All language subtitles for Whale With Steve Backshall 02

Whales.

Ocean giants.

Ancient mariners.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

Their songs, majesty

and sheer size
fill us with joy and awe.

In their vast shadow,
a human can feel very small.

(WHALE HOOTS)

They were here long before us...

..caring for their young...

..hunting...

..voyaging...

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.

(WHALE MOANS)

I'm tracking the latest discoveries

on the hunting behaviour
of whales and dolphins.

There are over 90 species...

..all very different,

(WHALE BELLOWS)

..but with one thing in common.

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

Whatever their shape or size...

(DOLPHINS CLICKING)

..they are all predators.

The whales and dolphins
have been commanding our oceans

for perhaps 50 million years.

With the biggest brains,

the biggest appetites...

..and also the most creative
hunting strategies.

From the equators to the poles,

they are truly
the ultimate hunters of our seas.

(ORCAS SQUEAK)

But whales' predatory strategies

are as varied as whales themselves,

often specific to a location or prey.

And I want to understand
the challenges they face

in our changing oceans.

My journey into the world
of ocean hunters

begins with
the most iconic of all...

..orca,
also known as killer whales.

In the far north of Norway...

..they feast...

on seasonal shoaling herring.

For just two months of the year,

the fjords of northern Norway
play host to a gathering

of some of the finest hunters
on our planet.

We are inside the Arctic Circle
and surrounded

by a pod of orca.

This is the largest species
of dolphin,

and, I think, the most sophisticated,

complex and adept of all predators.

There's just nothing that compares.

If any whale has
a fearsome reputation...

..it's these.

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

The ocean's top predators...

..they were named
as a killer of whales.

Scientists consider them
the most complex marine predators.

They target specific prey,

and in nature
have never harmed a human.

And what better way
to put this to the test

than to swim alongside them?

(ORCAS CLICK AND SQUEAK)

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

Usually they just cruise on by.

But this time, she turns...

..and comes to join me.

(ORCA CLICKS)

(SPIRITUAL CHORAL MUSIC)

Nose to nose...
with our planet's greatest predator.

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

In two decades of working with orca,

that's the first time I've had one
show real interest in me underwater.

She was looking at me,
she was studying me,

and going around,
and around, and around,

and you can't tell
if that's just curiosity...

..or if they're searching
for a weakness.

But in that moment,
when you look in their eye,

you can see the intelligence,

you can see them processing you,
figuring out what you are.

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

I have just had a proper moment...

..with the greatest predator,

potentially,
our planet has ever seen.

Killer whales are capable
of taking prey many times larger

and more formidable than a human...

..but they're smart enough
to be selective.

What makes the perfect hunter
is not big teeth or muscles,

it's having that brain power
and its processing power.

Its curiosity is probably the closest
of any other on the planet

to us as human beings.

(MAJESTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

But the orca is rarely a lone hunter.

Perhaps the secret
to the orca's success is the pod,

their social group.

They are the most potent matriarchy
on the planet,

and youngsters may stay with their
mothers for their entire lives.

Their extraordinary communication

enables them to do things
that other animals simply can't.

And their closeness and cooperation

is clearly seen in the Sea of Cortez.

(FISH SPLASING)

These are mobula rays,

here in their thousands
to feed and breed.

For an orca hunting on her own,
it's hard to separate a target.

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

The arrival of her pod
changes the odds.

(ORCA SQUEAKS)

They begin to co-ordinate their hunt.

Their multi-pronged attack

panics the mobulas...

..breaking apart the school.

Now, the orca have the advantage.

They pick off the rays one...

..by one.

By working together,
every whale reaps the rewards.

But for some orca,
the greatest advantage

comes not from sharing the hunt,

but from sharing knowledge.

Over in New Zealand,
this helps a different pod

take much more risky prey.

It's a tempting meal,

but a sting ray's tail barb
delivers a lethal toxin.

(ORCA CLICKS)

The key is to approach from above...

..and grab the head end.

And then flip the ray upside down.

This puts it into a trance-like
state called tonic immobility.

Now helpless,
it can be consumed safely.

And she's not the only one
doing this.

This method of handling sting rays
has been learned by others,

and is now practiced
throughout the pod.

