COMMENTARY ELLEN_HUSAIN EMANUEL_GOULART KEL_SWEETING MAN RENE_HEUZEY ROB_TAYLOR ROB_TAYLOR_PTC STEVE_BACKSHALL STEVE_BACKSHALL_PTC WOMAN DANIEL_ALGUILAR_CAMACHO COMMENTARY Whales… ocean giants… ancient mariners… COMMENTARY Their songs, majesty and sheer size fill us with joy and awe. COMMENTARY In their vast shadow, a human can feel very small. COMMENTARY They were here long before us… COMMENTARY Caring for their young… COMMENTARY Hunting… COMMENTARY Voyaging… COMMENTARY But now we are changing their world. So now I want to see through their eyes, meeting them on their terms, to find how their future and ours are inseparable. COMMENTARY I’m exploring our kinship with whales and dolphins. COMMENTARY Once dubbed devilfish, we now know they need our help. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC For the entirety of human history, whales have been creatures of myth and legend, shrouded in mystery, with us knowing little of their secret lives. STEVE BACKSHALL But now, leaps in technology are offering us a window into their world. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We are entering a golden era of understanding the world of the whale. COMMENTARY Much of that mystery is down to their ocean home. COMMENTARY A place that we humans can only fleetingly visit, and rarely to the depths they can dive to. COMMENTARY But despite our differences, whales are mammals like us; and it turns out, we have more in common than you might think. COMMENTARY I’m starting my journey in one of the most remote places in the Atlantic, the Azores. COMMENTARY Searching for the whale that was probably the most misunderstood of all… the sperm whale. STEVE BACKSHALL There it is! Full breach! Sensational. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC This is one of the deepest diving creatures on the planet, able to get down to well over 2,000 metres in depth, and to hold their breath up to two hours. COMMENTARY These astonishing animals are also our largest toothed predator. COMMENTARY Mariners both respected and feared them, believing they could swallow fishermen or even boats, whole. COMMENTARY The reality is perhaps even more dramatic. These leviathans battle giant squid in the darkness of the deep, before returning and leaping. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Our whale is breaching repetitively. It seems to be totally disinterested in us and our boat, completely focused on its task, which gives us the perfect opportunity to get in and swim alongside. COMMENTARY Whales sometimes react to the bubbles of a human scuba diver… COMMENTARY …so, it’s far better to dive as they do, using just the air of a single breath, or freediving. COMMENTARY Swimming alongside this enormous whale, it’s hard to believe that, as mammals, we share a common ancestor. COMMENTARY Its giant form is honed to life in the deep ocean, and so different from my own. COMMENTARY But then our connection is revealed… COMMENTARY Just like me, this sperm whale must come to the surface to breathe. COMMENTARY And pretty soon… I have to do the same. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Wow. That was incredible! Underwater is the only time that you get any real sense of the scale of the animal; and also, the power, and the speed. Being alongside them, they appear motionless, but they can just disappear into the blue. COMMENTARY Their size and strength made it inevitable that humans would fear them and made it easy to treat them as just a simple commodity. COMMENTARY It happened right here in the Azores. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC These buildings are the remnants of the factory part of a whaling station. This was still active when I was a kid, in fact, the last whale was killed here in the Azores in 1987, when I was at school. COMMENTARY All over the world, sperm whales and others were ruthlessly hunted. COMMENTARY It’s said that the oils rendered from their bodies lit the lamps of the industrial revolution. Other parts were used for products, from fuel to fertiliser. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC For me as a naturalist, so many of the highlights of my life and my job have been working with animals like this, and seeing them like that… it’s almost impossible to take. COMMENTARY But over time the brutality of the slaughter became public knowledge and there was uproar. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC People took to the streets in protest. Governments rallied, and whaling was banned by almost every nation. COMMENTARY Globally, some species are recovering. Now the majority of nations are no longer hunting them, we’ve begun a new relationship with whales, where science leads the way. COMMENTARY Whales, dolphins and porpoises are collectively known as cetaceans. COMMENTARY By studying them, we’ve discovered how social some species can be. COMMENTARY Here in the Azores, I’ve tracked down a small group of female sperm whales… Hoping to see this for myself. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC In some ways, male and female sperm whales are so different, they’re almost like completely separate animals. The males lead largely solitary lives, heading up into Arctic seas and all the way down into the Antarctic. The females, though, are a seriously social animal. COMMENTARY Females remain with their birth pod for life. COMMENTARY So this is probably a mother and her daughters. COMMENTARY The rubbing of heads helps remove barnacles, lice and dead skin… COMMENTARY But as with us, touch is hugely important; for bonding, perhaps even for reassurance. COMMENTARY With no arms to hug, this is the best way to give and receive affection. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s moments like that, when you see such tenderness between animals that you start to feel some kinda kinship with them. You know, even though this is a creature that’s 20-odd tonnes in weight, when you see a mother interacting with its youngsters, and them just enjoying the physical contact, all of a sudden, you can see that they have so much in common with us, and it’s actually quite an emotional thing. COMMENTARY The more we look, the more we see our own lives reflected. COMMENTARY In some of the other 90 or so species of cetaceans, relationships can be even more complex. That’s certainly true of the friendships, collaborations and rivalries we see in the cetacean we often think of as the most friendly... the dolphin. COMMENTARY Since the end of the era of whaling we’ve entered a golden age of discovery about whales and uncovered an animal that has a lot in common with humans. COMMENTARY The remote islands of the Azores are a perfect place for me to dive with them on their terms and explore further. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The diversity of whale and dolphin life here is pretty much unparalleled, and because there are dozens of species that pass through these waters, or that live here, pretty much anything could turn up. COMMENTARY But of all the animals we hoped we might encounter here, there’s one I’m particularly excited to come across. STEVE BACKSHALL Look at that! What! That can’t be happening. COMMENTARY These large blunt-nosed dolphins are known as Risso’s. COMMENTARY They’re often spotted at a distance but are notoriously shy. COMMENTARY I’ve never even come close to them in the water before. COMMENTARY This one plunge could reveal all sorts of things about their mysterious lives. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I didn’t think I would ever see Risso’s dolphins underwater, and they are a very surreal sight. They kind of appear to be white or light grey, but when you get up close you can see that it’s scarring criss-crossed all over the head and the body, and that’s from fights with other Risso’s dolphins, particularly males fighting other males. COMMENTARY Risso’s live in all male groups, an unusual thing for whales. COMMENTARY But living in an all-male gang, status is everything, and that’s where the scars come in. COMMENTARY It’s thought they act like tattoos that visually display an individual’s status, with the oldest males being almost completely white. COMMENTARY But this is something else. COMMENTARY On an unseen cue, the whole group turns and comes together. COMMENTARY Bubbles, like touch, are tactile, stimulating. Perhaps this is a moment of group bonding. Like a team cheer, or a battle cry before hunting. COMMENTARY This form of social bonding was only recently discovered by scientists. COMMENTARY Every time you delve beneath the surface of their social lives, you see something familiar to us. COMMENTARY The word dolphin applies to around 40 species of toothed whale and they’re surprisingly diverse. COMMENTARY They range from the black and white Commerson’s dolphin, which can weigh as little as 30 kilos to the Amazon river dolphin, which lives in fresh water… all the way up to giant predators like pilot whales… and orca, the largest members of the dolphin family. COMMENTARY I’m crossing the Atlantic and heading to one of the best places to understand their lives. The Bahamas, in the Caribbean. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Dolphins live in so-called fission-fusion societies. That means that their groups are always in flux. So, sometimes they could be flying solo, they could be hanging out with their families or their friends. Other times they’ll come together in pods that could be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of animals strong. COMMENTARY If fission-fusion groups sound familiar, it's because that’s just how we live. COMMENTARY Many scientists believe it was the growth of complex societies that drove humans to evolve bigger brains; and, might also explain why dolphins are so clever. COMMENTARY To find out more I’m heading out onto these Caribbean seas to find one of the most sociable dolphin species. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC These are spotted dolphins. The ones that have the really definitive dappling, those are the mature animals. The smaller ones haven’t got their spots yet, and they’re just, like this one here, that’s no more than a calf. But the reason they’ve come to the front of our boat is that they know pretty soon we’re gonna start moving, and that’s when things really kick off. COMMENTARY Surfing the bow waves of boats might be more energy efficient, allowing dolphins to swim further and faster. But that’s not the only reason. Dolphins are nature’s thrill seekers. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC There is no more pure expression of joy in the natural world than seeing dolphins riding the wave at the front of your boat. They’ll fall into the spray at the bow, and sometimes stay for hours, and then other times, it’s just a fleeting dance, and then they’re gone. STEVE BACKSHALL Woah! Ho, ho, ho! COMMENTARY Scientists think that playing is a critical part of their development, but in the right situation they’ll look for playmates outside their own group. COMMENTARY Even to people. COMMENTARY But whether or not they want to include me in their game will be entirely up to them. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Even with this powered scooter, just a couple of flips of those tail flukes and they are gone, there is no way you could ever keep up with them. So, you have to try and look at intriguing as you possibly can. There’s no point swimming straight towards them, it’s all gotta be on their terms, but if you can look like fun, they’ll stay and play for hours. COMMENTARY Playing helps practice essential physical skills, like hunting, mating, and avoiding predators, whether you’re flying solo or in a group. COMMENTARY But like the rough and tumble of a children’s playground, having a large number of different playmates is unpredictable, and can make this learning much more effective. COMMENTARY If they play like us, and hang out in ever-changing friendships like us, could dolphins also share our most complex social skill of all: language? COMMENTARY We know some dolphins appear to use different noises to indicate different states, like courtship, or stress. Some dolphins also use a signature whistle to identify themselves. COMMENTARY But dolphins don’t just hang out with the same species. COMMENTARY KEL SWEETING is a scientist who’s been studying interactions between two different types of dolphins, both found here in the Bahamas. STEVE BACKSHALL So, you have this incredible situation here, where you have different species that are sometimes living together. What can you tell me about that? KEL SWEETING Here in Bimini, we have two species of dolphins. The Atlantic spotted, and the bottle-nose dolphins. Most of the time, if you come upon dolphins, it’s a single species group, but sometimes they’re together, and they’re actually interacting. STEVE BACKSHALL And do the spotteds and the bottle-nose have different use of communication and sound? KEL SWEETING Dolphins in general have a wide vocal repertoire. Squeaks, squawks, whistles, chirps. They also have postures and gestures, and so there’s probably a lot of overlap. Bottle-nose and spotted probably understand each other quite well when we think of communication as a whole. COMMENTARY We don’t yet know precisely what dolphins might be saying to one another, but science tells us it’s more complex than we thought. COMMENTARY If dolphins are nature’s chatterboxes, other whales do things differently. COMMENTARY In the next part of my journey, I want to find out why some whales want to be heard hundreds of miles away, and how their sound-sensing powers can put whales in danger. COMMENTARY The more we understand whales, the more we discover we have in common. COMMENTARY Modern science and technology allow us to appreciate the whales’ underwater world in ways we never thought possible. COMMENTARY Some of the biggest breakthroughs are in long-distance whale communication. COMMENTARY To find out more, I’ve crossed into the Pacific Ocean to the paradise island of Tahiti in French Polynesia. COMMENTARY Where the seas resound with a familiar and bewitching tune. COMMENTARY The song of the humpback. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We often think of our seas as being a silent world, but the truth is that’s very rarely the case, and certainly not here in French Polynesia during humpback breeding season. This is a hydrophone, which is a highly sensitive underwater microphone. So, let’s drop it in and see what we can hear. Humpback Whale song STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Oh, there it is. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC That is beautiful. COMMENTARY Male humpbacks sing long and complex songs, sometimes lasting hours at a time. COMMENTARY Scientists suggest the songs may be advertisements; sea-borne serenades showing off to potential mates. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC One of the most amazing things about whale song is sound carries about four times faster in water than it does in air, and it can travel further, too. So, whales can be communicating with each other across entire seas. COMMENTARY The crooning male could still be many miles away, but I’ve found some females close by, and I want to know if they’re listening. COMMENTARY Down here, I can hear the song without a microphone. COMMENTARY These females are surely aware of his love songs. But, are they impressed? COMMENTARY Females may not sing… COMMENTARY But they are far from silent. COMMENTARY Her giant pectoral fins are the longest fins, and indeed limbs on the planet. COMMENTARY Slapped on the surface, they turn the ocean into a giant drum. COMMENTARY The sounds and vibrations carry all around… and may be a reply to the male’s song. COMMENTARY Humpback courtship is intense and can turn violent. It’s best not to linger with huge limbs and tails flailing through the water. COMMENTARY The humpback is the most tuneful, and best-known whale vocalist, but many others also call long distance. COMMENTARY The blue whale; the largest animal ever known to have lived, creates deep sounds too low for our ears. This infrasound travels over 800 kilometres. COMMENTARY Whales have evolved in this acoustic realm, so they also use sound to navigate… COMMENTARY …And to hunt, using echolocation. COMMENTARY Despite their lack of external ears, they have other means for receiving and processing sounds. With twice the auditory nerve cells of humans, most can hear a far wider range of frequencies. COMMENTARY But highly sensitive hearing has consequences. They cannot escape noise and the soundscape of the sea has changed. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We’re only now starting to understand quite how vital sound is to whales and dolphins. It’s possible they may have language every bit as sophisticated and complex as our own. What we do know is how much they need silent seas, and that we as humans are turning them into unbearably noisy places. COMMENTARY Since the 1950s, ocean sound may have doubled every decade. COMMENTARY Shipping… COMMENTARY …drilling for oil… COMMENTARY …and other human activities create a constant background drone. COMMENTARY Other sounds are much more violent. COMMENTARY Explosive charges in the hunt for fossil fuels… COMMENTARY …and naval blasts can destroy a whale’s hearing. COMMENTARY As they try to flee the noise they may surface too quickly, suffering decompression sickness. COMMENTARY Noise pollution might even lead to a tragedy that kills thousands of whales and dolphins… stranding. COMMENTARY Probably the worst affected species, is the pilot whale. COMMENTARY These live in close-knit family groups that roam the globe hunting for deep sea squid. COMMENTARY And, where one goes… the others follow. COMMENTARY But if noise exposure causes one to be driven ashore by deafness or disorientation, their close bonds mean the rest of the family won’t leave it behind. COMMENTARY Without assistance, the whole pod can perish. COMMENTARY I’m heading to the British Isles… and the rugged coast of South Wales to find out what can be done. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC With stranding incidences increasing worldwide, the way we deal with them has never been more critical. COMMENTARY All around the world, volunteer groups are offering training, to teach the essentials of rescue, and whale first aid. COMMENTARY This whale is just a replica, but, in a real-life stranding, a fast response would be critical. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Cetaceans have evolved over millions of years to live in the water, to have their body weight supported. The second they’re on land, they are on borrowed time. COMMENTARY Without the support of the water a whale’s organs will collapse. They’re also unable to regulate their body temperature and will quickly overheat. COMMENTARY So it’s vital to know the best way to keep a whale cool, and its fragile skin safe from injury, while we work to return it to the sea. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Even with a whale of this sort of size, it’s still gonna weigh well over a tonne. COMMENTARY There’s no way we can lift it, so we have to rely on the tide coming back in. MAN Is everyone ready? MAN Yeah, go on, (WOMAN – Yeah) one, two, three, go. COMMENTARY When emergencies happen for real, like this one in New Zealand, we know this huge effort can work, and hundreds of whales have already been saved by volunteers working in this way. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC If this was the real deal, right now, you’d be freezing cold and exhausted, but coming out of the sea having seen a whale head back out, and knowing that your hard work made that possible, which I think would be just about the most satisfying thing you could ever do. COMMENTARY Despite efforts to protect them, changes in our oceans are putting whales and dolphins in danger. COMMENTARY But to keep them safe, we need to understand them. COMMENTARY In the next part of my journey I want to seek out the people forming unique bonds with whales… and ask what we can all do to give whales and dolphins a brighter future. COMMENTARY Humanity has come a long way in our relationship with whales. COMMENTARY But because so much of their lives take place far from land in deep water… we still have a lot to learn. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC For most species of whales and dolphins, simple things like breeding, giving birth, and even feeding, have never been seen. So much of their world is a mystery to us. COMMENTARY And because their realm is effectively off-limits, it takes dedication and resourcefulness to unlock their secrets. COMMENTARY Here on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, one pioneering team have forged close bonds with a special pod of sperm whales. RENE HEUZEY My name is RENE HEUZEY, I am an underwater cameraman, and I’m filming the sperm whale in Mauritius since 12 years. RENE HEUZEY When you dive from 12 years with the same family, it’s like your family. RENE HEUZEY For me, it’s very magical. It’s amazing, because I am just a little human. COMMENTARY René has been diving with the same sperm whales for so long, that they’ve learned to accept his presence. COMMENTARY He can identify each individual by name, and knows their unique histories. But of all the whales in the group, there’s one he’s most eager to see… COMMENTARY Chesna. COMMENTARY These first shots of her as a new-born were captured six years ago. Since then René has dived alongside her over and over again. Today is the first dive of the year and Chesna has come to greet him. RENE HEUZEY I would like to know one thing very very important, I would like to know how to communicate between sperm whale and the human. COMMENTARY Knowing many whales use bubbles to communicate, Rene has adapted his dive regulator to mimic their emissions and uses it to signal his recognition. COMMENTARY Almost immediately Chesna signals back. RENE HEUZEY When you are looking eyes to eyes, and for me, it’s a magical moment, and I have a lot of emotion, because I recognise Chesna, and Chesna recognise me. She accept me. COMMENTARY This gift, to be able to get to know individual whales, has benefits for science. COMMENTARY It’s enabled René and his colleagues to create the first detailed whale family tree. COMMENTARY And this is more than a family… It’s a community. COMMENTARY This is a baby sperm whale. He’s tiny and, while he’s so small, almost totally dependent on his mother because he can’t yet dive to any depth. COMMENTARY When she descends into the deep to feed… he must remain on the surface. COMMENTARY But he isn’t abandoned. COMMENTARY His mother has left him in under the watchful eye of a babysitter. She keeps him close and defends him from predators. But that’s not all she does. COMMENTARY After an hour of hunting, his mother returns to the surface to breathe. COMMENTARY Exhausted, there’s only one thing she wants to do… Rest… Hanging vertically to sleep. COMMENTARY He tries to suckle… but without success. COMMENTARY But her baby needs to feed. He tries his luck with the babysitter. COMMENTARY She isn’t his mother but can be… a wet nurse. COMMENTARY Milk flows from a concealed nipple in front of her tail. This has rarely been filmed. COMMENTARY Caring for the infants of others, or alloparenting, is incredibly rare in the natural world. Less than 3% of mammals do it... among them, of course, are humans. COMMENTARY With every piece of science that emerges, whales look less like ominous and mysterious ocean devils and more like our close mammal kin. COMMENTARY Nowhere has the human-whale relationship changed more dramatically, than in the peninsula of Baja California in the eastern Pacific. COMMENTARY This was once the site of bloody battles between man and whale. COMMENTARY Whalers would target calves and the mothers would smash their boats to pieces, earning them the name devilfish. COMMENTARY Even when whaling was banned here in 1947, fishermen continued to fear the whales for decades. COMMENTARY But not anymore. Daniel Aguilar Camacho (Speaks own language) COMMENTARY As well as being a fisherman, Daniel has a special licence, allowing him to take visitors out into the lagoons to go looking for whales. COMMENTARY But they never have to look for long. DANIEL ALGUILAR CAMACHO We have a whale at 12 o’clock. COMMENTARY These grey whales could be descendants of those that survived the era of whaling. COMMENTARY Despite their gruesome past, the whales don’t smash the boats or flee. Instead, they seek them out. DANIEL ALGUILAR CAMACHO Another one is coming this way. WOMAN It’s got a calf! It’s got a baby! COMMENTARY The mothers even encourage their babies to meet their first humans. WOMAN Ha ha ha. Hi! Ha ha. WOMAN Hola mi amor. WOMAN Ha ha. It is so playful! WOMAN You can see, like, the mum is just pushing the baby. So, she is letting us play with him. WOMAN She’s just spectacular. It’s so m-, immense to have them so close to you. Ha ha. DANIEL ALGUILAR CAMACHO People, they, they say they forget everything about life with that interaction with the whales. They renew their heart. COMMENTARY San Ignacio was once a slaughter site for whales. Now, the fishermen are their guardians. Numbers of visitors are strictly limited, and the nurseries are protected by law. WOMAN I think we are honoured to have these whales in these lagoons. And this bond began with the fishermen, no? COMMENTARY Gray whales are migratory, soon these infants will have to leave this sanctuary and head into unprotected seas. COMMENTARY But for now they’re safe. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC San Ignacio is an inspiring tale of how human attitudes to whales can change in just one generation. But if we want whales to have a future, we need this to be repeated everywhere. COMMENTARY For whales and dolphins to flourish, they need safe havens. COMMENTARY A refuge from our fishing, our shipping, and our noise. COMMENTARY Where we safeguard their food, their nurseries and everything else they need. COMMENTARY Currently these make up just a tiny fraction of our seas. COMMENTARY But there is hope… on the horizon. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC In 2023, the United Nations came up with a plan to protect 30% of our oceans by 2030, the biggest conservation win in my lifetime. If we care about our whale and dolphin cousins, it’s up to us to make that happen. Especially, now we know how much we have in common. COMMENTARY When we set out to make a series about whales, we knew we were in for a challenge. COMMENTARY With some species almost impossible to see, let alone film. COMMENTARY As a stopping off point for all sorts of Atlantic marine life, the Azores is a hotspot for whales. COMMENTARY These islands play host to dozens of whale species, either resident or passing through. As such, they were once a focus for whaling. COMMENTARY But knowing they’re around is just the start. Some whales travel fast and only surface for a few minutes at a time. COMMENTARY So, for director Ellen Hussain, it was critical to be in the right place at the right time. ELLEN HUSAIN We’re at their mercy, they’re such big animals, they can move so fast compared to us. We just have to hope they allow us to film with them. COMMENTARY When we finally found our first whale… ELLEN HUSAIN Manuel, let us know. Emanuel Goulert (talks into radio) ?? COMMENTARY Local guide Emanuel Goulert gave us the signal to enter the water. EMANUEL GOULART If you wanna dive now, go now. WOMAN Go! EMANUEL GOULART Here, they’re here. COMMENTARY We had special permission to dive with the whales here, which are protected by law. COMMENTARY But even giant ocean predators can be surprisingly sensitive… STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I had a bit too much of a splash going into the water, and the whale heard it and turned away. COMMENTARY We needed to get to know each whale and assess their mood before getting the camera team in place. And the techniques used to find whales in days gone by still work. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Our method for finding whales basically hasn’t changed in 100 years. We’re standing here looking out to the horizon for the, the blows or the spouts from the whales. But we have one added advantage. Up on the hillsides around us, in the exact same lookout spots as were used during the era of whaling, we have spotters. The one difference is, if they see whales, they get on the radio and tell us where they are, as opposed to mobilising the boats to head out to hunt. COMMENTARY We also used another whaling technique to hone in on our targets. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Calves are not as adept at diving at their mothers, so they have to stay at the surface, and because of that, if you can keep an eye on one of the young calves, you’ve always got a kind of focus point for where the adults are eventually gonna be. COMMENTARY This method gave camera operator Rob Taylor the chance to capture one of our most memorable encounters. STEVE BACKSHALL This looks good, this looks very good. You set, Rob? ROB TAYLOR Yeah. ELLEN HUSAIN Okay, divers in. WOMAN (on radio) Okay, copy that. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It really is quite something. It kind of feels just like you’re watching a human mother having a cuddle with their baby. They just seem so calm, so chilled out. Clearly just relaxing at the end of the day. Very, very beautiful. COMMENTARY With long days out at sea on the North Atlantic, anything could happen. COMMENTARY Spotters had directed us south, to a feeding gathering… but there was a surprise in store. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We’ve just had to stop, because we’ve been surrounded by a pod of Risso’s dolphins. Normally Risso’s are super shy, they disappear at the first sign of a boat or a person, but these are just hanging out at the surface. COMMENTARY This left us with a dilemma. Getting footage of Risso’s would be a real coup, but if we wasted hours trying and didn’t succeed, we’d have missed the big action down south. Cameraman Rob was undecided. ROB TAYLOR You don’t normally ever try to film Risso dolphins, because you can’t film them, essentially. Emanual Goulert 10 o’clock, 5 metre on the low. STEVE BACKSHALL Straight down, Rob, straight down! ELLEN HUSAIN This looks good. COMMENTARY Against all the odds, our gamble paid off. The Risso’s cruised by, seemingly oblivious, and we captured something very special indeed. STEVE BACKSHALL That was completely surreal. ROB TAYLOR That was amazing! Unbelievable. Ha ha. STEVE BACKSHALL We are very, very happy. ROB TAYLOR PTC I’ve never, ever seen Risso dolphin behaving like this at all. I mean, that was crazy. They, yeah, I mean… They don’t, they don’t do that. MAN – Ha ha ha COMMENTARY We followed in the footsteps of whalers, to explore our close kinship. And by pure chance, captured a moment that adds to our understanding of these enigmatic animals.