Original subtitles

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: There are songs around the world that rise up to be heard.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Voices that unite communities and cultures.

This young humpback will learn the power of such language.

He'll connect to others...

and broadcast loud, and long, and clear.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: But that's later.

For now, he's a baby learning to speak.

In whispers at first...

with his mother.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: It is a tender language, of love...

-commitment... -(WHALE VOCALIZING)

...and sacrifice.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: This whale mother traveled more than 4,000 miles,

from Antarctica to the warmth of the equator,

to have her baby.

Now, together, they will journey back.

In all this time, she won't eat.

Yet, her child drinks from her all the way to the pole.

It's an epic voyage with a purpose.

To see if this baby has what it takes to thrive.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: And to become the singing sensation of a hidden world.

(WHALE SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: Only now are we beginning to understand how much

humpback whales are like us.

They breathe air...

have large brains...

and big hearts.

But they also have culture.

Their world depends upon educating their young,

and sophisticated communication.

(WHALE VOCALIZING SOFTLY)

SIGOURNEY: And in at least one place, they even foster special friendships.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: It's summer in Sitka, Alaska.

Stand by for the spectacle of the season.

(SEA LIONS BARKING)

SIGOURNEY: The sea lions know it's coming.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: And the gulls...

they mark the spot.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: Only about a hundred Alaskan humpbacks

can put on a show like this.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: It's called bubble-net feeding.

Each individual whale plays a role in using bubbles to corral fish.

Think of it like an orchestra.

(ORCHESTRA MUSIC TUNING)

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: First, there are trumpeters.

(WHALE MOANS)

They use sound to scare herring into a group.

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: Then, herders bring them in closer.

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: The final members of the ensemble are bubblers.

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: They blow bubbles that force fish

into tight balls near the surface.

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: They talk to each other to coordinate.

(WHALE TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: And then, the orchestra becomes a ballet.

(WHALES BELLOW)

SIGOURNEY: This is only a small part of the real magic going on here.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

These whales are not family.

SIGOURNEY: Yet, every year, they somehow find one another

in the dark depths of the Gulf of Alaska...

and regroup like old friends.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: Working solo is just as effective,

but they've chosen to perform as a group for decades.

Only today, they have a dedicated fan trying to track them down.

National Geographic explorer, and world-famous whale photographer,

Brian Skerry.

God, I love that. Love that.

These giant animals, 43 feet long. You know, 50, 70 tons.

I would love to get an answer for how it's all working

and exactly what is going on down there.

These are highly social animals, maybe even more than we ever comprehended.

SIGOURNEY: Brian spends weeks trying to find and document

this type of feeding.

It's a sign that humpback whale clans have a culture all their own.

BRIAN: You know, these are not just big fish swimming around in the ocean.

There's a lot more cognition.

There's social behaviors, and they work cooperatively.

They have formed these bonds, these relationships.

Clearly, there's a complexity that's occurring on a very high level.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: This is just one ritual in a unique whale society

full of different traditions.

And it all begins with communication.

Scientist Andy Szabo has spent his life gaining a deep understanding

of humpback language.

(WHALE TRUMPETING OVER HEADPHONES)

-Listen to that. -Yeah, I'd like to.

(WHALE TRUMPETING OVER HEADPHONES)

That's definitely a feeding call.

BRIAN: That is wild.

(WHALE CONTINUES TRUMPETING)

That's that long, that...

-(ANDY IMITATING WHALE TRUMPETING) -Yeah, no kidding. Wow.

(WHALES VOCALIZES, TRUMPETING)

(DEEP BELLOWING)

SIGOURNEY: If Andy interprets correctly,

the whales will tell him when and where they'll surface.

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

BRIAN: Oh, they're gonna be right around us.

Holy... Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

Wow!

(SEAGULLS SCREECHING)

BRIAN: Oh, oh, oh. Right here, beside us again!

ANDY: Right there, right there.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS RAPIDLY)

SIGOURNEY: These old friends have been meeting up every year

in this same place for decades.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

BRIAN: I can see the bubble net.

Oh!

ANDY: It's pretty cool.

There's not a lot of animals out there that have... enduring bonds

like this that will persist for, in the case of these whales right here...

forty-plus years.

