1 00:03:18,428 --> 00:03:21,014 "I'm trying to start a conversation," 2 00:03:21,097 --> 00:03:24,934 is the most basic way you can say it. 3 00:03:29,564 --> 00:03:32,817 I am going to put a speaker in the ocean and talk to a whale 4 00:03:32,901 --> 00:03:34,569 and hope it talks back. 5 00:03:46,122 --> 00:03:48,416 If this work is successful, 6 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,753 it will be the first experiment 7 00:03:51,836 --> 00:03:55,048 where we have actively engaged in a dialogue with a humpback whale. 8 00:04:49,602 --> 00:04:52,647 People have been studying humpback song for 40, 50 years. 9 00:04:56,526 --> 00:05:00,947 And still, no one really knows why they sing. 10 00:05:21,009 --> 00:05:22,302 Birds have song. 11 00:05:24,137 --> 00:05:25,597 And other whales have song. 12 00:05:28,933 --> 00:05:33,271 But humpback song... is even more elaborate. 13 00:05:37,108 --> 00:05:38,109 They have rhythm. 14 00:05:40,653 --> 00:05:41,863 Timed breathing. 15 00:05:45,283 --> 00:05:47,327 Rhyming and repetition. 16 00:05:56,211 --> 00:05:58,546 Hours of patterns within patterns. 17 00:06:02,008 --> 00:06:05,094 With no clear beginning or end. 18 00:06:09,557 --> 00:06:12,810 I think humpback song is complex communication... 19 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,440 on a scale that has no analog that we know of. 20 00:06:21,152 --> 00:06:22,529 Except us. 21 00:06:45,843 --> 00:06:48,429 My stepfather was a classical pianist. 22 00:06:53,268 --> 00:06:55,562 When he sat down to teach me the piano, 23 00:06:56,980 --> 00:07:01,442 he told me to play one note and to close my eyes and listen... 24 00:07:04,779 --> 00:07:06,322 until the sound disappeared. 25 00:07:12,328 --> 00:07:16,666 He wanted me to understand the sound by experiencing it. 26 00:07:28,803 --> 00:07:31,014 This is a lot easier when you're on land. 27 00:07:31,848 --> 00:07:34,309 So then you go to set the timer. 28 00:07:36,019 --> 00:07:38,479 So this system communicates with this box? 29 00:07:39,564 --> 00:07:43,234 Took ten years to lay the groundwork 30 00:07:43,318 --> 00:07:48,907 before we could even begin to build the playback files to play to the whales. 31 00:07:52,744 --> 00:07:55,622 -Good. It's live. -Nice. 32 00:08:01,336 --> 00:08:02,378 Oh, yeah. 33 00:08:02,462 --> 00:08:03,880 -It's working? -Yeah. Very well. 34 00:08:03,963 --> 00:08:05,298 -Great. Good. -Okay. 35 00:08:05,381 --> 00:08:07,175 -Power on? -Power's on. 36 00:08:08,593 --> 00:08:09,719 Yes. 37 00:08:18,186 --> 00:08:20,688 Yeah, that's the one it's gonna struggle with. 38 00:08:21,856 --> 00:08:24,108 That's it. This is the-- That's the playback call. 39 00:08:24,192 --> 00:08:26,444 That was the actual call that we will be playing-- 40 00:08:26,528 --> 00:08:27,820 Or one of the calls. 41 00:08:28,696 --> 00:08:30,615 Yeah, we'll need to adjust it a little bit. 42 00:08:30,698 --> 00:08:33,825 Yeah. I mean, we could reduce the volume. 43 00:08:34,702 --> 00:08:35,954 Maybe-- 44 00:08:36,871 --> 00:08:39,541 Something's clipping. You may need to adjust. 45 00:08:39,623 --> 00:08:41,918 -Well, it's clipping from the recording. -Oh, okay. 46 00:08:42,001 --> 00:08:43,836 Yeah. The clipping's from the recording. 47 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:48,049 So these recordings haven't been filtered, they haven't been adjusted at all. 48 00:08:53,471 --> 00:08:54,722 That's good. 49 00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:01,145 -Something's not quite right. -No. Something's not right. 50 00:09:01,229 --> 00:09:03,439 I am trying to fool the whale. 51 00:09:04,941 --> 00:09:06,818 I should be transparent about that. 52 00:09:09,404 --> 00:09:11,364 I'm trying to convince the humpback 53 00:09:11,447 --> 00:09:14,826 that there is another whale in the water that is vocalizing. 54 00:09:16,327 --> 00:09:20,415 We were just brainstorming a few things, and we might have stumbled upon... 55 00:09:21,249 --> 00:09:25,461 So playback experiments in the past made a lot of terrible sounds by accident. 56 00:09:27,130 --> 00:09:31,134 This is how it works. For half of the verse it's the real song. 57 00:09:33,970 --> 00:09:35,722 The last time they did playbacks, 58 00:09:35,805 --> 00:09:38,016 they ended up sounding like a humpback whale on helium. 59 00:09:38,099 --> 00:09:40,018 And this is the reconstructed one. 60 00:09:43,187 --> 00:09:45,607 And then they wondered why no one responded. 61 00:09:45,690 --> 00:09:48,443 -You clear out everything. -Yeah, you lose all the noise. 62 00:09:48,526 --> 00:09:50,069 And here you have the waveform. 63 00:09:50,153 --> 00:09:52,989 Blue is the input and red is what we're listening to now. 64 00:09:53,072 --> 00:09:55,074 -And red is what we're hearing now. -Yeah. 65 00:09:55,158 --> 00:09:57,744 And you basically are just working with signal? 66 00:09:57,827 --> 00:10:00,163 So, you don't have any issues with the spectrogram? 67 00:10:01,247 --> 00:10:04,709 All the clicks and everything would be thrown away. 68 00:10:04,792 --> 00:10:06,419 That's a great idea. 69 00:10:06,502 --> 00:10:11,549 The only issue I see is that most humpback calls aren't tonal. 70 00:10:12,508 --> 00:10:14,802 I mean, they're amplitude-modulated calls. 71 00:10:14,886 --> 00:10:17,847 And they're short. So a lot of them are these sort of... 72 00:10:20,892 --> 00:10:22,977 calls that aren't harmonic and aren't tonal. 73 00:10:23,061 --> 00:10:24,270 That's amazing. 74 00:10:24,812 --> 00:10:26,439 You do it real well. 75 00:10:26,523 --> 00:10:29,776 Then it's just, again, I think, gonna be about clarity. 76 00:10:30,985 --> 00:10:32,612 -I think we should try it. -Yeah. 77 00:10:39,077 --> 00:10:43,122 If you were to listen to all the whales around the world at the same time, 78 00:10:44,582 --> 00:10:46,501 most of those sounds would be calls. 79 00:10:48,419 --> 00:10:51,923 Sometimes they occur in series that change order. 80 00:10:52,006 --> 00:10:54,509 Sometimes they occur one by one. 81 00:10:59,722 --> 00:11:00,890 But they're short. 82 00:11:01,683 --> 00:11:04,060 And we understand very little about them. 83 00:11:07,355 --> 00:11:09,190 But of all of the humpback calls... 84 00:11:10,108 --> 00:11:12,193 I think one is the most important. 85 00:11:16,489 --> 00:11:17,740 The whup. 86 00:11:21,119 --> 00:11:24,873 This call is produced, we think, by everyone. 87 00:11:26,249 --> 00:11:30,253 This is an animal that has the potential to produce infinite numbers of calls. 88 00:11:33,172 --> 00:11:35,675 Why is this call unique? 89 00:11:35,758 --> 00:11:37,552 Why is this call special? 90 00:11:38,136 --> 00:11:41,639 And the best way to start finding that out 91 00:11:41,723 --> 00:11:44,642 is by playing it to a whale and seeing how the whale responds. 92 00:12:00,074 --> 00:12:02,243 This is the question I've been preparing for. 93 00:12:05,580 --> 00:12:09,000 This is the one that I fought for when I was 25 and I started this. 94 00:12:11,586 --> 00:12:16,049 And this was the one that I rallied for when I started my PhD. 95 00:12:20,094 --> 00:12:23,014 And I have to make sure the science is impeccable. 96 00:12:33,816 --> 00:12:36,528 This is the very beginning of how we understand 97 00:12:36,611 --> 00:12:39,948 how humpback whales perceive the world. 98 00:12:41,616 --> 00:12:45,870 And how humpback whales perceive each other through sound. 