Many other orca groups also have
very specific hunting techniques.

Some scientists say this shows that,
like us,

killer whales have culture;

shared behaviour passed down
through generations.

(MAJESTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(ORCA SNORTS)

The orca have the ability
to feed on everything,

from the smallest fish right up
to the largest animal

ever known to have lived,
the blue whale.

It's this adaptability,

this inventiveness that makes them
such a success in all our oceans.

But some whales
are far more specialised.

So, what does the future
hold for them

with our oceans in flux?

I'm on a quest to understand
the new challenges

faced by whales
hunting in our modern world.

Around 50 million years ago,

land-based mammals abandoned
their terrestrial lifestyle

and took to the waves.

In the millions of years since,

a diverse array of forms has evolved,

from porpoises
the size of puppy dogs,

to the largest animals
ever known to have lived.

But how they hunt
couldn't be more varied.

To see one of the most impressive
of them all,

we must venture to Baja California,

feeding grounds
for the largest animal

ever to have lived on our planet...

(SNORTS)

..the blue whale.

(SERENE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

This female may be 25 metres

and weigh over a hundred tonnes.

And she's hungry.

Remarkably, the largest animal on
earth feeds on something very small:

shrimp-like plankton called krill.

These seasonal blooms
form vital banquets for blue whales.

She can descend 200 metres to feed.

Lunging, she engulfs as much
as 100 tonnes of krill and water,

swelling her throat like a balloon.

(WHALE EXHALES)

We once thought whales
were bad for fish stocks...

..but scientists are discovering

that blue whale poo acts
like fertiliser on plant plankton...

..which feed the krill that
blue whales and others rely on.

So, whales have been enhancing
the health of our oceans

for millions of years.

But global warming and ever more
acidic oceans are harming krill.

Blue whales have been slowly
recovering from whaling,

but without krill they would be lost.

If we're endangering
the largest animal on earth,

what other mistakes are we making?

To see how we could affect
their future,

I want to know more about the highly
varied hunting behaviour of whales.

I'm heading to Bimini,
in the Bahamas,

where there is a hunter
with a unique way of finding food.

(VIA DIVING RADIO): "Just offshore
are these sand flats,

"which stretch on
as far as the eye can see.

"But when you get your eye in,
you can see they're filled

"with razor fish,
garden eels, sand eels."

These fish pluck particles of food

from the water column.

They seem exposed,
with nowhere to hide.

But at the first sign of danger...

..they disappear from sight.

But one seabed scanning predator

isn't searching with its eyes.

"These craters
are the feeding signs

"of the bottle-nosed dolphin."

(DOLPHIN CLICKS AND WHISTLES)

They're using echolocation,
beaming out high-pitched sounds

to build a picture of their world

using the echoes that bounce back.

"The dolphins
cruise along the bottom,

"and all the time,
they're sending their echolocation

"down through the sand,
penetrating down

"to find what's buried beneath."

(DOLPHIN CLICKS)

It's a remarkable technique.

(DOLPHIN CLICKING)

"When they sense something,
they exhibit a left-hand turn...

"..and then plunge their snout,
their rostrum down into the sand

"as they try and find their food.

"Did you see that? Perfect!"

"Such an incredible sight,
seeing a dolphin

"doing a headstand on the bottom

"and then coming up
with a fish in its mouth."

Although bottle-nosed dolphins
live all over the world,

this strategy is only known
from this region.

(DOLPHIN CLICKING)

"This population here all
seem to have learnt this technique.

"Perhaps, just like the orca,

"they have a culture that enables
them to pass on this skill."

(DOLPHIN CLICKING)

These dolphins
have a specialised way

of finding food
in this exact environment.

But what happens
if that environment starts to change?

Could being a specialist
make you more vulnerable?

The best place to investigate
is an environment

we're already changing rapidly;

the last place you'd expect to find
a member of the whale family...

(BIRDS CACKLE AND TWITTER)

..deep in the heart of the Amazon.

(INSECTS CHIRRUP)

Like strong tea, these
waters are stained with tannins,

dissolved from forest leaves.

Here in the darkness lives
the most unusual dolphin of all.

