 --> 00:46:13.023 Whales evolved to build relationships in the dark. 495 00:46:24.117 --> 00:46:26.537 -A tail. -Where-- Tail on the left! 496 00:46:26.620 --> 00:46:28.372 I've got one there and one there. 497 00:46:36.129 --> 00:46:38.298 Okay. Recording at 13:50. 498 00:46:57.109 --> 00:47:00.070 Okay, we do have a singer. 499 00:47:07.744 --> 00:47:09.204 The moans are really... 500 00:47:09.288 --> 00:47:11.456 You can hear all the detail in them, it's great. 501 00:47:11.540 --> 00:47:15.085 That's exactly what we want. This is it. This is the one! 502 00:47:15.169 --> 00:47:18.255 This is the one. We're gonna hold the cable for an hour. 503 00:47:18.338 --> 00:47:19.756 We're gonna-- This is our gold. 504 00:47:19.840 --> 00:47:21.842 -Like, this is our one for the season. -Yeah. 505 00:47:41.028 --> 00:47:44.656 The song we recorded is different from the one I've been tracking. 506 00:47:46.992 --> 00:47:49.703 A new song I've never heard before. 507 00:47:51.330 --> 00:47:55.709 In 20 years of song recordings across the South Pacific, 508 00:47:55.792 --> 00:47:58.754 this is the first time I've ever seen this happen. 509 00:48:01.131 --> 00:48:02.841 But I don't think it's an anomaly. 510 00:48:05.802 --> 00:48:10.015 The song has a complex structure and fully formed themes. 511 00:48:14.186 --> 00:48:17.439 Maybe French Polynesia isn't the end of the map. 512 00:48:35.916 --> 00:48:41.129 In a week, I lose Leanna and Maggie to their day jobs. 513 00:48:42.464 --> 00:48:44.633 But I think we're finally starting to get it. 514 00:48:46.552 --> 00:48:50.097 Since we've gone from tracking one whale to dozens, 515 00:48:50.180 --> 00:48:52.432 the hardest part is gauging distance by eye. 516 00:48:54.351 --> 00:48:57.145 So, every morning we practice. 517 00:48:57.229 --> 00:48:58.730 -Okay, my guess. -Okay. 518 00:48:58.814 --> 00:49:00.607 -I-- -Okay, you first. 519 00:49:00.691 --> 00:49:02.526 I would say 125. 520 00:49:02.609 --> 00:49:05.153 -I said 150. -I could see 150. 521 00:49:05.237 --> 00:49:06.613 170. 522 00:49:06.697 --> 00:49:09.616 I thought 150 to 200... was my guess on that. 523 00:49:09.700 --> 00:49:11.368 Really? I was 100 to 150. 524 00:49:11.451 --> 00:49:13.203 -All right. Okay. -I'm off. 525 00:49:15.998 --> 00:49:18.709 -150 to 200. -I would say 150 to 200. 526 00:49:18.792 --> 00:49:20.752 Okay, range from-- Oh, God, don't move. 527 00:49:24.256 --> 00:49:25.465 It's 130. 528 00:49:26.300 --> 00:49:28.010 -We're a little under. -Yeah. 529 00:49:28.093 --> 00:49:29.761 We're overestimating the distance. 530 00:49:31.471 --> 00:49:32.598 -Ready? -Yeah. 531 00:49:33.974 --> 00:49:36.310 -Seventy-five. -I would say 75. 532 00:49:36.393 --> 00:49:37.853 -Closer than a hundred. -Seventy. 533 00:49:38.604 --> 00:49:40.939 -Okay. I'm feeling better. -We're-- Yeah. 534 00:49:44.318 --> 00:49:47.154 -It's hot today. -I'm so uncomfortable. 535 00:49:49.865 --> 00:49:52.451 You also look very, like, 536 00:49:52.534 --> 00:49:55.037 -French-girl-goes-into-the-field today. -Really? 537 00:49:55.120 --> 00:49:56.955 With the little bun and the solid black. 538 00:49:57.039 --> 00:50:00.876 Well, so, that's so that you can't see my sweat stains in the black, 539 00:50:00.959 --> 00:50:03.587 and I can put my hair in a hat. 540 00:50:04.838 --> 00:50:05.923 Functional fashion. 