99 00:13:11,646 --> 00:13:13,273 My mum loved the ocean. 100 00:13:18,319 --> 00:13:20,363 And she always wanted to be an oceanographer, 101 00:13:20,446 --> 00:13:22,949 but women weren't allowed out on boats. 102 00:13:25,118 --> 00:13:27,036 So she became a geographer instead. 103 00:13:32,834 --> 00:13:35,712 She never lost her love of the ocean, and she definitely... 104 00:13:37,171 --> 00:13:38,756 transmitted that on to me. 105 00:13:46,431 --> 00:13:49,142 Exactly. That's an important thing. 106 00:13:50,101 --> 00:13:54,606 Noting the weird, noting the different, is the best thing you can do. 107 00:13:54,689 --> 00:13:56,941 Because that will jump out at you 108 00:13:57,025 --> 00:14:00,278 if we notice these individual-level differences. 109 00:14:01,070 --> 00:14:02,614 Make a note. 110 00:14:02,697 --> 00:14:07,076 Scientists had always thought that songs were only used for mating. 111 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:08,786 We got a nice pattern. 112 00:14:08,870 --> 00:14:12,207 So, a violin, a bark, 113 00:14:12,290 --> 00:14:14,250 and I'm pretty sure that's gonna be a whup. 114 00:14:14,334 --> 00:14:17,420 So these are, like, three perfect exam-- 115 00:14:25,053 --> 00:14:28,473 But as I listened to a decade of recordings from the South Pacific, 116 00:14:28,556 --> 00:14:30,391 I saw the same songs turning up 117 00:14:30,475 --> 00:14:33,061 in populations separated by hundreds of miles. 118 00:14:34,062 --> 00:14:37,065 But it's important that we're seeing the structure, right. 119 00:14:37,148 --> 00:14:40,693 So we've got a big squeak, and then a lower frequency unit, 120 00:14:40,777 --> 00:14:43,613 then the big squeak and some lower frequency. 121 00:14:43,696 --> 00:14:46,115 And so, if you think about it as a structural thing... 122 00:14:47,283 --> 00:14:50,745 I've realized song had to be much more than just mating. 123 00:14:54,541 --> 00:14:56,668 Small changes are introduced to the song. 124 00:14:59,546 --> 00:15:03,967 And then all of the singers learn those changes and the song evolves. 125 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:06,970 It steps forward. 126 00:15:08,930 --> 00:15:12,058 Songs are then passed across distant populations. 127 00:15:13,560 --> 00:15:15,520 And as this repeats, 128 00:15:15,603 --> 00:15:20,066 they become the shape of what thousands of whales sound like collectively. 129 00:15:23,736 --> 00:15:26,656 All of this is a cultural phenomenon. 130 00:15:28,116 --> 00:15:29,492 So, from Australia, 131 00:15:29,576 --> 00:15:33,288 it first spreads to New Caledonia, 800 miles away. 132 00:15:34,956 --> 00:15:37,667 They all learn the song within a couple of months, 133 00:15:37,750 --> 00:15:40,086 which is ridiculous that animals can learn 134 00:15:40,169 --> 00:15:43,464 this very long, complex display so rapidly. 135 00:15:45,633 --> 00:15:49,137 The songs go from west to east every time, 136 00:15:49,220 --> 00:15:52,056 connecting an ocean of whales with culture. 137 00:15:54,767 --> 00:15:56,269 I'm trying to complete a map 138 00:15:56,352 --> 00:15:58,980 of where song sharing is found in the South Pacific. 139 00:16:01,608 --> 00:16:03,109 To find its edges. 140 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:08,156 To find out where this humpback culture ends. 141 00:16:42,857 --> 00:16:46,152 -Enough? No ways. -No, I think that's enough. Stuff it in. 142 00:16:46,236 --> 00:16:48,446 Come on, Zin. What's this? 143 00:16:50,823 --> 00:16:52,075 Up here. 144 00:16:53,451 --> 00:16:54,619 What do you think, Zin? 145 00:16:56,704 --> 00:16:58,039 Seem all right? 146 00:17:01,501 --> 00:17:03,461 Fieldwork's always a challenge, 147 00:17:03,545 --> 00:17:07,674 'cause you're away from people you care about. 148 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:12,971 But I thought... 149 00:17:13,053 --> 00:17:17,433 On occasion, I've managed to get Matt to come to the field site with me. 150 00:17:20,228 --> 00:17:22,146 And we discovered he gets seasick on boats. 151 00:17:22,230 --> 00:17:24,523 So... that didn't work so well. 152 00:17:25,108 --> 00:17:26,693 You need to put the stove fire off. 153 00:17:26,776 --> 00:17:28,570 -I know, I know, I know! -See the smoke? 154 00:17:29,612 --> 00:17:30,780 Did you open the-- Yeah. 155 00:17:30,864 --> 00:17:33,116 Step one, Ellen always sets off the smoke alarms. 156 00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,079 -You all right? -Yeah. 157 00:17:41,332 --> 00:17:42,584 Thanks, buddy. 158 00:17:45,545 --> 00:17:47,505 I don't even know where to start. Okay. 159 00:17:48,464 --> 00:17:49,841 -Delegate, Ellen. -Pardon? 160 00:17:49,924 --> 00:17:52,886 Delegate. Delegate things to me. 161 00:17:52,969 --> 00:17:54,178 Okay. 162 00:17:54,262 --> 00:17:58,641 Can you get all the stuff off the washing line that is dry. 163 00:17:58,725 --> 00:17:59,851 Yes, I can. 164 00:18:03,229 --> 00:18:07,567 You know, we have absolute minimal communication coming up, 165 00:18:07,650 --> 00:18:08,735 and that sucks. 166 00:18:08,818 --> 00:18:10,111 And it's really hard. 167 00:18:10,195 --> 00:18:12,447 And I think it's much harder for you than me, 168 00:18:12,530 --> 00:18:16,492 because I'm surrounded constantly by people-- by the team. 169 00:18:17,118 --> 00:18:19,037 Plus, you've got something to do, right? 170 00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:21,789 There's no rest, really, on fieldwork. 171 00:18:21,873 --> 00:18:25,210 When you're really interested in something and really passionate about it, 172 00:18:25,293 --> 00:18:27,629 it's just the obvious thing you want to do. 173 00:18:27,712 --> 00:18:29,380 I love being in the field. 174 00:18:30,131 --> 00:18:33,384 It makes me super happy, and I absolutely love it. 175 00:18:33,468 --> 00:18:36,471 And I wouldn't want to stop doing that, 176 00:18:36,554 --> 00:18:38,264 but it is really hard to go away. 177 00:18:38,348 --> 00:18:41,100 It's just best to try and not think about it, I guess. 178 00:18:48,107 --> 00:18:49,400 Okay. 179 00:18:51,194 --> 00:18:52,487 Come here. 180 00:18:53,404 --> 00:18:54,489 There we go. 181 00:19:48,167 --> 00:19:51,129 Four hydrophones. Check. Remote. Check. 182 00:19:51,212 --> 00:19:54,424 Four dry bags with collars and GPS units. Check. 183 00:19:54,507 --> 00:19:59,345 Tracker, check. Small black dry bag with boat GPS unit, check. 184 00:19:59,429 --> 00:20:02,473 iPad, check. Green towel is in the backpack. 185 00:20:02,557 --> 00:20:04,309 Goal Zero battery with charging cords 186 00:20:04,392 --> 00:20:06,853 and a Goal Zero solar panel are both in the backpack. 187 00:20:06,936 --> 00:20:08,771 -Black Pelican. -Check. 188 00:20:08,855 --> 00:20:10,982 With camera-- I checked it this morning. 189 00:20:11,065 --> 00:20:13,276 Camera, binos, an extra nine-volt camera battery 190 00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:15,195 and double-A batteries are all in there. 191 00:20:15,278 --> 00:20:19,824 Awesome. Big yellow dry bag, rain jackets, lunch snacks. 192 00:20:19,908 --> 00:20:21,409 Check, check, check. 193 00:20:21,492 --> 00:20:24,704 Okay. Playback speaker. Four life jackets. 194 00:20:24,787 --> 00:20:25,788 Yep. 195 00:20:25,872 --> 00:20:27,540 -Two radios. -Check. 196 00:20:28,708 --> 00:20:31,419 -Personal dry bags and water bottles. -Water. 