(DOLPHIN WHISTLES)

This Amazon river dolphin,

or boto, is uniquely adapted to live
in this strange freshwater habitat.

With pink skin, tiny eyes
and a bulbous forehead,

he's a curious-looking creature.

But this is a sophisticated hunter,

able to take more
than 40 species of prey,

including piranhas.

With such poor visibility,

he relies on echolocation...

(DOLPHIN CLICKING)

..building a soundscape picture
of his world.

(DOLPHIN SCREECHES)

His low-profile dorsal fin
avoids snags...

..and his flippers,
which move independently,

allow him to freely navigate...

..and home in on hiding fish.

(DOLPHIN CACKLES)

His highly sensitive beak

is ideal for snatching fish
from the deepest thickets.

These boto are
the ultimate specialists,

perfectly adapted
to their unique environment.

But that makes them vulnerable.

Fishing is emptying
their home of food,

and fine-meshed modern nets
can be a deathtrap.

We've driven other
river dolphins extinct,

and unless we learn our lessons fast,

the boto could be next.

Scientists and conservationists

are in a race against time
to protect whales.

But is the world
simply changing too rapidly?

One human activity

has bigger consequences for whales
than any other...

(SEA BIRDS SQUAWKING)

..fishing.

We have replaced whales and dolphins

as the largest consumer
in the oceans.

Here in the fjords of Norway,
the catch is monitored,

so there should be enough fish
left for the whales,

but it's still affecting them.

To see what's happening,

I need to dive right alongside
the gigantic boats

as they set their nets overnight.

(BREATHING TANK HISSES)

(VIA DIVING RADIO): "As the fishing
boats bring in the nets,

"there could be
several hundred tonnes of herring...

"..shimmering silver scales

"and thousands, if not millions,
of fish trapped inside."

We're plundering
the whales' natural food,

but some whales are learning how
to use the boats to their advantage.

Orca recognise the characteristic
sounds of a boat fishing.

To these ingenious predators,
the clangs

and clanks are a dinner bell.

(SEA BIRDS CRYING)

(ORCA WHISTLES)

Taking just the fish that
spill from the nets,

the orcas' technique
is surprisingly delicate.

Drawing other orca into the fjord,
it's a mighty gathering.

(ORCAS SQUEAKING)

But they're not the only hunters
arriving for this unusual feast.

Giant humpbacks come in to join them.

Elsewhere, these whales
would be mortal enemies.

But here, they feast together,
mere metres from the boat.

(MAJESTIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

It's a rare and dramatic sight,

but this spectacle has a dark side.

It's hard to imagine
a greater concentration

of hunters anywhere on the planet.

Mighty animals feeding on everything
that's slopping out of the nets,

the excess from their catch.

To see all of these
animals concentrated in together

is just breathtaking.

It's a strange scene,

these great predators
feeding on scraps from our nets.

But tempting whales so close
to industrial fishing

can end in disaster.

While we're filming, local marine
biologist, Professor Audun Rikardsen,

is alerted to a whale
caught up in fishing gear.

So, you've had a humpback
entanglement here.

We had to keep our distance, but
you were right in there, involved.

Can you tell us what happened?

This whale had something over
its snout and through the mouth.

So, it was just laying there,

and it seems like it was,
er, waiting for help.

(WHALE GROANS)

And when we came,
it came towards us.

So, it was almost
like asking for help,

and it was also kind of screaming.

You can hear the sound blowing,
"Whoo!"

It was really heart-breaking,
honestly.

It touches you when you see that.

And you really wanted to help.

(WHALE GROANS)

Horribly entangled,

she couldn't dive or feed.

(WHALE WHOOPS)

Time was running out.

(WHALE WHOOPS)

But to free a frightened whale
is a serious business.

(WHALE SQUEAKS)

Spooked, she tried to flee.

With darkness falling,

it was a race against time.

But finally, the ropes were cut.

And she was free.

(WHALE GROANS)

For her, it was a lucky escape.

But for most whales
there is no rescue.

For this North Atlantic
right whale calf,

being born to an entangled mother

stacked the odds too high
against them both.

With less than 350 of her kind left,

every loss
is a step towards extinction.

The scale of modern fishing
is now immense.

