Swimming With Whales

Probably Best To Use Scuba Gear

I watched a couple of really cool nature channel type programs in the past couple of days. It was about the life of whales and did some awfully exhaustive amount of filming with underwater video camcorders. They started by zooming away to places where whales are generally spotted and followed a pod of humpback whales. The divers even touched them as if they were petting the neighbors dog. That puts "Moby Dick" in a whole new perspective I'd say.

They went on to talk about how they communicate with each other or was it pinging with built-in sonar? In any case they played loads of audio of the whales moaning and squealing. They were said to be vegetarians, swimming through the plankton rich water with their mouths open so that the little plankton, shrimp and other critters would get snagged in there mouth. When they had a full load in their mouth - they would swallow it and continue. Kind of like elephants - takes a lot of food to keep moving. They did show the Sperm whale chomping giant squid and did some amazing animated footage to show how they would literally explode on these squid who never knew what hit them.

They went up to the Arctic regions to show Beluga whales, like kids bobbing for apples. They would find a nice breathing hole and hang around it taking turns at getting their ration of the life giving air. They were in it so much that the water couldn't freeze, even in the below zero temperatures. They explained about the dwindling whale populations and called for the cessation of all whale hunting or harvesting. They explained their life cycle - from breeding to birth and so on to adulthood. They are near extinction and I must agree that they are too wonderful to be completely exterminated form the planet. Yeah - Save the whales!