197 00:20:32,045 --> 00:20:33,504 I've got my water bottles full. 198 00:20:33,588 --> 00:20:35,131 Sunscreen. 199 00:20:35,215 --> 00:20:37,425 Oh, sunscreen, which I wrote on the list. 200 00:20:37,508 --> 00:20:40,511 It's in the bag. We should put it on our faces. 201 00:20:47,310 --> 00:20:52,357 We'll do our first survey down south, and then we'll work our way north. 202 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:53,775 Okay. 203 00:20:57,820 --> 00:21:02,825 When you're in a place of such beauty, it's easy to forget... 204 00:21:04,327 --> 00:21:06,412 the whales could capsize us. 205 00:21:07,580 --> 00:21:09,832 And the water is cold enough that we would die. 206 00:21:50,248 --> 00:21:51,875 There's somebody out there. 207 00:21:51,958 --> 00:21:53,084 For sure. 208 00:22:02,260 --> 00:22:06,139 In past seasons, I've gone weeks without seeing any whales. 209 00:22:07,765 --> 00:22:11,144 This year we have only a month to survey at least 30. 210 00:22:22,655 --> 00:22:27,202 Okay, hydrophones, it is 10:28, August 11th. 211 00:22:27,285 --> 00:22:30,330 This is Dr. Leanna Matthews here with Dr. Michelle Fournet. 212 00:22:30,413 --> 00:22:32,498 I'm going to clap three times. 213 00:22:37,128 --> 00:22:39,130 Each playback takes one hour. 214 00:22:44,510 --> 00:22:47,597 Below, we'll acoustically track one whale with hydrophones 215 00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:50,183 while our speaker plays whups. 216 00:22:52,644 --> 00:22:54,062 Starting playback. 217 00:22:56,064 --> 00:23:00,068 And above, we'll note everything we see one whale do. 218 00:23:00,151 --> 00:23:01,653 This is called a focal follow. 219 00:23:03,530 --> 00:23:07,617 By linking behaviors we see at the surface with recordings below the water, 220 00:23:08,243 --> 00:23:12,455 I'll have a complete picture of how the whale is responding to our playbacks. 221 00:23:12,539 --> 00:23:15,291 -We'll start at first surface. -Yeah. 222 00:23:34,310 --> 00:23:36,396 Feel like she's gonna pop up right next to us. 223 00:23:36,479 --> 00:23:37,856 Yeah. 224 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:55,582 Start survey. 225 00:23:55,665 --> 00:23:58,793 First surface. Southwest, 76.2. 226 00:24:05,842 --> 00:24:06,968 Blow. 227 00:24:07,051 --> 00:24:08,887 Never mind. Scratch that. Not our whale. 228 00:24:08,970 --> 00:24:10,680 -That's not our whale. -No. 229 00:24:11,431 --> 00:24:13,892 Blow. West. 230 00:24:14,976 --> 00:24:16,060 50.1. 231 00:24:22,317 --> 00:24:25,111 Blow. Northwest. 232 00:24:28,489 --> 00:24:31,159 Dive. 36.3. 233 00:24:33,203 --> 00:24:34,204 150. 234 00:24:35,038 --> 00:24:37,040 -It is our whale. -Yeah. That's our whale. 235 00:24:37,123 --> 00:24:39,209 Okay. A little white on the dorsal. 236 00:24:39,292 --> 00:24:40,293 -Right? -Yeah. 237 00:24:40,376 --> 00:24:42,045 Yeah. The fluke just made me feel better. 238 00:24:42,128 --> 00:24:43,880 'Cause that other whale was also a black-fluke whale. 239 00:24:43,963 --> 00:24:45,506 I noticed that, and I was like, "Oh, my God." 240 00:24:45,590 --> 00:24:47,425 -But no. This is our whale. -And that was the right fluke. 241 00:24:47,508 --> 00:24:48,843 -That was the right fluke. -Yeah. 242 00:24:48,927 --> 00:24:51,429 Black fluke with kind of speckles. Barnacles on the top. 243 00:24:51,512 --> 00:24:53,181 -Yep. Yep. -Yeah. 244 00:24:53,264 --> 00:24:55,391 Okay. That's the end of our survey. 245 00:25:05,735 --> 00:25:06,986 -Contact. -Contact. 246 00:25:07,070 --> 00:25:09,405 -Contact. -Contact. 247 00:25:09,489 --> 00:25:11,115 -Contact. -Contact. 248 00:25:11,199 --> 00:25:12,534 Contact. 249 00:25:31,427 --> 00:25:33,846 Does anybody mind if I take the cheddar one? 250 00:25:33,930 --> 00:25:35,306 Go for it. 251 00:25:39,477 --> 00:25:42,188 Are you guys disappointed that I'm not taking us down there? 252 00:25:43,690 --> 00:25:45,400 -No. -Okay. 253 00:25:45,483 --> 00:25:46,693 It's intentional. 254 00:25:47,569 --> 00:25:49,737 There are too many whales down there. 255 00:25:49,821 --> 00:25:51,573 I don't think we should go down there. 256 00:25:51,656 --> 00:25:53,449 It could get really confusing. 257 00:26:04,002 --> 00:26:05,545 -That's not our whale. -Correct. 258 00:26:07,088 --> 00:26:08,256 That's not our whale. 259 00:26:10,425 --> 00:26:12,343 -These two are not our whales. -Correct. 260 00:26:27,483 --> 00:26:29,569 Oh, what about that splashing whale? 261 00:26:29,652 --> 00:26:30,820 -Yeah. -That's our whale. 262 00:26:31,613 --> 00:26:35,241 Surface. First surface, 185.2. 263 00:26:37,202 --> 00:26:38,203 200. 264 00:26:39,287 --> 00:26:40,872 I'm pretty sure it's our whale. 265 00:26:41,998 --> 00:26:43,791 I'm gonna try and get it in the binos. 266 00:26:49,547 --> 00:26:50,965 Blow. 267 00:26:51,049 --> 00:26:53,676 South, 178.5. 268 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,095 -400. The closer one, yeah? -Yep. 269 00:27:04,229 --> 00:27:06,689 -That's not our whale. -That's not our whale. 270 00:27:07,565 --> 00:27:09,817 Delete that whole last surfacing. 271 00:27:15,698 --> 00:27:19,452 This study has a high probability of failure. 272 00:27:23,540 --> 00:27:25,250 The logistics are really complicated. 273 00:27:31,464 --> 00:27:35,802 When there are multiple whales, it's really hard to track just one. 274 00:27:58,116 --> 00:28:03,454 It's the idea that I might be able to contribute to this knowledge. 275 00:28:03,538 --> 00:28:07,500 That that might be my little piece that I can help with the puzzle. 276 00:28:10,211 --> 00:28:15,633 Even in the hardest field season or the crappiest day, 277 00:28:15,717 --> 00:28:17,719 it gets me out of bed every morning. 278 00:28:20,221 --> 00:28:22,056 I'm a nerdy scientist... 279 00:28:23,641 --> 00:28:25,101 trying to understand our planet, 280 00:28:25,184 --> 00:28:27,437 trying to understand all the animals on our planet 281 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:29,439 before they disappear. 282 00:28:37,947 --> 00:28:41,451 So, you haven't had much instruction with a hydrophone before? 283 00:28:41,534 --> 00:28:43,369 -Not much, no. -Okay, cool. 284 00:28:43,453 --> 00:28:48,541 So, general idea, this part can't get wet, that part has to go underwater. 285 00:28:50,168 --> 00:28:52,670 These take ages to wake up on stamina mode. 286 00:28:52,754 --> 00:28:53,755 Yeah, right. 287 00:28:54,464 --> 00:28:56,090 I can hear that through there. 288 00:28:59,010 --> 00:29:01,554 Yeah, that's definitely doing well. 289 00:29:02,555 --> 00:29:07,101 So the whole idea is you pop on a piece of tape, 290 00:29:07,185 --> 00:29:10,647 and then you want to wind it tight but not too tight. 291 00:29:10,730 --> 00:29:12,815 -Right. -You don't wanna strangulate the cord. 292 00:29:12,899 --> 00:29:14,108 Okay. 293 00:29:14,192 --> 00:29:16,986 And the idea for this is to reduce the water frequency rumble? 294 00:29:17,070 --> 00:29:19,030 -That was what you were saying? -Yeah. It... 295 00:29:19,113 --> 00:29:21,699 -reduces those low-frequency vibrations. -Yeah. 296 00:29:21,783 --> 00:29:25,578 So, yeah, this has been passed down from my supervisor's supervisor 297 00:29:25,662 --> 00:29:30,083 to him, to myself, and now I'm sort of introducing it to our lab. 298 00:29:30,166 --> 00:29:31,543 So it's the-- 299 00:29:31,626 --> 00:29:34,629 It's the Australian technique, shall we say. 300 00:29:34,712 --> 00:29:37,215 -Yeah. No, that's perfect. -Okay. 301 00:29:37,882 --> 00:29:39,384 Now we just need the whales. 