BRIAN: Maybe, there is a social element to this culture.

Maybe these groups of whales enjoy working together.

When you see something like this bubble-net behavior,

I can't help but wonder, "What's going on elsewhere in the world?"

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: The world's humpbacks fall into three groups.

The Atlantic and Pacific populations stick to the Northern Hemisphere.

Meanwhile, the Southern Ocean humpbacks

take their social communications to a whole different level.

(WHALE VOCALIZES SOFTLY)

There are lots of ways for humpbacks to converse.

Like people, a lot of their communication is non-verbal.

It's complex...

and with humpbacks, way more spectacular.

Off the coast of Western Australia,

what's likely the world's largest migration of humpback whales

turns the water into a highway.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: They are all talking, not only with words, but with actions.

(WHALES BELLOWING)

SIGOURNEY: Scientists used aircraft to count as many as 30,000 humpbacks

charging down the coast.

They pass the west Australian capital of Perth.

And steam south towards Antarctica.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: They use breaches to talk to each other.

(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: Underwater, the splash can be heard for miles.

Big leaps tell other whales where they are,

maybe even call them over.

Just as common in whale chat is fin slapping...

and humpbacks have the largest fins of any whale.

It's like raising your hand to attract a waiter.

And it may be a way for this mother to call over her calf.

(CALF VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: For the calf, breaching is less about chat.

It's pure play.

A single calf may breach as many as 40 times in a row.

(CALF VOCALIZING)

And for this adult male, it's more about attracting a mate.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: The bigger the splash, the more he'll stand out.

But his hulking 40-ton body isn't enough on its own.

He also needs to romance with a melody.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

His is a special tune.

(WHALE DEEP VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Just a few months ago,

each male was singing a song from last year.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: During mating season, males introduce variations.

(WHALE RHYTHMIC POPPING SOUND)

Together, they craft a new number one hit.

(WHALES VOCALIZING, RHYTHMIC POPPING SOUND)

SIGOURNEY: Then, all the male humpbacks join in

and start singing the exact same tune.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: And where it goes from here is one of the greatest communication feats

on the planet.

(DISTANT WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Somehow, it travels...

and travels.

Across a continent, an incredible 3,000 miles.

All at once, the male humpbacks on the East Coast of Australia

take up this new hit from the West.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Soon, all the males sing the exact same whale song...

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

...and this infectious tune may spread even farther east.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: In the South Pacific, there are 15 Cook Islands...

some of the most remote places on the planet.

There are stories that male humpbacks somehow use coral

to boost their sound.

National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry

heads down to see if he can capture this behavior on camera.

BRIAN: I can hear this haunting melody.

(WHALE BELLOWING)

This sound of a humpback whale doing its song.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

BRIAN: It resonates within my entire body cavity.

I swim down to a depth of maybe 30 or 40 meters,

and there is the whale.

SIGOURNEY: And he's using the coral.

This is rarely seen behavior, and barely studied.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: He's head-first in this ring of coral,

working it like a tenor in an opera house to broadcast his song.

BRIAN: He's taking this place, the corals, to amplify the sound.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

BRIAN: Using it as a natural amphitheater to project that sound outward.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: This whale projects his voice.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: But does he sing the same song that the unrelated humpbacks first created

more than 5,000 miles away in Western Australia?

Whale biologist Nan Hauser will be able to tell from a phrase or two.

NAN: It's clear.

-(WHALE VOCALIZING OVER DEVICE) -Yes!

Yes! (CHUCKLES)

Oh, my gosh.

SIGOURNEY: She confirms the same tune has traveled from whale to whale,

a fifth the way around the globe.

When we do get little pieces solved of that mystery,

it's a gift from the whale, because they don't have to give it to us.

SIGOURNEY: The songs likely help female humpbacks choose a mate,

but Nan's trying to figure that out.

NAN: This whole complex behavior that humpbacks have,

is... it's staggering.

Sometimes at night I just fall asleep,

trying to imagine what it could possibly mean.

We know that these phrases are being passed

from west to east,

starting in Western Australia, to Eastern Australia,

and then all the way across to French Polynesia.

There are no other mammals that use song this way.