541 00:50:06.006 --> 00:50:08.133 -Functional fashion. -Yeah. 542 00:50:10.594 --> 00:50:13.013 I haven't changed shirts in, like, six days. 543 00:50:16.892 --> 00:50:19.144 They're so spectacular. There are so many whales. 544 00:50:19.978 --> 00:50:26.318 Just there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and... 545 00:50:56.014 --> 00:50:57.140 Seriously? 546 00:51:00.811 --> 00:51:03.480 Leanna. We've got fuel coming out of the back. 547 00:51:03.564 --> 00:51:04.815 -Okay, let's go home. -Yeah. 548 00:51:09.444 --> 00:51:11.154 It's working. 549 00:51:29.923 --> 00:51:31.175 Yep, yep, yep. 550 00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:10.172 I don't know exactly where we're leaking from, 551 00:52:10.255 --> 00:52:12.090 so I need to figure that out. 552 00:52:12.174 --> 00:52:15.636 But I know that when I'm feeding it fuel, that my intake is fine, 553 00:52:15.719 --> 00:52:17.679 but something's happening. I think... 554 00:52:19.306 --> 00:52:22.059 Not even gonna speculate right now. But I'm working on it. 555 00:52:22.142 --> 00:52:23.227 Okay. 556 00:52:25.312 --> 00:52:27.648 Just know that, probably for the next several hours, 557 00:52:27.731 --> 00:52:29.608 I will not have any extra bandwidth, 558 00:52:29.691 --> 00:52:33.362 and I will be in problem-solving mode until the problem is solved. 559 00:52:33.445 --> 00:52:34.905 -Got it. -Okay. 560 00:53:52.274 --> 00:53:54.234 Yeah, we're getting close to 20 minutes. 561 00:54:08.207 --> 00:54:09.374 Blow. 562 00:54:09.458 --> 00:54:11.126 Moving. 563 00:54:16.840 --> 00:54:18.967 Oh, yeah. And again. 564 00:54:25.140 --> 00:54:27.434 Blow. 565 00:54:27.518 --> 00:54:30.145 -Where? Blow? -Blow? 566 00:54:34.775 --> 00:54:36.151 Yes, yes. 567 00:54:37.528 --> 00:54:40.072 Starting listening now. 568 00:54:59.258 --> 00:55:01.134 He's not a singer. 569 00:55:01.218 --> 00:55:03.929 He's not a singer. I know, I know. 570 00:55:04.012 --> 00:55:06.974 He's, like, right there, but... I know. 571 00:55:08.892 --> 00:55:11.395 -I call it needle in a haystack. -Yeah. 572 00:55:11.478 --> 00:55:12.729 And you've just gotta-- 573 00:55:12.813 --> 00:55:15.399 They're either gonna be there and singing or they're not. 574 00:55:42.551 --> 00:55:45.888 So he's saying 4:00, 4:30 at the Marina de Vaiare. 575 00:55:45.971 --> 00:55:47.139 -Tomorrow? -Yes. 576 00:55:47.222 --> 00:55:49.474 Let's do it. I'm in. Great. 577 00:56:07.701 --> 00:56:09.286 Four, two... 578 00:56:11.371 --> 00:56:14.458 I just said that we didn't have any good song, 579 00:56:14.541 --> 00:56:17.002 but it was good that we're out, and it's good practice. 580 00:56:28.222 --> 00:56:31.099 And this end is the business end. That's the hydrophone. 581 00:56:31.183 --> 00:56:34.144 Yeah, this is the hydrophone. What we do is, when we cable tie it, 582 00:56:34.228 --> 00:56:37.105 we put the hydrophone up and its tail down. 583 00:56:37.189 --> 00:56:39.983 So there's a weight on the ground and a buoy, or-- Yeah. 584 00:56:40.067 --> 00:56:44.446 Yeah. We're putting it down on the reef there and so there's a lot of fish around. 585 00:56:44.530 --> 00:56:46.281 -Get some really cool croakers. -Right. 