302 00:29:41,553 --> 00:29:43,680 Yeah, I'm very happy to see you too. 303 00:29:43,763 --> 00:29:46,307 -So glad we can come out with you. -Long time. 304 00:29:46,391 --> 00:29:48,434 I know, I know. It's been ages. Yeah, so... 305 00:29:48,518 --> 00:29:50,395 I only have a couple of weeks, 306 00:29:50,478 --> 00:29:53,982 and I need to get high-quality recordings from different whales, 307 00:29:54,941 --> 00:29:56,359 so I know what's being sung. 308 00:30:12,041 --> 00:30:13,751 Sorry about that. What do you reckon? 309 00:30:13,835 --> 00:30:17,297 Maybe try there. For the sound, is better. 310 00:30:17,380 --> 00:30:19,591 -Yeah. Sounds like-- -And after we can go... 311 00:30:19,674 --> 00:30:20,967 Yeah. That's the best idea. 312 00:30:40,820 --> 00:30:43,114 -Happy to go in? -Yep, ready to go in. 313 00:30:52,832 --> 00:30:56,836 -Uncoil it-- Yep. Perfect. -There we are. 314 00:30:56,920 --> 00:30:59,380 -Right. We're gonna start listening now. -Okay. 315 00:31:06,304 --> 00:31:08,348 I'm listening at level 95. 316 00:31:21,319 --> 00:31:23,696 It may be at the very edge of my hearing. 317 00:31:24,447 --> 00:31:25,949 It might be, yeah. 318 00:31:26,032 --> 00:31:28,326 It's a game of acoustic hide-and-seek. 319 00:31:29,369 --> 00:31:32,914 Let's let all of the-- Yeah, all the cable out. 320 00:31:32,997 --> 00:31:34,832 'Cause it's not sitting vertical, 321 00:31:34,916 --> 00:31:38,044 and I'd rather get as much depth as we can. 322 00:31:39,462 --> 00:31:41,923 Below the surface, a song can be heard 323 00:31:42,006 --> 00:31:45,093 by other whales for dozens of miles. 324 00:31:45,176 --> 00:31:49,764 But my hydrophone struggles to record clearly beyond a mile or two. 325 00:31:56,062 --> 00:31:59,899 Okay. I'm gonna stop that now. File 001. 326 00:32:00,984 --> 00:32:02,819 -Feel it from this way. -Yeah. 327 00:32:08,324 --> 00:32:10,451 The whales sing outside the reef, 328 00:32:10,535 --> 00:32:12,829 but the deeper waters can get so big 329 00:32:12,912 --> 00:32:15,623 that if you're not careful, it could sink the boat. 330 00:32:16,958 --> 00:32:19,502 Let's try down-- Over there. 331 00:32:20,795 --> 00:32:24,674 The water is a window, but it's also a wall. 332 00:32:34,100 --> 00:32:36,936 We can confirm we do have singing going on, 333 00:32:37,020 --> 00:32:39,898 but it is poor to very poor. 334 00:32:39,981 --> 00:32:44,235 Which means he's a long way out. We can't go into that, unfortunately. 335 00:33:08,635 --> 00:33:12,889 Ten years in Alaska and I have never seen so many whales. 336 00:33:13,723 --> 00:33:17,060 I think we're doing a disservice to the playback if we don't... 337 00:33:17,852 --> 00:33:18,853 do a scan. 338 00:33:18,937 --> 00:33:21,147 Like, we're focal following this animal 339 00:33:21,231 --> 00:33:24,067 and doing a playback to this animal, 340 00:33:24,150 --> 00:33:26,903 but that's not the only animal that hears this playback. 341 00:33:26,986 --> 00:33:29,781 Which means that what the animal does is going to change. 342 00:33:29,864 --> 00:33:32,408 Because you and I having a dialogue alone 343 00:33:32,492 --> 00:33:36,538 versus you and I having a dialogue with a group of people 344 00:33:36,621 --> 00:33:38,581 is going to change how much we contribute. 345 00:33:38,665 --> 00:33:40,333 -Yes! -And how much we pay attention. 346 00:33:40,416 --> 00:33:42,502 I think we're having trouble letting go. 347 00:33:42,585 --> 00:33:45,755 Sure. We spent weeks-- I spent months-- I spent years... 348 00:33:45,838 --> 00:33:49,592 -A long time. -...designing these focal follows. 349 00:33:49,676 --> 00:33:52,512 -But when you get there and you do it... -It changes. 350 00:33:52,595 --> 00:33:54,931 ...and you're seeing all these other things... 351 00:33:55,014 --> 00:33:57,642 It doesn't matter how much time I spent designing it. 352 00:33:57,725 --> 00:34:00,436 So what it the most elegant way 353 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,940 to be certain about something we see in nature 354 00:34:04,023 --> 00:34:08,278 without exaggerating it, without hoping for it? 355 00:34:09,153 --> 00:34:12,699 And I feel like, in terms of that question... 356 00:34:14,575 --> 00:34:21,291 A scan is the simplest way to capture the response of a playback. 357 00:34:22,584 --> 00:34:23,793 Strong pivot. 358 00:34:24,919 --> 00:34:26,004 Very strong. 359 00:34:31,383 --> 00:34:33,010 -I think we're-- -Hey, Maggie. 360 00:34:33,093 --> 00:34:35,305 We're making some changes to the protocol. 361 00:34:35,388 --> 00:34:37,390 -It's gonna be scans. -Just scans? 362 00:34:37,473 --> 00:34:38,725 -Yes. -Scans only? 363 00:34:38,807 --> 00:34:40,184 Scans only. 364 00:34:41,227 --> 00:34:44,022 I thought I was only gonna have one whale, 365 00:34:44,104 --> 00:34:47,734 so it made a lot of sense to look at what one whale did. 366 00:34:49,943 --> 00:34:54,699 Instead, I have lots of whales, which was an unexpected surprise. 367 00:34:56,910 --> 00:34:59,454 So I need to know whether or not 368 00:34:59,537 --> 00:35:02,999 the number of whups that each whale is producing 369 00:35:03,082 --> 00:35:05,210 goes up when I produce a whup. 370 00:35:08,379 --> 00:35:11,507 And the best way to do this is to start doing scans. 371 00:35:13,218 --> 00:35:15,929 I mark every whale that I can see all around me. 372 00:35:17,889 --> 00:35:20,975 If, on average, how many whups each whale is making 373 00:35:21,059 --> 00:35:23,519 goes up when I produce a whup call... 374 00:35:25,021 --> 00:35:29,567 that's really strong evidence that they're using whups to make contact. 375 00:36:20,159 --> 00:36:21,744 Starting playback. 376 00:36:55,945 --> 00:36:56,946 Okay. 377 00:37:01,242 --> 00:37:03,703 We're gonna head that way to give some space. 378 00:37:03,786 --> 00:37:07,665 And then we'll cut back. Slow, we're gonna go slow. 379 00:37:15,423 --> 00:37:18,801 -Thirty seconds out from playback. -Thank you. Thirty seconds. 380 00:37:26,601 --> 00:37:31,147 Group size, four. 131, 500. 381 00:37:33,316 --> 00:37:38,738 Group size, two. 154, 1,000. 382 00:37:38,821 --> 00:37:41,407 145. Group size, two. 383 00:37:41,491 --> 00:37:43,826 -Can you slow down just a little? -Barely. 384 00:37:45,036 --> 00:37:47,121 Range, 200. 385 00:37:47,205 --> 00:37:48,873 Please repeat that azimuth. 386 00:37:48,957 --> 00:37:50,250 142. 387 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:53,586 Group size, two... 388 00:37:58,424 --> 00:38:00,552 250 yards. 389 00:38:00,635 --> 00:38:03,930 185. Group size, one. 390 00:38:05,223 --> 00:38:09,352 -Please repeat that. I'm sorry. -185. Group size, one. 250 yards. 391 00:38:12,063 --> 00:38:15,400 200 yards. Group size, one. 256. 392 00:38:15,483 --> 00:38:18,403 I am at group size four at 1,000. 393 00:38:19,404 --> 00:38:21,656 -What was the azimuth? -I don't know. 394 00:38:23,783 --> 00:38:25,910 All right. Let's stop and start over. 395 00:38:26,661 --> 00:38:31,583 It's really, really fast, and I haven't had time to really look at this. 396 00:38:31,666 --> 00:38:33,209 I know. And it's-- 397 00:38:33,293 --> 00:38:35,503 Let's delete all of those and start again. 398 00:38:38,548 --> 00:38:41,676 As hard as that was, it was easier. 