There are none.

It's a cultural phenomenon.

It's a ripple!

It's horizontal cultural transmission.

SIGOURNEY: The song of the season is like a viral pop tune.

And as it spreads, the art of the song is handed down to the next generation.

Brian and Nan aren't the only ones listening.

This newborn male also takes in the tunes.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: It could be another ten years or more before he's ready to introduce

his own song variations.

For now, he's listening, learning, and exploring.

And he discovers quite the curiosity.

BRIAN: He kinda' got a glimpse of me,

and it was almost like he just stopped and...

(CHUCKLES) ...you know, he was kinda like, “Whoa, who are you?”

It's like a human toddler. It's like a little child that, you know,

sees things for the first time.

SIGOURNEY: Brian is a strange-looking, one-eyed creature

with a tube for a mouth.

It seems worthy of show and tell.

Brian follows the calf to its mom...

and gets a rare glimpse of humpback whale kinship.

BRIAN: You just really sense this emotional bond.

That's really special.

These moms invest so much time in their calves.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

BRIAN: And the calves stay with their moms for about a year,

and during that period...

Mom is teaching them so many things that they need to know to live.

It's learned behavior. It's what humans do.

Those family relationships...

are as important to them as families are to us.

(WHALES VOCALIZING AND SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Mom and calf stay close...

as the calf learns one of the most important lessons of its life...

how to get to Antarctica.

His first solid meal depends on it.

He will have to stay close to Mom.

It will be grueling, and relentless...

and it will test them both.

NAN: They don't even deviate by one degree.

That means they're following a straight line, straight as an arrow.

And that's amazing, because you're talking about this vast blue ocean

with no landmarks.

SIGOURNEY: This mother and her calf are not alone.

They are part of something much bigger,

a network of singers and global communicators.

Humpbacks pour down the east and west coasts

of the southern continents, Australia...

Africa, South America.

Almost 100,000 whales.

Their chorus is very different now.

The males sing much less during this journey.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: While Mom and calf talk in whispers,

forty decibels lower than an adult conversation.

Mom continues to fast...

and only pauses to rest and nurse.

They are mammals like us, only she feeds her baby

an incredible 150 gallons of milk a day.

They power on south like steam trains.

After some 5,000 miles...

Mom and son near the bottom of the world.

(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING)

At first, just a few humpbacks arrive...

then hundreds...

then thousands.

This last chapter of their yearly cycle is a rendezvous.

There's lots of chatter.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Old friends reunited...

(WHALES WHISTLING)

...and new ones to meet.

(WHALES VOCALIZING AND TRUMPETING)

SIGOURNEY: The youngster from the Cook Islands has grown strong,

and gained nine tons in six months on Mom's milk alone.

He's spent most of his energy keeping up with her,

but now he can play again.

All are famished, especially the mothers.

And that's why they're here.

Antarctica has been busy preparing a feast for these giants.

With summer, comes endless sunshine that melts the glaciers.

The freshwater flushes in nutrients and turns the ocean milky.

Algae grows on the bottom of ice floes.

And a tiny creature that eats nothing but algae

swims deep beneath Antarctic ice.

Krill.

Shrimp-like crustaceans just two inches long...

and almost transparent.

Inside their bellies, you can see the algae they've eaten.

Individually, a krill doesn't look like much of a meal.

(WHALE BELLOWING)

SIGOURNEY: But the whales are here to buy in bulk.

As a single mass,

krill outweigh the world's entire human population

by more than 90 million tons.

For the next four months, this humpback mother will try to eat

around 5,000 pounds of krill a day.

She'll talk to other humpbacks about where to find them.

(SQUAWKING)

And put on as much as 12 pounds of bodyweight per hour.

In between meals,

she pauses her home schooling and catches a nap.

She rests at the surface for an hour or more...

and sometimes her calf joins her.

They sleep through changing currents.

(WIND BLISTERING)

SIGOURNEY: Noisy neighbors.

(PENGUINS SQUAWKING)

SIGOURNEY: And nature's endless renovations.

(BIRDS SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Each time they wake up, their work is a little bit harder.

As the season wears on, the krill thins out,

and must be rounded up.