586 00:56:46.365 --> 00:56:48.742 Like, you're gonna hear a lot of that, and... 587 00:56:48.825 --> 00:56:50.911 -There's snapping shrimp, but... -Yeah. 588 00:56:50.994 --> 00:56:54.873 As long as you've got a close singer, it just sort of overrides everything else. 589 00:56:59.294 --> 00:57:00.963 I'm doing everything I can 590 00:57:01.046 --> 00:57:04.174 to capture if something different is happening here. 591 00:57:12.140 --> 00:57:13.183 Okay. 592 00:57:13.267 --> 00:57:14.685 Yeah. 593 00:57:16.436 --> 00:57:19.481 It is the 10th of September, 594 00:57:19.565 --> 00:57:23.777 and we are currently just off the reef in Mo'orea. 595 00:57:23.861 --> 00:57:27.030 If found, the soundtrack belongs to Dr. Ellen Garland 596 00:57:27.114 --> 00:57:29.616 at the University of St. Andrews. 597 00:57:35.831 --> 00:57:38.375 We're placing hydrophones on the seafloor, 598 00:57:38.458 --> 00:57:40.669 hoping a singer swims close enough. 599 00:57:46.592 --> 00:57:50.387 All right. I'm gonna feed it. Yeah. Right. 600 00:57:55.517 --> 00:57:58.437 We call our communication "language." 601 00:57:59.646 --> 00:58:02.774 We think what whales do is different. 602 00:58:11.033 --> 00:58:16.997 Underwater, sounds can take half an hour to bend around the horizon. 603 00:58:18.165 --> 00:58:22.920 Or fade in a matter of seconds and feet. 604 00:58:25.130 --> 00:58:27.216 Sounds constantly arrive... 605 00:58:28.842 --> 00:58:32.387 from different places and times. 606 00:58:39.436 --> 00:58:43.899 And somehow humpbacks decipher an acoustic world 607 00:58:43.982 --> 00:58:48.403 where the past and present arrive all at once. 608 00:58:56.495 --> 00:58:59.790 It's like knowing how each of the stars fit within time... 609 00:59:01.875 --> 00:59:03.502 with just your ears. 610 00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:52.176 -How many whales have I marked? -Six total. 611 00:59:52.259 --> 00:59:55.721 Six total. Whales, whales... 612 00:59:55.804 --> 00:59:58.724 Group size of two, group of three and a single over there. Right? 613 00:59:58.807 --> 00:59:59.850 Yep. 614 00:59:59.933 --> 01:00:01.310 -That happens a lot. -Yeah. 615 01:00:02.186 --> 01:00:03.270 Okay. 616 01:00:03.353 --> 01:00:05.189 -Okay. -Time for my three-minute break? 617 01:00:06.565 --> 01:00:07.649 Yes. 618 01:00:07.733 --> 01:00:08.984 Breaching whale! 619 01:00:09.067 --> 01:00:12.321 -Well, we're out of our work. -Yeah, but we can watch it. 620 01:00:12.404 --> 01:00:15.032 It's snack time. Get the snacks, get the snacks. 621 01:00:15.115 --> 01:00:17.242 -Here, pocket cheese. -Perfect. Thank you. 622 01:00:17.326 --> 01:00:18.493 Yeah. 623 01:00:18.577 --> 01:00:21.079 Then how far away do we go before we do another survey? 624 01:00:21.163 --> 01:00:23.123 -One hour or four miles. -Four miles. 625 01:00:23.207 --> 01:00:24.499 Excellent. 626 01:00:25.459 --> 01:00:27.586 How many surveys do we try and do in a day? 627 01:00:27.669 --> 01:00:29.046 -Four. -Four. 628 01:00:29.129 --> 01:00:31.089 How hungry are we gonna be when we get home? 629 01:00:31.173 --> 01:00:32.966 -So. -So hungry. 630 01:00:39.473 --> 01:00:41.308 There's a lot happening in this file. 631 01:00:41.975 --> 01:00:44.311 I'm not surprised. There is a lot of whales around. 