399 00:38:43,761 --> 00:38:46,639 Than trying to focal follow one animal in all of that? 400 00:38:46,723 --> 00:38:48,933 Yeah. Look at these guys. Look at that. 401 00:39:00,612 --> 00:39:02,447 All right. Start survey. 402 00:39:05,241 --> 00:39:08,369 All right. Group size, three. 159. 403 00:39:22,717 --> 00:39:24,260 I kind of wanna see us. 404 00:39:24,928 --> 00:39:27,013 -When did we start playing back? -11:32. 405 00:39:32,894 --> 00:39:35,688 -That sounds right. -I think that's us. It's quiet. 406 00:39:35,772 --> 00:39:37,690 But again, like, it fits right in. 407 00:39:37,774 --> 00:39:40,652 It fits right in. Oh, yeah. It sounds very, very realistic. 408 00:39:43,696 --> 00:39:44,822 Yeah. 409 00:39:51,246 --> 00:39:52,914 -That's not us. -No, it's not. 410 00:39:52,997 --> 00:39:55,041 -No, we're over here. This is us. -Yeah. 411 00:40:01,464 --> 00:40:04,300 I think the whup is a kind of hello to them. 412 00:40:05,385 --> 00:40:09,430 Possibly, "Hello, I am..." 413 00:40:11,975 --> 00:40:13,351 Which raises the question... 414 00:40:15,228 --> 00:40:17,230 if each whale has their own whup... 415 00:40:18,565 --> 00:40:20,567 could they use it to identify each other? 416 00:40:25,530 --> 00:40:28,658 This is why I'm playing this sound. 417 00:40:29,576 --> 00:40:31,619 Before you can have the conversation... 418 00:40:33,329 --> 00:40:34,998 it helps to introduce yourself. 419 00:40:37,125 --> 00:40:40,253 So, what else did we find in here? 420 00:40:40,336 --> 00:40:43,840 We wanted to see if they were whupping before we started whupping, right? 421 00:40:44,382 --> 00:40:46,384 -That's us. -And that's us. 422 00:40:46,467 --> 00:40:49,262 We don't see a lot of whupping before we started whupping. 423 00:40:54,350 --> 00:40:56,144 They insist on calling back. 424 00:41:02,066 --> 00:41:03,902 Now, it could just be random chance. 425 00:41:03,985 --> 00:41:05,486 Here they go again. 426 00:41:13,077 --> 00:41:14,245 -Oh, Leanna. -What's up? 427 00:41:14,329 --> 00:41:15,830 -Here, come here. -Okay. 428 00:41:15,914 --> 00:41:19,083 -Maggie. We need a push. -Oh, God. 429 00:41:20,168 --> 00:41:21,711 -Oh, God. -We hit the ground. 430 00:41:21,794 --> 00:41:23,129 It creaks. 431 00:41:24,088 --> 00:41:26,507 I'm not helping. I'm not taking part in this. 432 00:41:26,591 --> 00:41:28,509 I will not be sued if something goes wrong. 433 00:41:28,593 --> 00:41:31,137 Are we on the ground? I think we the hit ground. 434 00:41:31,221 --> 00:41:33,181 I'm gonna stand up here and judge you. 435 00:41:33,264 --> 00:41:34,849 Are you saying we can't swing? 436 00:41:34,933 --> 00:41:38,019 Well, if we go further that way, there's less ground, right? 437 00:41:40,355 --> 00:41:42,565 -Ready? -Oh, my God. I'm in tears. 438 00:41:45,568 --> 00:41:47,779 Oh, my God. I'm gonna pee in my pants. 439 00:41:47,862 --> 00:41:49,072 Oh, yeah. Oh, Maggie. 440 00:41:52,367 --> 00:41:54,994 -Here, be careful. -This seems like a really bad idea. 441 00:41:55,078 --> 00:41:56,996 -Can you get your feet up there? -Probably. 442 00:41:57,080 --> 00:41:59,207 I bet if you hold the stick higher-- Yeah. 443 00:41:59,290 --> 00:42:01,125 Yeah, you're just gonna have to jump. 444 00:42:01,209 --> 00:42:02,502 Jump and straddle. Oh, God. 445 00:42:04,254 --> 00:42:06,214 Oh, God. Don't let her hit the tree. 446 00:42:38,162 --> 00:42:40,665 I take things that I love about being here 447 00:42:40,748 --> 00:42:42,792 and set them up in my home. 448 00:42:42,876 --> 00:42:43,877 Like what? 449 00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:45,420 Like, I don't have the Internet. 450 00:42:45,503 --> 00:42:47,463 Yeah. You don't have Internet at your house? 451 00:42:47,547 --> 00:42:50,008 -Yeah, I don't have Internet at my house. -Yeah. 452 00:42:50,091 --> 00:42:51,718 It's really quiet at my house. 453 00:42:51,801 --> 00:42:53,553 I'm far away from noise, 454 00:42:53,636 --> 00:42:56,097 so that when I step outside, it sounds a little bit... 455 00:42:56,180 --> 00:42:57,181 Yeah. 456 00:42:57,265 --> 00:43:00,184 When I wake up in the morning, it feels kind of like waking up in a tent. 457 00:43:00,268 --> 00:43:04,105 Yeah. Transitioning out of being here is exponentially harder. 458 00:43:04,189 --> 00:43:08,193 It takes days to recalibrate 459 00:43:08,276 --> 00:43:11,237 to reality and the real world, and it's just... 460 00:43:11,321 --> 00:43:14,574 That's where I-- That's the thing, is I don't feel like that is reality, 461 00:43:14,657 --> 00:43:15,950 I feel like this is reality. 462 00:43:16,034 --> 00:43:18,620 This is the real world. 463 00:43:18,703 --> 00:43:21,956 Yes, but this is not the real world that we live in all the time. 464 00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:24,876 -Yes. -So we have to reset 465 00:43:24,959 --> 00:43:28,338 to the day-to-day life that we had before this. 466 00:43:28,421 --> 00:43:29,672 And it's hard. 467 00:43:58,952 --> 00:44:01,204 Some things we do are not innate. 468 00:44:05,375 --> 00:44:06,459 They're learned. 469 00:44:10,296 --> 00:44:12,298 They tell us who we're connected to. 470 00:44:14,759 --> 00:44:15,885 And where we belong. 471 00:44:18,888 --> 00:44:20,682 We worked today. We were a good team today. 472 00:44:20,765 --> 00:44:21,766 Yeah. 473 00:44:22,475 --> 00:44:24,185 We took good care of each other. 474 00:44:24,811 --> 00:44:25,979 We laughed a lot. 475 00:44:26,062 --> 00:44:27,605 We laughed a lot today. 476 00:44:30,567 --> 00:44:32,235 You don't need me to cut your hair? 477 00:44:38,700 --> 00:44:41,452 We call these things culture. 478 00:44:50,253 --> 00:44:52,922 The oldest cultures are not human. 479 00:44:56,426 --> 00:44:57,927 They're from the ocean. 480 00:45:02,181 --> 00:45:06,185 For generations, researchers thought they were solitary 481 00:45:07,353 --> 00:45:09,022 when we didn't see them together. 482 00:45:14,903 --> 00:45:17,614 But they haven't been alone for eons. 483 00:45:21,492 --> 00:45:26,873 Forty million years ago, their brains exploded with complexity. 484 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,085 Before we walked upright. 485 00:45:33,171 --> 00:45:34,923 Before we sparked fire. 486 00:45:37,425 --> 00:45:40,803 Consciousness bloomed because they became social. 487 00:45:46,142 --> 00:45:49,687 Regions related to self and community 488 00:45:49,771 --> 00:45:52,565 grew more elaborate than in any other brain. 489 00:45:54,108 --> 00:45:55,485 Including us. 490 00:45:57,362 --> 00:46:00,323 The senses of sight and sound merged. 491 00:46:02,408 --> 00:46:05,995 Allowing whales to see one another through sound. 492 00:46:09,290 --> 00:46:13,044 Whales evolved to build relationships in the dark. 493 00:46:24,138 --> 00:46:26,558 -A tail. -Where-- Tail on the left! 494 00:46:26,641 --> 00:46:28,393 I've got one there and one there. 495 00:46:36,150 --> 00:46:38,319 Okay. Recording at 13:50. 496 00:46:57,130 --> 00:47:00,091 Okay, we do have a singer. 497 00:47:07,765 --> 00:47:09,225 The moans are really... 498 00:47:09,309 --> 00:47:11,477 You can hear all the detail in them, it's great. 499 00:47:11,561 --> 00:47:15,106 That's exactly what we want. This is it. This is the one! 500 00:47:15,190 --> 00:47:18,276 This is the one. We're gonna hold the cable for an hour. 501 00:47:18,359 --> 00:47:19,777 We're gonna-- This is our gold. 502 00:47:19,861 --> 00:47:21,863 -Like, this is our one for the season. -Yeah. 503 00:47:41,049 --> 00:47:44,677 The song we recorded is different from the one I've been tracking. 