Whale Journals – December 2015 – Netflukes – whale movies

Not much going on in whale world on the water for us these days. I heard reports of 4 or 5 humpbacks hanging out between Vancouver Island and Texada Island but we’ve been quite busy working.

Last month was about books to curl up and hibernate with during the dark days of winter.This month it’s time for cultural celebrations. And what better way to celebrate than by watching films about whales and interspecies communication?

Youtube is full of close encounters between humans and cetaceans, which I love. The excitement of the humans is in their voices. Even adult voices become squeaky as they leap up 2 octaves when confronted by the awesome presence of a 30 tonne whale approaching their boat. It’s a palpable primal reaction.

But there is little to fear. SLOW DOWN, don’t crowd, make sure you know where they are and they know where you are. It’s best if they can hear you so a slow or idling engine is helpful. If they approach you? it is an experience you will never forget and a story you will retell hundreds of times. Maybe you’ll even make a video!

Back to the many wonderful films about whales:

Of course any of the BBC series like “The Blue Planet”, “Planet Earth”, “Life of Mammals”, “Nature’s Great Events” offer state of the art production values and thrilling footage. The “making of” shorts they made of how they got the footage are fascinating too, especially for budding filmmakers.

National Geographic has become quite sensationalist in their approach to nature films since being bought out by Rupert Murdoch but this is a good one .

“Ocean Voyager” Whale Documentary – The Biggest Sea Creatures || National Geographic 2015

Story of a humpback mother and calf. The video repeats at 51:16

https://youtu.be/DWv8JRRl1s8

“The Birthplace of the Giants” in Northwestern Australia – Nat Geo 2015

https://youtu.be/7Q6rKN4Bc6U

Some other smaller productions companies produce great ocean nature films too

Ocean Stories 3 – “Dolphins and Whales” NONA NATUREDOCX and SEALIFE PRODUCTIONS 2011

“The Giants of Rurutu” Humpback Whales of Tahiti: SOUND & VISION/CINEMARINE 2011

The French Godfather of all ocean nature documentaries – Jacques Cousteau made hundreds of films. Find them in Wikipedia and Search for them in Youtube.

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau – “Whales” rerecorded 1991

https://youtu.be/DlHDK-aq9vM

and “The Singing Whale” about Humpback whales rerecorded 1991

https://youtu.be/e7ZKdZaViFg

The English Godfather of nature films, David Attenborough is still making features for the BBC. Find his filmography on Wikipedia and Search the series “The Blue Planet”, “Planet Earth”, “Life of Mammals”, “Nature’s Great Events” among others on Youtube

Planet Earth about the Oceans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdyezNZt20

The Life series about mammals includes cetaceans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv2oobRVeTk

Nature’s Great Events Series: Everyone feeds on Herring in the Pacific Ocean

https://youtu.be/QSiTumuzfeQ

and Feast of Sardines off the coast of southern Africa

https://youtu.be/UQGvhn1w65Y

Civil war in Sri Lanka protected a recovering population of Blue whales