COMMENTARY DR_IAN_KERR MAN PROFESOR_AUDUN_RICKARDSEN PROF_ROCHELLE_CONSTANTINE ROB_TAYLOR STEVE_BACKSHALL STEVE_BACKSHALL_PTC 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. COMMENTARY So now I want to see through their eyes, meeting them on their terms to find how their future and ours are inseparable. COMMENTARY Whales are the largest mammals on the planet. COMMENTARY Their streamlined bodies, powerful tail flukes, and huge reserves of energy… COMMENTARY …make them perfectly evolved for a life of ocean crossing voyages. COMMENTARY Migrations! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Whales undertake the most epic journeys of any animals, with some species travelling thousands of miles every year, following routes their ancestors have used for generations. COMMENTARY For centuries their seasonal journeys, and the reasons they chose certain destinations, were a mystery. COMMENTARY Now, for the first time, science has mapped their migrations, revealing whale superhighways that crisscross our planet. COMMENTARY I want to know if this offers new insights into why whales travel so far, and what’s happening as they try to navigate our changing oceans. COMMENTARY I’m starting my journey in Tahiti, in French Polynesia, an important hotspot on the whale migration map. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Tahiti is an island nation, surrounded by miles and miles of open pacific. Perhaps best known for its dramatic and iconic surf. The swell that creates these waves has travelled for thousands of kilometres to reach here. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC But humpback whales are one of our planet’s greatest migrants, travel even further, all the way from the chilly waters of Antarctica to come here for the most important moment of their lives. COMMENTARY This may seem like paradise to us, but Antarctica is where the humpback’s food is. So why do females leave that behind, and travel thousands of kilometres to give birth here? STEVE BACKSHALL PTC This is the most commonly seen sight of the humpback. Indeed, it’s what gives it its name, that distinctive humpback shape. Right now, this female is just hanging at the surface, taking it easy while the small calf moves around her. COMMENTARY This mother has earned her rest. COMMENTARY It took 3 months to swim here… COMMENTARY …and then she gave birth to her one tonne baby. COMMENTARY I want to see how she’s getting on. COMMENTARY Down here, I can feel the reason Tahiti is so appealing. The water’s calm and warm. COMMENTARY Coming here means she can spend less energy keeping herself warm, and more energy nursing her calf. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC They look so calm and tranquil. For the female though, these are really tough times. While she’s here feeding her calf she’s spending enormous amounts of energy and not feeding at all. COMMENTARY Her fasting can last 9 months, so she must conserve every bit of energy. COMMENTARY While she rests, her calf is free to discover the world around it. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The female is almost saying, “Go on now, go and play with your new friends.” COMMENTARY Under Mum’s watchful eye, the calf uses its newfound freedom to play. COMMENTARY Just a few months old, this calf is getting to know its own body. COMMENTARY Soon, it must swim to Antarctica, on its first migration. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The calf just wouldn’t leave us alone. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments when an animal sees you, seeks out your company and wants to interact with you. It’s totally on their terms. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I think that’s probably, in 25 years working with animals, the best thing that’s ever happened to me. COMMENTARY Whales travel here because these waters offer optimum conditions, but we are changing that. The planet is heating up. COMMENTARY Recently, the world’s ocean surface temperature was at its highest since records began. COMMENTARY If the water’s warm beyond their tolerance, humpbacks could lose these perfect nurseries forever. COMMENTARY Over to the northeast of the Pacific, Gray whales face one of the longest journeys of all. COMMENTARY Up to 10 thousand kilometres from Alaska all the way to Mexico. COMMENTARY It’s winter, and this female has been heading south for two months. COMMENTARY Her goal was to reach warm safe waters before she gave birth… COMMENTARY …but her calf has been born on the way. COMMENTARY It’s the last thing she wanted. COMMENTARY Changing sea ice in her Alaskan feeding grounds impacted the food she relies on. COMMENTARY Forced to feed further north, her migration is longer than normal, and taking more time. COMMENTARY Just days old, her baby is unprepared for the journey. COMMENTARY But they must keep moving. COMMENTARY She tries to support him. COMMENTARY But he is still weak. COMMENTARY Their plight was filmed off the Californian coast, a thousand kilometres short of their safer Mexican birthing lagoons. COMMENTARY It’s not known if they ever made it. COMMENTARY Whales need better protection for their habitats, and the superhighways that connect them. COMMENTARY I want to see what’s being done. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The peoples of Polynesia are some of the world’s fines seafarers, able to cross entire oceans in small boats not much bigger than this va’a or outrigger. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Just as they sometimes had to leave the sanctuary of the lagoons and head out into the terrors of the big blue, the humpbacks too, can’t stay here forever. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC They’re going to have to set off on one of the most dangerous journeys in nature. COMMENTARY While it’s an ideal nursery, Tahiti offers nothing in the way of food. COMMENTARY This female has barely eaten since she left Antarctica 6 months ago. COMMENTARY She must now return to the freezing waters of the south. COMMENTARY Her young calf will join her. COMMENTARY It’s a huge undertaking, swimming over 6,000 kilometres through open ocean. COMMENTARY To survive, the calf will need to be in peak physical condition. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Two here. Two here! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Mother and calf, I think, breaching in front of us. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Breaching is a really interesting form of behaviour. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Here in these waters you often see the youngsters, the calves breaching, and they’ll go over and over and over again and the energy they need to expend to get out of the water is immense. COMMENTARY Research suggests this could be a form of training. COMMENTARY Building the strength needed for the vast migration that lies ahead. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Eventually the youngsters are strong enough to make their epic journey to Antarctica, but it’s a trip that’s fraught with danger. COMMENTARY The discovery of whale superhighways comes at a critical time as their long journeys put them right in the path of our increasing boat traffic. COMMENTARY Here in Nanuu Bay on Tahiti’s North coast, the problem is clear. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC For humpback whale calves it’s incredibly challenging. They can’t dive down as deep as their mothers. They spend much more time nearer the surface and ferries like this are heading back and forth between these islands all the time, putting these animals in constant peril. COMMENTARY The risk of collision turns this sanctuary into a danger zone. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC A boat this size has hundreds of tonnes of force behind it. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Being struck by that is gonna be fatal for any whale, no matter how big it is. COMMENTARY Around the world, ship strikes kill dozens of whales each year. COMMENTARY The number of vessels is rising. By 2050, shipping traffic is projected to increase up to 1000%. COMMENTARY For migratory whales, their ocean world has become a minefield. COMMENTARY The search for solutions is underway and one success story can be found in New Zealand. COMMENTARY The Port of Auckland was a whale-collision hotspot. COMMENTARY The shipping routes plough right through the habitat of resident Bryde’s whales. COMMENTARY These sleek hunters consume schooling fish in shallow waters… COMMENTARY …when they can catch them. COMMENTARY But this means they spend a lot of time near the surface, in the path of passing ships. COMMENTARY PROD Constantine is an expert in marine mammal conservation. PROF ROCHELLE CONSTANTINE That’s an example of the ships that you know transit through the Gulf. If this ship was going full speed, the whales would stand no chance if they were in the path of this ship. PROF ROCHELLE CONSTANTINE About 15 years ago, we had around 2 to 3 whales a year washing ashore with injuries consistent with a ship strike. COMMENTARY Her solution was simple - to persuade shipping companies to reduce speeds to just 10 knots in specific zones. PROF ROCHELLE CONSTANTINE Since they’ve slowed down, no whales have been found dead from ship strike. Whales have time to get out of the way. Such a great conservation win. COMMENTARY Helping whales doesn’t always have to be complicated or costly. COMMENTARY And the more we discover about their superhighways, the better we're able to make positive change. COMMENTARY Whales migrate for MANy reasons… COMMENTARY …and one of the strongest motivators, is the need to mate. COMMENTARY This is a Southern Right Whale. COMMENTARY The white 'callosities' on their heads are as unique as fingerprints. COMMENTARY This one is a female. COMMENTARY She’s travelled thousands of kilometres from the Southern Ocean, to Argentina's Valdes Peninsula. COMMENTARY She’s not alone. COMMENTARY Over 1500 southern rights arrive each year in late summer. COMMENTARY Calm shallow bays offer ideal conditions to breed in… COMMENTARY …and to nurture newborn babies. COMMENTARY But not every female is here to give birth. COMMENTARY This one is looking to meet a wide range of male suitors… COMMENTARY She has no intention of mating with the first male to approach. COMMENTARY Instead, she attracts several males who have to compete for her attention. COMMENTARY Rolling on her back, she keeps her genital region out of reach until she’s ready. COMMENTARY She’s looking to test their agility and stamina. COMMENTARY When a strong suitor has jostled into the closest position she rolls on to her front. COMMENTARY This is his chance to mate with her. COMMENTARY But when another male takes his place, she mates with him too, sometimes repeatedly, and the competition for paternity continues inside her body. COMMENTARY Their one-tonne testicles produce huge quantities of sperm, to displace that of their rivals. COMMENTARY It’s all part of her strategy. COMMENTARY Males that mate the most times and produce the strongest sperm, have the best chance of fathering her next calf. COMMENTARY These waters are also vital to southern right whales for calving, but infant mortality is on the rise here and I want to find out why. COMMENTARY HuMAN activity is transforming the oceans… COMMENTARY …and whales are facing the consequences. COMMENTARY In Argentina, calm, shallow waters used to offer newborn calves’ safety from predators, but that is changing. COMMENTARY Just metres from shore, are a southern right whale mum and calf. COMMENTARY The mother travelled up to three thousand kilometres to find a safe, quiet place to give birth and nurture her baby. COMMENTARY She provides up to 300 litres of milk a day. COMMENTARY But the peace of this tranquil hideaway… COMMENTARY …is being shattered. COMMENTARY Kelp gulls have learned to feed on the skin and blubber of whales. COMMENTARY And, as calves need to surface more frequently to breathe, they suffer the most. COMMENTARY Although it’s the gulls that do the damage… COMMENTARY …we’ve played our part. COMMENTARY Birds first attracted here by waste, from landfill and fish processing… COMMENTARY …have developed a taste for whale flesh. COMMENTARY Now, the back of almost every calf carries open wounds. COMMENTARY Time for resting and feeding is lost to avoiding gulls and calf mortality is on the rise. COMMENTARY Soon these infants must embark on the long migration to the feeding grounds their mothers came from. COMMENTARY The most injured are the least likely to survive. COMMENTARY We’ve come a long way in our knowledge of whale superhighways… COMMENTARY …but we need to know more. COMMENTARY Rapidly advancing technology could help further our understanding. COMMENTARY A good place to see for myself is this vital pit stop for whales in the Atlantic, the Azores. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC This is a social group of female sperm whales with a couple of youngsters and juveniles. COMMENTARY Their large heads hold a brain six times the size of a huMAN’s… COMMENTARY …but our knowledge of how they use it is limited. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC But one of the ways that science is starting to unravel the mysteries of the sperm whales secret life is using sound, and I have here a highly directional hydrophone, it’s essentially a normal hydrophone welded onto a dog’s bowl. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I’m gonna listen out and see if I can hear anything. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Ah there! There, there! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC So what I’m hearing is a ticking sound. This is coda, which is a kind of dialect, a language that females use when they’re at the surface. COMMENTARY These series of clicks are exchanged in social encounters, much like people talking when they meet. COMMENTARY Some codas are highly variable… COMMENTARY …but others are more uniform, a dialect shared by all whales in the same region. COMMENTARY While we understand the basics, their full meaning has always been beyond our grasp. COMMENTARY But now, scientists are using artificial intelligence to try to decode coda. COMMENTARY The results could transform our understanding of sperm whales. COMMENTARY And one day, may even enable us to talk to them. COMMENTARY Elsewhere, other high tech tools are shedding light on whales’ long distance journeys. COMMENTARY Until recently, tracking devices that give us data while they’re on the move were fairly limited. COMMENTARY Pioneering scientist, DR IAN KERR, has made it his mission to change that. DR IAN KERR I’ve dedicated 32 years of my life to whales. We developed a system whereby we actually attach a data and a camera tag to a whale using a drone. COMMENTARY In Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, he and his team are looking for the largest whale of all - the blue whale. DR IAN KERR So let’s come out here, head up along the inside of the coast where we can see the blows against the shoreline. MAN Here we can fire the drone, no problem. DR IAN KERR Exactly. MAN (Speaks Spanish) Bueno Vistos, a uno. COMMENTARY MANy blue whales migrate here in winter, from the northern Pacific Ocean. DR IAN KERR Oh, hold on. MAN Over here. Yeah. There’s a whale over here. DR IAN KERR Where? MAN To the right of the island. DR IAN KERR Alright, the game is on. COMMENTARY Iain’s technology could help show how they’re reacting to huMAN influences like noise and shipping. DR IAN KERR Tags like this are gonna definitively tell us what affects the whale. COMMENTARY The tags record a whale’s movement and orientation in the water, but that’s not all. DR IAN KERR So we’ve got a heartrate monitoring tag on here now which is pretty exciting. COMMENTARY They also give information about the whale’s health while it’s swimming. DR IAN KERR It’s been done before but never done with a drone. So fingers crossed. COMMENTARY Using drones reduces the need to get close to whales with boats. DR IAN KERR Good job, team. Dr Iain Kerr Heartrate monitoring tag is on a whale, deployed by a drone. First time ever. Alright! COMMENTARY The tag causes no harm and will automatically detach in several hours. DR IAN KERR We collect data in the hope that we could effect change. The exciting thing for us now is to assemble this data into a picture that makes sense, not just for understanding how they live their lives but how we can help conserve these animals. COMMENTARY As more whales are tagged… DR IAN KERR Tag on. Yay! COMMENTARY Iain’s getting new insights into behaviour… COMMENTARY …how whales are affected by huMANs and where and when we should focus our efforts to protect them. COMMENTARY To find out more about change, I’ve headed North. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The arctic ocean is critically important for the survival of MANy whale species with seasonal abundance of everything from plankton to algae to fish, drawing in long distance migrants from thousands of miles away. COMMENTARY But the Arctic is changing faster due to climate change than anywhere else. How will this impact migrating whales? COMMENTARY My journey following whale superhighways… COMMENTARY …began in the tropics. COMMENTARY Now I’m in Norway, a seasonal destination for migrating humpbacks of the North Atlantic. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC These arctic seas are completely mirror flat, but out in the fjord there is a frenzy of activity taking place. COMMENTARY Humpbacks feed on krill and small fish, such as herring and capelin. COMMENTARY Darkening the water, shoals can contain hundreds of millions of fish. COMMENTARY A rich reward at the end of their long journey - ten thousand humpbacks come to feast. COMMENTARY While here, they must store enough energy to last the next six months. COMMENTARY Having swum thousands of kilometres to get here, it won’t be long before they’ll have to return to breeding and birthing grounds in Cape Verde and the Caribbean. COMMENTARY To see what state they’re in after the journey, I need to get nearer. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I’m gonna take a paddleboard and coast in and hopefully that should give us an intimate glimpse of these animals resting at the surface. COMMENTARY I have to be really careful not to disturb them at this critical time. COMMENTARY So I intend to wait and see if they come near me. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC The spouts are going off like cannon fire, one after the other. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Their billowy spray just covers you. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Whoa! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC They’re right underneath me! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Well that was much much closer than I expected, or wanted. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Totally overwhelming! STEVE BACKSHALL PTC To us, the arctic ocean may seem so challenging, so brutal, but to the humpbacks, this is an oasis. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s truly one of the most impressive spectacles on our planet. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC So we’re getting towards the last light of the day, even though it’s no more than half past one in the afternoon. COMMENTARY There could be 50, or even 60 humpbacks here now and they’ve assembled around our boat. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s a very rare opportunity. Don’t often get this amount of animals packed in close together like this. MAN Go guys. It’s good. All three in the water. COMMENTARY This is one of the few places on Earth where I’ve seen humpbacks in these numbers. COMMENTARY They look healthy and well fed... COMMENTARY …but Arctic waters are getting warmer and I want to know if these whales are being affected. COMMENTARY Professor of Marine Biology, Audun Rickardsen, is investigating this population. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN Uh now we are up to taking uh biopsies, uh skin samples from humpbacks. COMMENTARY His research gathers a range of information on individuals. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN Then we need to load this. This is the biopsy where it take the skin sample and the, also lift some blubber. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN Okay. Go. Go. Go. Go. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN That direction. Follow my hand. Lovely. Follow. Follow. Yeah, keep that. Yes. It’s there. COMMENTARY The biopsies are harmless… PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN We got it. Ah, yeah have it. I have it. COMMENTARY …and provide important data. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN So here, that’s the blubber and inside here is also a piece of skin. This is a good sample. COMMENTARY And his samples also reveal the sex of the humpbacks that migrate here. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN It seems to be mostly females that are here, and some of them are pregnant. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN The females need that extra energy to feed the, the calves. COMMENTARY For pregnant females, it’s vital to fuel up before heading to their birthing grounds. COMMENTARY But according to Auden, things are changing. PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN What we see when the, the ocean heats up we see that several of these fish species migrate north and they, they move their spawning areas and so that means that the whales have to follow. And for those that migrate a long distance, they will have a longer migratory distance. STEVE BACKSHALL Is, is this something that we are, we are thinking will happen in the future or is that something that’s already happening now? PROFESOR AUDUN RICKARDSEN It’s already happening now. It will have a dramatic effect on, on the whales. COMMENTARY The movement of fish stocks is creating challenging, longer journeys for these migratory humpbacks. COMMENTARY But they’re not the only ones that rely on the herring. COMMENTARY Orca come here, as do we… and I witness something I’ve never seen before. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC There’s a juvenile humpback which has about 10 orca around it. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s right below us. Just below us. It’s here. You can see the underside of the fins. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s slapping with that giant tail. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC That’s its biggest defensive weapon. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC It’s hard to know why the orca are pursuing the humpbacks. These are supposed to be fish feeding orca, not focused on mammal prey. But clearly they’ve decided there’s something about this humpback that interests them. COMMENTARY These species compete for food, so is this just bullying, or could the orca be actively targeting a weak individual? STEVE BACKSHALL PTC This has really stepped up a notch and they’re battering it, biting its fins and tail. And you can hear its distress. COMMENTARY We don’t know if competition for food will increase or if we’ll see more of this extraordinary behaviour. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We do know though that our arctic seas are changing faster than anywhere else on our planet, and the future certainly holds fresh challenges for the great nomads of our seas. COMMENTARY Throughout my journey, I’ve seen the difficulties migrating whales face on their travels. COMMENTARY Only those completing these voyages, can fulfil all of life’s needs… COMMENTARY …from finding food… COMMENTARY …to mating… COMMENTARY …and raising their young. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Just as we start to understand the use of superhighways, they’re being rewritten by our changing planet. COMMENTARY But if we can protect both their highways and their destinations, and if we can keep ocean temperatures within safe limits… COMMENTARY …we’ll afford whales a fighting chance. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC And secure their future for generations to come. COMMENTARY Of all the ocean voyagers we set out to film, we knew one would be the hardest to get. COMMENTARY Pregnant humpbacks travel thousands of kilometres to give birth in the tropical waters of Tahiti. COMMENTARY But filming the intimate relationship between a mother and her newborn calf required the utmost sensitivity. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC There’s lots of whales out there but the majority of them are not gonna be interested in you, so finding the right one is what it’s all about. COMMENTARY Even then, you can’t just jump in and swim up to them. COMMENTARY Any splash or strange noise could be startling. COMMENTARY To capture them on camera, you need to win their confidence and wait for them to come to you. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC Mother and cub, just come up, right in between us and our support boat. COMMENTARY Whale expert and camera operator Denis LaGrange was our guide to choosing the right whales. STEVE BACKSHALL What do you think, Denis, shall we get in? Denis LaGrange I think maybe we should try a drop. STEVE BACKSHALL You think? Denis LaGrange Yeah. Let’s go. COMMENTARY But when we got in the water, they weren’t interested in us. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We headed over. The calf was playing on the surface but um, the mum came up just as we got there and took it away. COMMENTARY A tantalising taste of what could be, for camera operator ROB TAYLOR. ROB TAYLOR It’s the first time we’ve been in with a calf and they just came up slowly in between us, had a breath and just slowly moved away. ROB TAYLOR It was amazing. COMMENTARY For the next six days, we scoured 100 kilometres of coastline…looking for a mum and calf that were comfortable in our company. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC But just too late. Just too late. COMMENTARY But though we had fleeting encounters… Denis LaGrange They were not stable. They move as soon as we get into the water. Yeah. COMMENTARY …the whales never stayed long enough to give us what we needed. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC This is get tricky. COMMENTARY And time was running out. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC We’re on Day 6 and we still haven’t had a decent encounter. So we just keep hoping that we’re gonna get that one individual as interested in us as we are in them. COMMENTARY No one wanted to admit it might not happen. COMMENTARY As we head out on our last morning, suddenly a mother and calf appear just 100 metres from the harbour. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC A pair of whales just popped up right alongside the boat, and I do mean right alongside the boat. COMMENTARY Everything now rides on the decision about when to enter the water. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC In this situation, much as your heart’s racing and you’re just dying to just jump in and start swimming, it pays to be patient. STEVE BACKSHALL It’s your call, Denis. You know them better than we do. Denis LaGrange I don’t know them personally. I am sorry, Steve. Denis LaGrange I think we should give one more try. COMMENTARY Cautiously, we slip into the water. COMMENTARY The calf is fascinated with us. COMMENTARY It comes right up to the team and begins to twirl playfully. COMMENTARY It’s the encounter of a lifetime and Denis and Rob finally get the shots wildlife camera teams dream about. ROB TAYLOR That was unbelievable! I was so close. COMMENTARY Enabling us to tell the story of these incredible voyagers and why they travel so far to come here. ROB TAYLOR As a huMAN, you’re going, “This is amazing.” And as a cameraperson, you’re going, “Is it recording? Is it in focus? Is it exposed right? Is Steve in the shot?” Denis LaGrange The mother decides the encounter, you know. We didn’t decide. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC I’m so proud of the team. You know we’ve really stuck at this. Ten days we’ve been doing this and we’ve just waited for the right moment and the right whale. Didn’t push it. STEVE BACKSHALL PTC And it’s all paid off.