Our fishing activities are one
of the biggest threats

to whales and dolphins.

(SEA BIRDS SQUAWKING)

Globally,
almost a thousand cetaceans a day

are caught in nets as bycatch.

Ghost nets,
lost or discarded fishing gear,

haunt our oceans...

with up to a million tonnes more
added every year.

Taking up to 600 years
to break down...

..they're not coming out
unless we remove them.

There has to be a better way.

(CRASHING WAVES BOOM)

All around the world

marine reserves
are creating whale havens.

And I want to see the benefits
they can bring.

(URGENT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

I'm exploring our oceans to see
how whales are trying to get by

in a world very different
from the one they evolved in.

(DOLPHINS CLICKING)

There are places
where whales can thrive,

and where they hunt
as they once used to.

This group of islands

was once a centre
of commercial whaling.

But they're now a safe haven
for whales and their prey -

the Azores.

Where the mid-Atlantic ridge
carves the ocean in two,

there are volcanic mountains coming
up from thousands of metres of depth.

Oceanic currents drive up nutrients
from the deep water

and that creates
an explosion of life.

When areas like this are protected,

it can lead to an abundance of fish,

which are, in turn,

food for the whales.

And one phenomenon draws them in
like nothing else.

In the presence
of the right kind of predators,

the shoals of fish coalesce
into shimmering bait balls,

targeted from all angles
by all the various mighty mouths,

and they don't hang together
for very long.

A bait ball is my best chance of
witnessing whales feeding underwater.

But they can quickly disappear.

So, when one happens,

I have to get in fast.

(CALM PIANO MUSIC)

For these fish, schooling is
a vital defence strategy.

They're obvious targets for predators

like these spotted dolphin.

(DOLPHIN SQUEAKS)

But there is safety in numbers.

Each fish marks its neighbour,

keeping a set distance and alignment.

For this lone dolphin,

it's a tricky moving target.

One reacting fish triggers
the whole school

to shift in unison.

This dazzling effect makes it
hard to pick out any individual.

(DOLPHINS CLICKING AND SQUEAKING)

The shifting, silvery shoals of fish,

which just move like quicksilver,

are designed to throw off
the smaller predators,

but having all of those creatures
concentrated together

in one ball makes them easy prey
for the whales.

And they're bringing in
true leviathans.

Sei whales.

They can reach lengths
of almost 20 metres

and weigh up to 45 tonnes.

It's in the same animal group
as the blue whale,

and shares much in common.

They're long, streamlined, sleek,

impossibly fast through the water,

and they're also one of
the largest creatures in our seas.

But to really appreciate
their hunting skills,

I need to see what's going on
beneath the waves.

(DOLPHINS CLICKING)

(SERENE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(MUSIC BUILDS IN INTENSITY)

Like submarines,
they pass with deceptive speed.

It's ominous and awe-inspiring
in equal measure.

Wow!

That was incredible.

The sei whale is one of
the very fastest of the cetaceans,

and underwater there's
barely any sense of motion

as they go through the water,
but when you're close to them,

the wake just tosses you around
like you're in a washing machine.

Sei whales have been clocked
at nearly 50 kilometres per hour,

and this speed is key
to their hunting strategy -

lunge feeding.

A sprint enables them
to ambush the fish.

This sei whale needs to eat close
to a tonne of fish every day.

Bait balls offer a focused target.

But accelerating 45 tonnes of whale
to top speed...

..takes a lot of energy.

They can only use this technique
in places where there are enough fish

to make the sprint worthwhile.

This is extraordinary.

I've never been somewhere
where you're genuinely at risk

of getting run over by a whale.

Oh!

Look at that.

Honestly, I could stay in there
all week

with that amount of life
kicking off.

Apart from anything else,

it's just a sign of what a healthy
looking marine ecosystem

should look like.

You've got everything from the
primary producers at the bottom,

the plankton, the zooplankton,

the smaller fish that feed on it,

all the way up
to the biggest creatures

ever known to have lived
on our planet,

and they're all focused here.

This is what protection can do,

this is what sanctuaries can achieve.

When you protect waters,

they turn into abundant
focuses of life like this.

These precious moments are a glimpse
of how the world could be...

..if we didn't empty the seas
of life.