504 00:47:47,013 --> 00:47:49,724 A new song I've never heard before. 505 00:47:51,351 --> 00:47:55,730 In 20 years of song recordings across the South Pacific, 506 00:47:55,813 --> 00:47:58,775 this is the first time I've ever seen this happen. 507 00:48:01,152 --> 00:48:02,862 But I don't think it's an anomaly. 508 00:48:05,823 --> 00:48:10,036 The song has a complex structure and fully formed themes. 509 00:48:14,207 --> 00:48:17,460 Maybe French Polynesia isn't the end of the map. 510 00:48:35,937 --> 00:48:41,150 In a week, I lose Leanna and Maggie to their day jobs. 511 00:48:42,485 --> 00:48:44,654 But I think we're finally starting to get it. 512 00:48:46,573 --> 00:48:50,118 Since we've gone from tracking one whale to dozens, 513 00:48:50,201 --> 00:48:52,453 the hardest part is gauging distance by eye. 514 00:48:54,372 --> 00:48:57,166 So, every morning we practice. 515 00:48:57,250 --> 00:48:58,751 -Okay, my guess. -Okay. 516 00:48:58,835 --> 00:49:00,628 -I-- -Okay, you first. 517 00:49:00,712 --> 00:49:02,547 I would say 125. 518 00:49:02,630 --> 00:49:05,174 -I said 150. -I could see 150. 519 00:49:05,258 --> 00:49:06,634 170. 520 00:49:06,718 --> 00:49:09,637 I thought 150 to 200... was my guess on that. 521 00:49:09,721 --> 00:49:11,389 Really? I was 100 to 150. 522 00:49:11,472 --> 00:49:13,224 -All right. Okay. -I'm off. 523 00:49:16,019 --> 00:49:18,730 -150 to 200. -I would say 150 to 200. 524 00:49:18,813 --> 00:49:20,773 Okay, range from-- Oh, God, don't move. 525 00:49:24,277 --> 00:49:25,486 It's 130. 526 00:49:26,321 --> 00:49:28,031 -We're a little under. -Yeah. 527 00:49:28,114 --> 00:49:29,782 We're overestimating the distance. 528 00:49:31,492 --> 00:49:32,619 -Ready? -Yeah. 529 00:49:33,995 --> 00:49:36,331 -Seventy-five. -I would say 75. 530 00:49:36,414 --> 00:49:37,874 -Closer than a hundred. -Seventy. 531 00:49:38,625 --> 00:49:40,960 -Okay. I'm feeling better. -We're-- Yeah. 532 00:49:44,339 --> 00:49:47,175 -It's hot today. -I'm so uncomfortable. 533 00:49:49,886 --> 00:49:52,472 You also look very, like, 534 00:49:52,555 --> 00:49:55,058 -French-girl-goes-into-the-field today. -Really? 535 00:49:55,141 --> 00:49:56,976 With the little bun and the solid black. 536 00:49:57,060 --> 00:50:00,897 Well, so, that's so that you can't see my sweat stains in the black, 537 00:50:00,980 --> 00:50:03,608 and I can put my hair in a hat. 538 00:50:04,859 --> 00:50:05,944 Functional fashion. 539 00:50:06,027 --> 00:50:08,154 -Functional fashion. -Yeah. 540 00:50:10,615 --> 00:50:13,034 I haven't changed shirts in, like, six days. 541 00:50:16,913 --> 00:50:19,165 They're so spectacular. There are so many whales. 542 00:50:19,999 --> 00:50:26,339 Just there, and there, and there, and there, and there, and... 543 00:50:56,035 --> 00:50:57,161 Seriously? 544 00:51:00,832 --> 00:51:03,501 Leanna. We've got fuel coming out of the back. 545 00:51:03,585 --> 00:51:04,836 -Okay, let's go home. -Yeah. 546 00:51:09,465 --> 00:51:11,175 It's working. 547 00:51:29,944 --> 00:51:31,196 Yep, yep, yep. 548 00:52:06,981 --> 00:52:10,193 I don't know exactly where we're leaking from, 549 00:52:10,276 --> 00:52:12,111 so I need to figure that out. 550 00:52:12,195 --> 00:52:15,657 But I know that when I'm feeding it fuel, that my intake is fine, 551 00:52:15,740 --> 00:52:17,700 but something's happening. I think... 552 00:52:19,327 --> 00:52:22,080 Not even gonna speculate right now. But I'm working on it. 553 00:52:22,163 --> 00:52:23,248 Okay. 554 00:52:25,333 --> 00:52:27,669 Just know that, probably for the next several hours, 555 00:52:27,752 --> 00:52:29,629 I will not have any extra bandwidth, 556 00:52:29,712 --> 00:52:33,383 and I will be in problem-solving mode until the problem is solved. 557 00:52:33,466 --> 00:52:34,926 -Got it. -Okay. 558 00:53:52,295 --> 00:53:54,255 Yeah, we're getting close to 20 minutes. 559 00:54:08,228 --> 00:54:09,395 Blow. 560 00:54:09,479 --> 00:54:11,147 Moving. 561 00:54:16,861 --> 00:54:18,988 Oh, yeah. And again. 562 00:54:25,161 --> 00:54:27,455 Blow. 563 00:54:27,539 --> 00:54:30,166 -Where? Blow? -Blow? 564 00:54:34,796 --> 00:54:36,172 Yes, yes. 565 00:54:37,549 --> 00:54:40,093 Starting listening now. 566 00:54:59,279 --> 00:55:01,155 He's not a singer. 567 00:55:01,239 --> 00:55:03,950 He's not a singer. I know, I know. 568 00:55:04,033 --> 00:55:06,995 He's, like, right there, but... I know. 569 00:55:08,913 --> 00:55:11,416 -I call it needle in a haystack. -Yeah. 570 00:55:11,499 --> 00:55:12,750 And you've just gotta-- 571 00:55:12,834 --> 00:55:15,420 They're either gonna be there and singing or they're not. 572 00:55:42,572 --> 00:55:45,909 So he's saying 4:00, 4:30 at the Marina de Vaiare. 573 00:55:45,992 --> 00:55:47,160 -Tomorrow? -Yes. 574 00:55:47,243 --> 00:55:49,495 Let's do it. I'm in. Great. 575 00:56:07,722 --> 00:56:09,307 Four, two... 576 00:56:11,392 --> 00:56:14,479 I just said that we didn't have any good song, 577 00:56:14,562 --> 00:56:17,023 but it was good that we're out, and it's good practice. 578 00:56:28,243 --> 00:56:31,120 And this end is the business end. That's the hydrophone. 579 00:56:31,204 --> 00:56:34,165 Yeah, this is the hydrophone. What we do is, when we cable tie it, 580 00:56:34,249 --> 00:56:37,126 we put the hydrophone up and its tail down. 581 00:56:37,210 --> 00:56:40,004 So there's a weight on the ground and a buoy, or-- Yeah. 582 00:56:40,088 --> 00:56:44,467 Yeah. We're putting it down on the reef there and so there's a lot of fish around. 583 00:56:44,551 --> 00:56:46,302 -Get some really cool croakers. -Right. 584 00:56:46,386 --> 00:56:48,763 Like, you're gonna hear a lot of that, and... 585 00:56:48,846 --> 00:56:50,932 -There's snapping shrimp, but... -Yeah. 586 00:56:51,015 --> 00:56:54,894 As long as you've got a close singer, it just sort of overrides everything else. 587 00:56:59,315 --> 00:57:00,984 I'm doing everything I can 588 00:57:01,067 --> 00:57:04,195 to capture if something different is happening here. 589 00:57:12,161 --> 00:57:13,204 Okay. 590 00:57:13,288 --> 00:57:14,706 Yeah. 591 00:57:16,457 --> 00:57:19,502 It is the 10th of September, 592 00:57:19,586 --> 00:57:23,798 and we are currently just off the reef in Mo'orea. 593 00:57:23,882 --> 00:57:27,051 If found, the soundtrack belongs to Dr. Ellen Garland 594 00:57:27,135 --> 00:57:29,637 at the University of St. Andrews. 595 00:57:35,852 --> 00:57:38,396 We're placing hydrophones on the seafloor, 596 00:57:38,479 --> 00:57:40,690 hoping a singer swims close enough. 597 00:57:46,613 --> 00:57:50,408 All right. I'm gonna feed it. Yeah. Right. 598 00:57:55,538 --> 00:57:58,458 We call our communication "language." 599 00:57:59,667 --> 00:58:02,795 We think what whales do is different. 600 00:58:11,054 --> 00:58:17,018 Underwater, sounds can take half an hour to bend around the horizon. 601 00:58:18,186 --> 00:58:22,941 Or fade in a matter of seconds and feet. 602 00:58:25,151 --> 00:58:27,237 Sounds constantly arrive... 603 00:58:28,863 --> 00:58:32,408 from different places and times. 