632 01:00:44.978 --> 01:00:46.813 Here's a little half feeding call. 633 01:00:51.985 --> 01:00:54.154 That's called an arches, and then a droplet. 634 01:00:55.155 --> 01:00:57.241 Whup, feeding call, droplet. 635 01:00:57.324 --> 01:01:01.787 Droplet, droplet, droplet. 636 01:01:01.870 --> 01:01:06.416 Feeding call, droplet, droplet, droplet. 637 01:01:06.500 --> 01:01:08.043 How many of these did you name? 638 01:01:09.378 --> 01:01:10.504 I named all of those. 639 01:01:16.343 --> 01:01:17.928 You know what we call that call? 640 01:01:20.597 --> 01:01:21.598 Elephant. 641 01:01:21.682 --> 01:01:25.102 No, close. Think of another animal that makes this sound. It might be dead. 642 01:01:25.185 --> 01:01:27.563 -Mammoth. -Closer. 643 01:01:27.646 --> 01:01:28.856 Woolly mammoth. 644 01:01:33.610 --> 01:01:35.529 No, it's called the brontosaurus. 645 01:01:35.612 --> 01:01:37.531 It "may" be dead? 646 01:01:38.824 --> 01:01:40.409 Most certainly is dead. 647 01:01:41.201 --> 01:01:42.494 You tricked me. 648 01:01:43.328 --> 01:01:45.414 They do remind me of brontosauruses. 649 01:01:45.497 --> 01:01:46.790 -Brontosauri. -I agree. 650 01:01:49.376 --> 01:01:51.628 -That sounds like a brontosaurus. -Yeah, it does. 651 01:02:39.259 --> 01:02:42.471 Three more days until I get a new engine. 652 01:02:52.523 --> 01:02:57.277 We're trying to answer the question, "Is the whup a contact call?" 653 01:03:01.073 --> 01:03:02.741 And we are running out of time. 654 01:03:06.578 --> 01:03:07.746 We're creating a record. 655 01:03:09.414 --> 01:03:11.834 So that we can at least demonstrate to the world 656 01:03:11.917 --> 01:03:13.460 and to the generations ahead of us 657 01:03:13.544 --> 01:03:15.087 that something beautiful was here. 658 01:03:32.396 --> 01:03:37.109 To answer these questions, I have to remove myself from society. 659 01:03:39.987 --> 01:03:43.156 And live in a world that is dominated with animals. 660 01:03:47.244 --> 01:03:50.247 And it doesn't feel like a sacrifice. 661 01:03:52.791 --> 01:03:54.209 It feels like a release. 662 01:04:13.937 --> 01:04:16.523 I know I'm gonna come home a different person. 663 01:04:16.607 --> 01:04:18.942 And I don't know if that person's gonna fit... 664 01:04:20.110 --> 01:04:21.612 the role that I had before. 665 01:04:25.574 --> 01:04:28.702 Like, I went to Antarctica for a month 666 01:04:28.785 --> 01:04:32.789 and came home to a dog and a partner 667 01:04:33.790 --> 01:04:35.792 that I didn't fit into anymore. 668 01:04:36.960 --> 01:04:38.170 And I had to leave them. 669 01:04:40.589 --> 01:04:43.300 And I'm terrified that's gonna happen again. 670 01:04:43.383 --> 01:04:44.510 -You know? -Yeah. 671 01:04:44.593 --> 01:04:47.930 I'm terrified I'm not gonna fit into that role that I had when I left. 672 01:04:49.264 --> 01:04:50.265 You have to leave it, 673 01:04:50.349 --> 01:04:53.101 but not just leave it physically, but also leave it mentally. 674 01:04:54.061 --> 01:04:56.396 You've come into the field for seven seasons. 675 01:04:58.732 --> 01:05:01.902 Have you found a way to come home? 676 01:05:01.985 --> 01:05:03.195 No. 677 01:05:04.071 --> 01:05:05.656 No. 678 01:05:05.739 --> 01:05:07.032 Instead... 