And The Azores
is not the only place

where healthy feeding spectacles
can be seen.

Off the coast of South Africa,

new gatherings of whales are giving
us a vision of a better future.

Since we stopped hunting them,

humpback whales have made
a remarkable comeback.

(WHALES HOOTING)

There's far more work to do,

but sights like this are increasing,

and what we're now learning
is that whales help remove carbon

from the atmosphere.

Fertilising plant plankton,

storing carbon in their vast bodies,

they soak up almost
30 million tonnes every year...

..as much as a billion trees.

Whales are an integral part
of keeping our oceans healthy...

..and healthy oceans are vital
to combat climate change.

It's now up to us to take action
to choose our future.

What's needed now more than ever

is better protection
from the unintended consequences

of our fishing activities.

Once, the call
was to "save the whale,"

but now we know we have to save
the whales' whole world,

and our very future depends on it.

To discover how whales
are coping in our modern world,

we wanted to observe
these ocean hunters in their world.

(ORCA CHIRRUPS)

And the best way to film this
was to start with their food.

Which would mean pushing our diving
and filming techniques to the limit.

In Arctic Norway,
our attempt to film interactions

between whales and herring boats

meant a dangerous night dive
as the boats set their nets.

There's a huge amount goes into
the safety for diving like this.

I mean, first of all,
you're diving in Arctic waters

where the temperatures
can be below freezing.

But we're gonna be doing this
with orca, humpback whales,

the nets and the fishing as well.

Yeah, I'd be lying
if I said I wasn't nervous.

(EDGY MUSIC)

'As darkness fell,
we prepared for blackwater diving.

'Unable to see
beyond your torch beam,

'it's a bit like being in space.

'It's incredibly disorientating.'

We're excited, but at the same time,

never losing sight of the fact
that this is about as dangerous

as wildlife filming dives get,

and everything has to be done right.

MAN: Don't rush anyone.
Take your time.

MAN 2: Just, er, waiting on contact,
er, with the fishing vessel.

'At last, just before dawn,
we get the go-ahead.'

OK, guys, so we can dive.

All OK, happy? One going in.

Nice one, Steve.

Two divers in.
Get a safety diver in.

(SEAGULLS SHRIEKING)

Diver one, diver two,
can you all hear me?

"This is diver Steve to surface.
I can read you loud and clear."

Capturing the scale of fish
spilling out from the nets

showed exactly why whales
are changing their behaviour

and being drawn to the boats.

And what we saw
was even more impressive

than we'd expected.

This is, to my mind,

the most creative
of all predators on our planet.

They have the ability
to adapt to their environment,

to take advantage of any resource
that comes their way,

and here
the enormous abundance of herring

is feeding 80 orca
in one single feeding.

In Norway, we could use
the herring boats to find the whales.

But in the Azores, speedy bait balls
hunted by even faster sei whales

demanded a far more dynamic approach.

MAN: Bait is at 11 o'clock.
Yeah.

Shall we go?

'This time, we're free diving.

'Diving on a single breath,
without bulky scuba gear,

'we're more responsive
and faster in the water.

'And we minimise disturbance to the
animals in this protected habitat.

'We can't know in advance which bait
balls the whales will target,

'but with so much life,
the prospects look good.'

The amount of whales
and dolphins here is phenomenal.

Just phenomenal.

So, yeah, we need to focus on the
fish and everything else will follow.

Sighting a whale is a start,
though we need to be closer.

It's so exciting,
but also utterly exhausting,

just in and out the water
over and over again,

trying to keep up with the fish
which are moving at lighting speed.

Oh, wow, out there, yes!

Yeah, we have it,
the epicentre of our bait ball,

which is exactly
what we've been hoping for!

And finally,
following the food pays off.

We catch up with one
of the fastest whales on the planet,

taking advantage of the food
available in these productive waters.

Wow! Wow!

Utterly, utterly jaw-dropping.

I never in a million years expected
to get that close to a sei whale.

That's one of the craziest things
that's ever happened to me. Ha ha ha.

From the Arctic to the tropics,

adapting our filming
to each ocean hunter

helped reveal the challenges
they face in our modern world,

and what needs to be done
to ensure their future.

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