604 00:58:39,457 --> 00:58:43,920 And somehow humpbacks decipher an acoustic world 605 00:58:44,003 --> 00:58:48,424 where the past and present arrive all at once. 606 00:58:56,516 --> 00:58:59,811 It's like knowing how each of the stars fit within time... 607 00:59:01,896 --> 00:59:03,523 with just your ears. 608 00:59:49,861 --> 00:59:52,197 -How many whales have I marked? -Six total. 609 00:59:52,280 --> 00:59:55,742 Six total. Whales, whales... 610 00:59:55,825 --> 00:59:58,745 Group size of two, group of three and a single over there. Right? 611 00:59:58,828 --> 00:59:59,871 Yep. 612 00:59:59,954 --> 01:00:01,331 -That happens a lot. -Yeah. 613 01:00:02,207 --> 01:00:03,291 Okay. 614 01:00:03,374 --> 01:00:05,210 -Okay. -Time for my three-minute break? 615 01:00:06,586 --> 01:00:07,670 Yes. 616 01:00:07,754 --> 01:00:09,005 Breaching whale! 617 01:00:09,088 --> 01:00:12,342 -Well, we're out of our work. -Yeah, but we can watch it. 618 01:00:12,425 --> 01:00:15,053 It's snack time. Get the snacks, get the snacks. 619 01:00:15,136 --> 01:00:17,263 -Here, pocket cheese. -Perfect. Thank you. 620 01:00:17,347 --> 01:00:18,514 Yeah. 621 01:00:18,598 --> 01:00:21,100 Then how far away do we go before we do another survey? 622 01:00:21,184 --> 01:00:23,144 -One hour or four miles. -Four miles. 623 01:00:23,228 --> 01:00:24,520 Excellent. 624 01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:27,607 How many surveys do we try and do in a day? 625 01:00:27,690 --> 01:00:29,067 -Four. -Four. 626 01:00:29,150 --> 01:00:31,110 How hungry are we gonna be when we get home? 627 01:00:31,194 --> 01:00:32,987 -So. -So hungry. 628 01:00:39,494 --> 01:00:41,329 There's a lot happening in this file. 629 01:00:41,996 --> 01:00:44,332 I'm not surprised. There is a lot of whales around. 630 01:00:44,999 --> 01:00:46,834 Here's a little half feeding call. 631 01:00:52,006 --> 01:00:54,175 That's called an arches, and then a droplet. 632 01:00:55,176 --> 01:00:57,262 Whup, feeding call, droplet. 633 01:00:57,345 --> 01:01:01,808 Droplet, droplet, droplet. 634 01:01:01,891 --> 01:01:06,437 Feeding call, droplet, droplet, droplet. 635 01:01:06,521 --> 01:01:08,064 How many of these did you name? 636 01:01:09,399 --> 01:01:10,525 I named all of those. 637 01:01:16,364 --> 01:01:17,949 You know what we call that call? 638 01:01:20,618 --> 01:01:21,619 Elephant. 639 01:01:21,703 --> 01:01:25,123 No, close. Think of another animal that makes this sound. It might be dead. 640 01:01:25,206 --> 01:01:27,584 -Mammoth. -Closer. 641 01:01:27,667 --> 01:01:28,877 Woolly mammoth. 642 01:01:33,631 --> 01:01:35,550 No, it's called the brontosaurus. 643 01:01:35,633 --> 01:01:37,552 It "may" be dead? 644 01:01:38,845 --> 01:01:40,430 Most certainly is dead. 645 01:01:41,222 --> 01:01:42,515 You tricked me. 646 01:01:43,349 --> 01:01:45,435 They do remind me of brontosauruses. 647 01:01:45,518 --> 01:01:46,811 -Brontosauri. -I agree. 648 01:01:49,397 --> 01:01:51,649 -That sounds like a brontosaurus. -Yeah, it does. 649 01:02:39,280 --> 01:02:42,492 Three more days until I get a new engine. 650 01:02:52,544 --> 01:02:57,298 We're trying to answer the question, "Is the whup a contact call?" 651 01:03:01,094 --> 01:03:02,762 And we are running out of time. 652 01:03:06,599 --> 01:03:07,767 We're creating a record. 653 01:03:09,435 --> 01:03:11,855 So that we can at least demonstrate to the world 654 01:03:11,938 --> 01:03:13,481 and to the generations ahead of us 655 01:03:13,565 --> 01:03:15,108 that something beautiful was here. 656 01:03:32,417 --> 01:03:37,130 To answer these questions, I have to remove myself from society. 657 01:03:40,008 --> 01:03:43,177 And live in a world that is dominated with animals. 658 01:03:47,265 --> 01:03:50,268 And it doesn't feel like a sacrifice. 659 01:03:52,812 --> 01:03:54,230 It feels like a release. 660 01:04:13,958 --> 01:04:16,544 I know I'm gonna come home a different person. 661 01:04:16,628 --> 01:04:18,963 And I don't know if that person's gonna fit... 662 01:04:20,131 --> 01:04:21,633 the role that I had before. 663 01:04:25,595 --> 01:04:28,723 Like, I went to Antarctica for a month 664 01:04:28,806 --> 01:04:32,810 and came home to a dog and a partner 665 01:04:33,811 --> 01:04:35,813 that I didn't fit into anymore. 666 01:04:36,981 --> 01:04:38,191 And I had to leave them. 667 01:04:40,610 --> 01:04:43,321 And I'm terrified that's gonna happen again. 668 01:04:43,404 --> 01:04:44,531 -You know? -Yeah. 669 01:04:44,614 --> 01:04:47,951 I'm terrified I'm not gonna fit into that role that I had when I left. 670 01:04:49,285 --> 01:04:50,286 You have to leave it, 671 01:04:50,370 --> 01:04:53,122 but not just leave it physically, but also leave it mentally. 672 01:04:54,082 --> 01:04:56,417 You've come into the field for seven seasons. 673 01:04:58,753 --> 01:05:01,923 Have you found a way to come home? 674 01:05:02,006 --> 01:05:03,216 No. 675 01:05:04,092 --> 01:05:05,677 No. 676 01:05:05,760 --> 01:05:07,053 Instead... 677 01:05:08,054 --> 01:05:11,808 I do the opposite, and I take the things that are precious to me about home, 678 01:05:11,891 --> 01:05:14,269 like you, and bring them here. 679 01:05:16,521 --> 01:05:18,982 Which seems to make more sense. 680 01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:23,027 Because this is a much safer place to be a human. 681 01:05:38,960 --> 01:05:42,046 I've never seen so few whales this late in the season. 682 01:05:43,590 --> 01:05:45,758 And we've only captured one clear recording. 683 01:05:57,729 --> 01:06:00,064 Right. Hydrophone going down. 684 01:06:03,568 --> 01:06:05,570 -Moving nicely. -Excellent. 685 01:06:06,446 --> 01:06:07,780 I'm gonna do data, 686 01:06:07,864 --> 01:06:11,826 because we don't wanna be out here for any longer than we have to. 687 01:06:23,838 --> 01:06:25,840 Can I have a time? I'm listening now. 688 01:06:25,924 --> 01:06:27,675 8:29. 689 01:06:27,759 --> 01:06:30,136 -Okay, recording. -Cool. 690 01:07:08,883 --> 01:07:10,093 This is frustrating. 691 01:07:12,053 --> 01:07:15,890 We've got so much water noise. And so much splashing. 692 01:07:15,974 --> 01:07:20,019 I think we might have to call it at 25. I just-- This is getting-- 693 01:07:21,771 --> 01:07:23,314 This is getting challenging. 694 01:07:27,026 --> 01:07:31,155 I am just exhausted from everything. 695 01:07:35,368 --> 01:07:38,746 To talk about that it's hard, that it's challenging, 696 01:07:38,830 --> 01:07:40,915 can sometimes be a sign of weakness. 697 01:07:48,882 --> 01:07:53,553 Particularly being female in this field, you don't want to show any weakness. 698 01:08:28,504 --> 01:08:32,090 This year, I promised that I would only go on fieldwork for two weeks. 699 01:08:37,263 --> 01:08:38,431 I miss Matt. 700 01:08:40,724 --> 01:08:44,437 It feels like a lifetime ago we were able to see each other's faces. 701 01:09:34,612 --> 01:09:37,072 It is Tuesday, August 27th. 702 01:09:37,156 --> 01:09:38,825 This is Dr. Michelle Fournet, 703 01:09:38,907 --> 01:09:42,620 here with almost-but-not-yet-doctor Natalie Mastick. 704 01:09:48,166 --> 01:09:50,335 Okay. All right. 705 01:09:51,920 --> 01:09:55,133 Is he... closer to the others? 706 01:09:55,216 --> 01:09:58,261 Lot of, lot of, lot of whales. Whoo, there's a lot of whales. 707 01:10:00,513 --> 01:10:02,807 -Okay. -That's my favorite problem. 708 01:10:03,850 --> 01:10:05,935 It's a good problem. Look at 'em. 709 01:10:06,019 --> 01:10:07,729 Look! 710 01:10:20,658 --> 01:10:21,868 Perfect. 