679 01:05:08.033 --> 01:05:11.787 I do the opposite, and I take the things that are precious to me about home, 680 01:05:11.870 --> 01:05:14.248 like you, and bring them here. 681 01:05:16.500 --> 01:05:18.961 Which seems to make more sense. 682 01:05:20.379 --> 01:05:23.006 Because this is a much safer place to be a human. 683 01:05:38.939 --> 01:05:42.025 I've never seen so few whales this late in the season. 684 01:05:43.569 --> 01:05:45.737 And we've only captured one clear recording. 685 01:05:57.708 --> 01:06:00.043 Right. Hydrophone going down. 686 01:06:03.547 --> 01:06:05.549 -Moving nicely. -Excellent. 687 01:06:06.425 --> 01:06:07.759 I'm gonna do data, 688 01:06:07.843 --> 01:06:11.805 because we don't wanna be out here for any longer than we have to. 689 01:06:23.817 --> 01:06:25.819 Can I have a time? I'm listening now. 690 01:06:25.903 --> 01:06:27.654 8:29. 691 01:06:27.738 --> 01:06:30.115 -Okay, recording. -Cool. 692 01:07:08.862 --> 01:07:10.072 This is frustrating. 693 01:07:12.032 --> 01:07:15.869 We've got so much water noise. And so much splashing. 694 01:07:15.953 --> 01:07:19.998 I think we might have to call it at 25. I just-- This is getting-- 695 01:07:21.750 --> 01:07:23.293 This is getting challenging. 696 01:07:27.005 --> 01:07:31.134 I am just exhausted from everything. 697 01:07:35.347 --> 01:07:38.725 To talk about that it's hard, that it's challenging, 698 01:07:38.809 --> 01:07:40.894 can sometimes be a sign of weakness. 699 01:07:48.861 --> 01:07:53.532 Particularly being female in this field, you don't want to show any weakness. 700 01:08:28.483 --> 01:08:32.069 This year, I promised that I would only go on fieldwork for two weeks. 701 01:08:37.242 --> 01:08:38.410 I miss Matt. 702 01:08:40.703 --> 01:08:44.416 It feels like a lifetime ago we were able to see each other's faces. 703 01:09:34.591 --> 01:09:37.051 It is Tuesday, August 27th. 704 01:09:37.135 --> 01:09:38.804 This is Dr. Michelle Fournet, 705 01:09:38.886 --> 01:09:42.599 here with almost-but-not-yet-doctor Natalie Mastick. 706 01:09:48.145 --> 01:09:50.314 Okay. All right. 707 01:09:51.899 --> 01:09:55.112 Is he... closer to the others? 708 01:09:55.195 --> 01:09:58.240 Lot of, lot of, lot of whales. Whoo, there's a lot of whales. 709 01:10:00.492 --> 01:10:02.786 -Okay. -That's my favorite problem. 710 01:10:03.829 --> 01:10:05.914 It's a good problem. Look at 'em. 711 01:10:05.998 --> 01:10:07.708 Look! 712 01:10:20.637 --> 01:10:21.847 Perfect. 713 01:10:21.930 --> 01:10:25.893 Okay, blue is secured on the anchor. 714 01:10:25.976 --> 01:10:28.645 Blue is now in the water. 715 01:10:28.729 --> 01:10:30.272 Blue is in the water. 716 01:10:38.947 --> 01:10:41.742 Is the volume turned up all the way on the iPad? 717 01:10:43.243 --> 01:10:44.870 -Yes. -It is? 718 01:10:46.914 --> 01:10:49.875 -Play it again. Is it playing? -It's playing. 719 01:10:52.336 --> 01:10:54.129 -We didn't put it in the water. -Shoot. 720 01:10:55.297 --> 01:10:57.174 -All right, stop it. -Oh, no. 721 01:11:01.136 --> 01:11:02.513 All right. Are you ready? 722 01:11:03.931 --> 01:11:05.641 I don't know. That was very stressful. 723 01:11:05.724 --> 01:11:07.518 -Yes, ready. -Okay. Go. 724 01:11:12.064 --> 01:11:16.235 One. Two. Three, four, five. 725 01:11:16.860 --> 01:11:20.531 Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. 