Like the humpbacks that eat herring in Alaska,

this mother also has a special skill.

She calls out, and finds a willing teammate.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Her baby waits behind.

Together, they dive down to the krill, and do this.

It's a highly specialized form of bubble-net feeding

that only some whales down here practice.

The dual stream of bubbles scares the krill into a tight ball...

ready for scooping.

(WHALES VOCALIZING)

SIGOURNEY: Learn to do this well, and every summer the living will be easy.

Mother needs to teach her calf.

But the fun-loving youngster tires of watching

and wanders off on his own.

It's a dangerous choice.

He may not realize what's at stake.

Orcas patrol this part of Antarctica, ready to attack the young and the weak.

(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

Humpback and orcas are mortal enemies.

(ORCA WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: And this is why.

This orca stumbled across this lone humpback calf

and makes a move.

It's likely a test, to see if the humpback is vulnerable.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: But the orca has a calf of her own.

And even young humpbacks have sharp barnacles

growing on their flippers, making them into powerful weapons.

The table is turned.

The bold humpback calf is safe for the moment...

but the orca's pod is nearby,

and no telling what will happen if they return in numbers.

He doesn't stay to find out.

-(WHALE VOCALIZING) -SIGOURNEY: The humpback mom calls.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Her baby knows what this communication means...

"Get back to Mom ASAP."

She's not happy he swam off.

Once they leave these feeding grounds, the calf will be weaned...

and he won't eat again for another eight months.

But before he can join his elders in the feast,

he must master making the perfect P-shaped ring of bubbles.

Almost always in a clockwise direction.

Like a toddler learning to walk,

his first attempts are adorable, but all wrong.

Over the course of a few weeks, he gains more confidence.

His letter Ps start to show promise.

Now, the moment of truth.

Mom invites him to join them for a try.

If he's learned well, there will be three perfect P-shaped rings,

and the third will be his.

Now that he's got the hang of it, there's no stopping him.

What he's done is more significant than learn how to bubble-net.

He has learned a custom...

a secret passed down through the ages with sophisticated communication.

And these are traditions he will pass on.

How to feed...

how to sing...

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

...how to connect.

This is also what culture looks like for other whale species.

Some have even stronger ties with their clan...

behaviors that define distinct tribes...

(WHALE SQUEAKING)

...and communication even more advanced.

(WHALE SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: This is the incredible nature of the love, the songs,

and the Secrets of the Whales.

(WHALE SCREECHING)

JAMES: The ocean is not the easiest environment to shoot in, you know?

You've got wind. You've got sea sting.

You've got rapidly-changing weather. You've got saltwater,

which is hell on your camera equipment and your electronics.

Any time you're shooting underwater,

everything just goes up by a couple of orders of magnitude

in terms of difficulty.

(WHALE VOCALIZING)

BRIAN: Let's hope they're here tomorrow. I mean...

I guess let's see if they come up...

-ANDY: Yeah. -...feeding here.

But now and then you get lucky.

(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

JAMES: Oh, right there.

BRIAN: Oh, it's gonna be right around us. Holy...

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Wow!

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

JAMES: This is probably one of the most amazing things I've seen

in years of trying to go out into the ocean

and wrestle away a bit of imagery.

You know, in the months, if not years, of preparation,

and the hours and hours long weeks that you spend at sea.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

You know, the whales didn't get the script.

You know, they didn't get the memo, you know?

"Show up at 9:00 a.m. We'll be there."

You know, the interesting thing here is that these individuals

are not family members.

They travel from widely separate places in the ocean

to come back to this place, like a reunion, every year,

to do this group feeding strategy.

They can do it as effectively on their own, individually,

but they choose to do it together.

There's a social component to it.

There's a, maybe a joyful component to it, or a comforting component to it.

The keyword here is tradition. It's something they elect to do.

Something that has value to them. It's learned.

It requires communication. It requires coordination.

That's a tradition.

It might be like getting together for Thanksgiving dinner is to us.

It has meaning. It has cultural meaning.

The great sort of observation, if not discovery, of this show

is that there is demonstrable whale culture.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

JAMES: (CHUCKLING) Look at Brian.

He's like, "Wow!"

(WHALES WHISTLING)