711 01:10:21,951 --> 01:10:25,914 Okay, blue is secured on the anchor. 712 01:10:25,997 --> 01:10:28,666 Blue is now in the water. 713 01:10:28,750 --> 01:10:30,293 Blue is in the water. 714 01:10:38,968 --> 01:10:41,763 Is the volume turned up all the way on the iPad? 715 01:10:43,264 --> 01:10:44,891 -Yes. -It is? 716 01:10:46,935 --> 01:10:49,896 -Play it again. Is it playing? -It's playing. 717 01:10:52,357 --> 01:10:54,150 -We didn't put it in the water. -Shoot. 718 01:10:55,318 --> 01:10:57,195 -All right, stop it. -Oh, no. 719 01:11:01,157 --> 01:11:02,534 All right. Are you ready? 720 01:11:03,952 --> 01:11:05,662 I don't know. That was very stressful. 721 01:11:05,745 --> 01:11:07,539 -Yes, ready. -Okay. Go. 722 01:11:12,085 --> 01:11:16,256 One. Two. Three, four, five. 723 01:11:16,881 --> 01:11:20,552 Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. 724 01:11:22,929 --> 01:11:25,848 Ready? And begin. 725 01:11:27,016 --> 01:11:28,977 We have a group of two. 726 01:11:29,602 --> 01:11:32,856 Three singles. One group of four. And two. 727 01:11:33,439 --> 01:11:36,234 Right here. I think there's one here. 728 01:11:36,317 --> 01:11:38,069 Survey number 26. 729 01:11:39,529 --> 01:11:40,864 That's time. 730 01:11:41,906 --> 01:11:45,493 Group size, three. 145.6. 731 01:11:46,369 --> 01:11:49,789 Group of two. 356.1. 732 01:11:51,165 --> 01:11:52,417 Group of one. 733 01:11:54,752 --> 01:11:56,629 129.6. 734 01:11:58,256 --> 01:12:00,133 200 to 500. 735 01:12:08,933 --> 01:12:11,144 I feel my age for the first time. 736 01:12:12,186 --> 01:12:13,396 And I wanna have a baby. 737 01:12:14,731 --> 01:12:17,525 What are you gonna do with your baby when you're in the field? 738 01:12:18,693 --> 01:12:20,028 You're gonna bring him out. 739 01:12:22,238 --> 01:12:23,323 It's a hard question. 740 01:12:23,406 --> 01:12:25,366 It depends on what kind of fieldwork I do. 741 01:12:25,450 --> 01:12:28,328 Depends on what kind of partner I have when I do that fieldwork. 742 01:12:28,411 --> 01:12:31,414 If I have a partner who can join me in the field, yeah. 743 01:12:31,497 --> 01:12:34,209 If I have a support group of people. 744 01:12:35,460 --> 01:12:37,003 Like, I'm dead serious. 745 01:12:37,086 --> 01:12:38,838 -We do a one-month field season. -Yeah. 746 01:12:38,922 --> 01:12:40,965 And somebody picks blueberries with the kids, 747 01:12:41,049 --> 01:12:42,926 and makes pancakes, and does the laundry, 748 01:12:43,009 --> 01:12:46,012 and cooks the meals for the day, and does the dishes for breakfast. 749 01:12:46,095 --> 01:12:48,389 And then we come in from all of our surveys 750 01:12:48,473 --> 01:12:50,767 and then the next day it's my turn with the kiddos. 751 01:12:50,850 --> 01:12:53,019 Like, you just stick one here and hold two hands 752 01:12:53,102 --> 01:12:55,647 and if they fall, they fall, you pick 'em back up again. 753 01:12:55,730 --> 01:12:56,731 Yeah. 754 01:12:56,814 --> 01:12:59,776 And then we just bump around again, and now it's your turn to stay home. 755 01:13:00,735 --> 01:13:03,530 -Yes. That sounds amazing. -Yeah. 756 01:13:03,613 --> 01:13:06,950 Are you thinking about how exhausted you're gonna be? 757 01:13:08,493 --> 01:13:09,744 It's only one month. 758 01:13:09,827 --> 01:13:12,664 One month of working for nine hours on the boat, 759 01:13:12,747 --> 01:13:15,208 coming home, not getting any sleep. 760 01:13:16,751 --> 01:13:19,963 I guess there just aren't that many good examples of that in our field. 761 01:13:20,046 --> 01:13:21,464 We don't need any examples. 762 01:13:42,527 --> 01:13:45,113 Okay. Okay. 763 01:13:45,989 --> 01:13:46,990 Okay. 764 01:13:52,662 --> 01:13:54,956 -He told me this way. -Got a singer? 765 01:13:55,039 --> 01:13:56,791 -Yeah? -He's singing. 766 01:13:56,875 --> 01:13:58,459 -After when we go... -Okay. Yeah. 767 01:13:58,543 --> 01:14:00,169 ...and they stopped singing... 768 01:14:00,253 --> 01:14:02,922 -Okay. So we'll go-- Yeah. -Yeah, okay. 769 01:14:03,006 --> 01:14:05,216 -'Cause last time he started again. -Yeah, okay. 770 01:14:05,300 --> 01:14:08,261 Okay. I think-- Yeah. That explains it, 'cause we heard-- 771 01:14:08,344 --> 01:14:11,180 we heard pretty good songs, so if he's off there, I-- Yeah. 772 01:14:12,056 --> 01:14:13,057 All right. 773 01:14:25,695 --> 01:14:26,821 Going in. 774 01:14:31,743 --> 01:14:33,995 I think we're going in the right direction. 775 01:14:34,078 --> 01:14:35,330 I think he's louder. 776 01:14:41,127 --> 01:14:44,255 Yeah, we are definitely going in the correct direction now. 777 01:14:44,339 --> 01:14:45,506 Yeah. 778 01:15:06,945 --> 01:15:08,029 Okay. 779 01:16:34,908 --> 01:16:37,744 This is the same song we heard in Australia. 780 01:16:38,620 --> 01:16:41,539 The one we've been tracking all season. 781 01:16:44,417 --> 01:16:47,503 Which means there are at least two different songs here. 782 01:16:53,051 --> 01:16:55,094 A cultural crossroads. 783 01:16:58,431 --> 01:17:01,309 This whale is singing the song from the west. 784 01:17:06,898 --> 01:17:09,526 But the other song has to be from somewhere else. 785 01:17:17,200 --> 01:17:20,495 And the next closest population is near Ecuador. 786 01:17:21,204 --> 01:17:23,164 5,000 miles east. 787 01:17:26,584 --> 01:17:31,673 What I thought was unprecedented song sharing across the South Pacific 788 01:17:31,756 --> 01:17:36,010 could be just one piece of a global cultural network. 789 01:17:41,474 --> 01:17:44,519 Thousands of brains learning and sharing 790 01:17:44,602 --> 01:17:48,106 some of the most complex acoustic patterns on Earth. 791 01:17:56,197 --> 01:18:00,952 The result of evolution that's millions of years older than ours. 792 01:18:07,166 --> 01:18:12,630 Studying whale culture might be more about glimpsing something of ourselves. 793 01:18:18,011 --> 01:18:19,846 How we can connect differently 794 01:18:21,389 --> 01:18:22,974 a million years from now. 795 01:20:14,377 --> 01:20:15,920 We're about to find out... 796 01:20:17,005 --> 01:20:18,214 if it worked on this one. 797 01:20:20,008 --> 01:20:21,509 That one starts there. Okay. 798 01:20:23,344 --> 01:20:25,972 So in the first before period, there's one, two... 799 01:20:27,098 --> 01:20:28,349 three growls. 800 01:20:28,850 --> 01:20:29,851 No whups. 801 01:20:29,934 --> 01:20:33,438 In the second before period, there's one, two, three whups. 802 01:20:33,521 --> 01:20:36,733 In the during period, there are one, two, 803 01:20:37,567 --> 01:20:41,946 three, four, five, six, seven... 804 01:20:43,323 --> 01:20:45,742 eight, nine, ten, eleven... 805 01:20:47,410 --> 01:20:48,745 twelve, thirteen. 806 01:20:51,456 --> 01:20:52,832 There are 13. 807 01:20:58,546 --> 01:21:01,007 -That's pretty cool. Right? -That's pretty cool. 808 01:21:01,925 --> 01:21:03,301 They're talking back to you. 809 01:21:05,887 --> 01:21:07,597 I keep thinking it's not gonna work. 810 01:21:17,732 --> 01:21:20,610 I'm so pleased. I'm so pleased! 811 01:21:29,911 --> 01:21:33,623 It is so hard to interpret the language of the natural world. 812 01:21:35,083 --> 01:21:40,380 To listen and to understand what it's saying to itself. 813 01:21:43,049 --> 01:21:48,555 That is of the same proportion as pointing all of our satellites skyward 814 01:21:48,638 --> 01:21:51,224 and listening for a sign from outer space.