726 01:11:22.908 --> 01:11:25.827 Ready? And begin. 727 01:11:26.995 --> 01:11:28.956 We have a group of two. 728 01:11:29.581 --> 01:11:32.835 Three singles. One group of four. And two. 729 01:11:33.418 --> 01:11:36.213 Right here. I think there's one here. 730 01:11:36.296 --> 01:11:38.048 Survey number 26. 731 01:11:39.508 --> 01:11:40.843 That's time. 732 01:11:41.885 --> 01:11:45.472 Group size, three. 145.6. 733 01:11:46.348 --> 01:11:49.768 Group of two. 356.1. 734 01:11:51.144 --> 01:11:52.396 Group of one. 735 01:11:54.731 --> 01:11:56.608 129.6. 736 01:11:58.235 --> 01:12:00.112 200 to 500. 737 01:12:08.912 --> 01:12:11.123 I feel my age for the first time. 738 01:12:12.165 --> 01:12:13.375 And I wanna have a baby. 739 01:12:14.710 --> 01:12:17.504 What are you gonna do with your baby when you're in the field? 740 01:12:18.672 --> 01:12:20.007 You're gonna bring him out. 741 01:12:22.217 --> 01:12:23.302 It's a hard question. 742 01:12:23.385 --> 01:12:25.345 It depends on what kind of fieldwork I do. 743 01:12:25.429 --> 01:12:28.307 Depends on what kind of partner I have when I do that fieldwork. 744 01:12:28.390 --> 01:12:31.393 If I have a partner who can join me in the field, yeah. 745 01:12:31.476 --> 01:12:34.188 If I have a support group of people. 746 01:12:35.439 --> 01:12:36.982 Like, I'm dead serious. 747 01:12:37.065 --> 01:12:38.817 -We do a one-month field season. -Yeah. 748 01:12:38.901 --> 01:12:40.944 And somebody picks blueberries with the kids, 749 01:12:41.028 --> 01:12:42.905 and makes pancakes, and does the laundry, 750 01:12:42.988 --> 01:12:45.991 and cooks the meals for the day, and does the dishes for breakfast. 751 01:12:46.074 --> 01:12:48.368 And then we come in from all of our surveys 752 01:12:48.452 --> 01:12:50.746 and then the next day it's my turn with the kiddos. 753 01:12:50.829 --> 01:12:52.998 Like, you just stick one here and hold two hands 754 01:12:53.081 --> 01:12:55.626 and if they fall, they fall, you pick 'em back up again. 755 01:12:55.709 --> 01:12:56.710 Yeah. 756 01:12:56.793 --> 01:12:59.755 And then we just bump around again, and now it's your turn to stay home. 757 01:13:00.714 --> 01:13:03.509 -Yes. That sounds amazing. -Yeah. 758 01:13:03.592 --> 01:13:06.929 Are you thinking about how exhausted you're gonna be? 759 01:13:08.472 --> 01:13:09.723 It's only one month. 760 01:13:09.806 --> 01:13:12.643 One month of working for nine hours on the boat, 761 01:13:12.726 --> 01:13:15.187 coming home, not getting any sleep. 762 01:13:16.730 --> 01:13:19.942 I guess there just aren't that many good examples of that in our field. 763 01:13:20.025 --> 01:13:21.443 We don't need any examples. 764 01:13:42.506 --> 01:13:45.092 Okay. Okay. 765 01:13:45.968 --> 01:13:46.969 Okay. 766 01:13:52.641 --> 01:13:54.935 -He told me this way. -Got a singer? 767 01:13:55.018 --> 01:13:56.770 -Yeah? -He's singing. 768 01:13:56.854 --> 01:13:58.438 -After when we go... -Okay. Yeah. 769 01:13:58.522 --> 01:14:00.148 ...and they stopped singing... 