Some thoughts about human – whale relationships: Humans learned about sonar from whales and dolphins. Death by lethal sonar blasts is our gift to them in return. The ROAR of a sonar blast rips through delicate tissue and bone that compose the hearing systems of cetaceans. A killing frequency shooting through the water resonates in their jaw bones exploding fat cells, wreaking havoc with a cetacean’s equilibrium. They race to the surface to escape the ocean water pummeling noise vibration into their bodies. No time for a slower ascent to allow nitrogen to be absorbed. Decompression sickness [the bends] is swift and deadly. Or they race to shallow water – to the shore where whole pods beach themselves in devastating pain and delirium.

A naval exercise can be 200km away but whales can transmit and receive sound waves over 2000km. This is how they communicate over vast distances, how they find each other in different parts of the ocean. And those lines of communication are being blasted apart by naval sonar and blocked by supertankers that run interference. Then there is the constant whine of outboard motors or rumble of deisels.

Cetaceans have finely tuned senses but modern urban humans have so blunted ours that we’ve lost the joy of connection with the Earth and her creatures; the smells, sounds and tastes.

But all is not lost – not yet . The rest of nature is calling us to return and no one is calling more sonorously or more seductively than the cetaceans. Whale and dolphin cultures may hold wisdom for human societies in ways we haven’t even dreamed. But we’ll never know unless we learn how to communicate with them.

Two centuries ago there were 10 times as many whales swimming and frolicking in the ocean. There were steam ships and sailboats and fishing boats. And there were some unfortunate collisions. But humans and whales managed to share the ocean currents. With all the capacity humans have now to design ships and fishing gear that would be whale friendly what are we waiting for?