770 01:14:00.232 --> 01:14:02.901 -Okay. So we'll go-- Yeah. -Yeah, okay. 771 01:14:02.985 --> 01:14:05.195 -'Cause last time he started again. -Yeah, okay. 772 01:14:05.279 --> 01:14:08.240 Okay. I think-- Yeah. That explains it, 'cause we heard-- 773 01:14:08.323 --> 01:14:11.159 we heard pretty good songs, so if he's off there, I-- Yeah. 774 01:14:12.035 --> 01:14:13.036 All right. 775 01:14:25.674 --> 01:14:26.800 Going in. 776 01:14:31.722 --> 01:14:33.974 I think we're going in the right direction. 777 01:14:34.057 --> 01:14:35.309 I think he's louder. 778 01:14:41.106 --> 01:14:44.234 Yeah, we are definitely going in the correct direction now. 779 01:14:44.318 --> 01:14:45.485 Yeah. 780 01:15:06.924 --> 01:15:08.008 Okay. 781 01:16:34.887 --> 01:16:37.723 This is the same song we heard in Australia. 782 01:16:38.599 --> 01:16:41.518 The one we've been tracking all season. 783 01:16:44.396 --> 01:16:47.482 Which means there are at least two different songs here. 784 01:16:53.030 --> 01:16:55.073 A cultural crossroads. 785 01:16:58.410 --> 01:17:01.288 This whale is singing the song from the west. 786 01:17:06.877 --> 01:17:09.505 But the other song has to be from somewhere else. 787 01:17:17.179 --> 01:17:20.474 And the next closest population is near Ecuador. 788 01:17:21.183 --> 01:17:23.143 5,000 miles east. 789 01:17:26.563 --> 01:17:31.652 What I thought was unprecedented song sharing across the South Pacific 790 01:17:31.735 --> 01:17:35.989 could be just one piece of a global cultural network. 791 01:17:41.453 --> 01:17:44.498 Thousands of brains learning and sharing 792 01:17:44.581 --> 01:17:48.085 some of the most complex acoustic patterns on Earth. 793 01:17:56.176 --> 01:18:00.931 The result of evolution that's millions of years older than ours. 794 01:18:07.145 --> 01:18:12.609 Studying whale culture might be more about glimpsing something of ourselves. 795 01:18:17.990 --> 01:18:19.825 How we can connect differently 796 01:18:21.368 --> 01:18:22.953 a million years from now. 797 01:20:14.356 --> 01:20:15.899 We're about to find out... 798 01:20:16.984 --> 01:20:18.193 if it worked on this one. 799 01:20:19.987 --> 01:20:21.488 That one starts there. Okay. 800 01:20:23.323 --> 01:20:25.951 So in the first before period, there's one, two... 801 01:20:27.077 --> 01:20:28.328 three growls. 802 01:20:28.829 --> 01:20:29.830 No whups. 803 01:20:29.913 --> 01:20:33.417 In the second before period, there's one, two, three whups. 804 01:20:33.500 --> 01:20:36.712 In the during period, there are one, two, 805 01:20:37.546 --> 01:20:41.925 three, four, five, six, seven... 806 01:20:43.302 --> 01:20:45.721 eight, nine, ten, eleven... 807 01:20:47.389 --> 01:20:48.724 twelve, thirteen. 808 01:20:51.435 --> 01:20:52.811 There are 13. 809 01:20:58.525 --> 01:21:00.986 -That's pretty cool. Right? -That's pretty cool. 810 01:21:01.904 --> 01:21:03.280 They're talking back to you. 811 01:21:05.866 --> 01:21:07.576 I keep thinking it's not gonna work. 812 01:21:17.711 --> 01:21:20.589 I'm so pleased. I'm so pleased! 813 01:21:29.890 --> 01:21:33.602 It is so hard to interpret the language of the natural world. 814 01:21:35.062 --> 01:21:40.359 To listen and to understand what it's saying to itself. 815 01:21:43.028 --> 01:21:48.534 That is of the same proportion as pointing all of our satellites skyward 816 01:21:48.617 --> 01:21:51.203 and listening for a sign from outer space.