1 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:15,400 1,000 years ago, the ocean was full of giants. 2 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:16,800 CLICKING 3 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:18,640 Whales were so numerous 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,840 that they shaped how the ocean worked. 5 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:23,880 They even affected the land. 6 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,560 BIRDSONG 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:31,120 The evidence is written into their behaviour, 8 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:33,800 their character, their communities 9 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,360 and the world that formed around them. 10 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,040 The clues are everywhere. 11 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:04,920 We must deduce how many whales there once were... 12 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:07,680 ..and what happened to them. 13 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:17,600 It's time for them to tell their story. 14 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:41,400 It's said that the ocean has no memory. 15 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:45,240 The tragedies in its depths and the daily dramas of its creatures 16 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,440 seem swept away, leaving no record. 17 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,280 But the ocean doesn't forget. 18 00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:59,040 It bears witness to a past. 19 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:00,640 We just have to know... 20 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:01,680 ..where to look. 21 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,440 To a blue whale, the world is a small place. 22 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:12,080 They are the largest animal that has ever lived. 23 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:16,440 They travel to ancestral feeding grounds, 24 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,440 carrying the instincts and memories of the riches of the sea. 25 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:31,400 Clouds of shrimp-like krill 26 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,400 emerge from under the ice around Antarctica. 27 00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:09,160 A tongue the size of an elephant 28 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,640 pushes 100 tonnes of water through their baleen. 29 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:15,840 A quarter of a ton of krill 30 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,600 goes down a throat that you could fit a car through. 31 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:27,280 The great whales could have been rare, as they are now, 32 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,920 but there is evidence that they recently dominated the ocean. 33 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:34,120 A keystone species affecting everything, 34 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:35,920 living in vast numbers. 35 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:42,680 To understand the link between whales 36 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:44,960 and the health of the underwater world, 37 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,600 we need to find clues as to how many there once were. 38 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,720 And crucially, how many disappeared. 39 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:52,760 PULSED CALLS 40 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,040 Bowhead whales are Arctic specialists. 41 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:07,160 But 150 years ago, they had almost all gone. 42 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,040 They have huge heads for breaking through 43 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:13,240 half-metre-thick ice to breathe. 44 00:04:15,560 --> 00:04:19,720 If any whale could remember the past, it's a bowhead. 45 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,000 Bowheads are the longest-living mammals, 46 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,360 up to about 260 years. 47 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,480 One of these could have been born before Napoleon Bonaparte 48 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:31,400 or the Declaration of Independence. 49 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,720 Their history is written under their skin. 50 00:04:40,880 --> 00:04:45,280 A few bowheads carry harpoons from two centuries ago. 51 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:48,920 Aboriginal walrus-ivory weapons have been found, 52 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,920 and metal harpoons with patents and dates. 53 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,080 Inside is a brain double the size of ours. 54 00:04:58,080 --> 00:04:59,720 Equally complex. 55 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,600 It would be surprising if memories didn't affect their behaviour. 56 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:10,760 To know what to look for, 57 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,280 we need to understand what they went through. 58 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,960 Their future arrived in thousands of ships 200 years ago. 59 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:23,520 They were crewed by tough men and boys. 60 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:26,240 FAINT CHATTER 61 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,920 Harpooned, the whales would try to escape 62 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:36,840 and the little boats were towed along with them - 63 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:39,120 known as a Nantucket sleighride. 64 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:43,960 Yankee whalers out of Nantucket 65 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,200 harvested enough oil to light every American home. 66 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:54,440 By 1900, steamboats with exploding harpoons had changed everything. 67 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:57,160 Whaling was industrialised. 68 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,720 Processing plants led to factory ships. 69 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:08,960 Able to take in a day what traditional whalers took in a year. 70 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,880 By 1930, 90% of bowheads were gone, 71 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:19,960 with survivors hiding in isolated pockets. 72 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:24,440 Many other whales suffered the same fate. 73 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:28,240 100 years ago, a tiny population of southern right whales 74 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:30,200 held out in the South Atlantic. 75 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:34,640 On the Patagonian coast of Argentina, 76 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:37,640 in bays sheltered by the Peninsula Valdes, 77 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:39,400 there is a sanctuary. 78 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,800 The southern right whales still come here, because it is safe. 79 00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,880 Like blue whales and bowheads, 80 00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,080 they carry clues to the past. 81 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:03,360 Their faces have hard patches called callosities. 82 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:05,880 They may help to fight off rival males. 83 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:08,280 Useful in a sea full of whales. 84 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,920 They are also home to a unique community of lice. 85 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,760 Whales play host to many specialist species, 86 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:20,800 and that only happens if there are plenty of whales to act as hosts. 87 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:28,280 This is a nursery. 88 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:30,200 Their young are born here. 89 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:41,160 Only a handful of these whales survive, 90 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:45,240 so a genetic bottleneck with some inbreeding is to be expected. 91 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:51,640 These days, one in six calves born here are white. 92 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,040 Tiny populations often throw up genetic abnormalities. 93 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:04,000 Whaling may have changed the shade of this pale whale. 94 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,080 His testimony is in the colour of his skin. 95 00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:17,440 The backs of the whales are pockmarked, 96 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,960 where gulls have pecked at their skin as they surface to breathe. 97 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:26,680 Whales may have fed a lot of other unlikely animals in the past. 98 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:40,080 The whales soon figured out ways to outwit the birds. 99 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,400 The mothers bend their backs down, 100 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:44,320 called a galleon position. 101 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:50,480 The whales' brainpower on show 102 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:54,960 points towards them being part of an adaptable and sophisticated society. 103 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:00,840 The calves stay close to the mothers, 104 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:04,360 but amorous males and teenagers often want to join in. 105 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,320 They push the calf aside and try to climb on top of the mother. 106 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,320 Right whales are very buoyant, so it's a struggle. 107 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:22,000 Most of the time, it's not about reproduction. 108 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:23,720 Whales are very tactile. 109 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:27,200 They embrace face-to-face. 110 00:09:38,560 --> 00:09:40,320 They are slow breeders. 111 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,240 In a world full of whales, that helps, 112 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:46,560 but now it's a disadvantage. 113 00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,480 Whalers called them right whales 114 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,560 because they were the right whales to kill. 115 00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:56,040 They are slow and float once dead. 116 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:01,440 Right whale hunting was banned in the 1930s 117 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,280 and they started to recover. 118 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:10,320 By the 1960s, their numbers should have risen to hundreds, at least. 119 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:19,360 Whale scientist Bob Brownell was part of a 1969 expedition 120 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:22,400 to document and film their successful recovery. 121 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:26,920 They searched the coast of South America, 122 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:28,960 but couldn't find any right whales. 123 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,080 That was not what they expected. 124 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,280 Then they came to a bay behind the Peninsula Valdes. 125 00:10:41,480 --> 00:10:45,720 It was just, er... You know, it looked like a very desolated place. 126 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,960 Eventually, a handful of whales emerge, 127 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:56,040 like victims of a disaster. 128 00:10:56,040 --> 00:11:00,120 And we found, I don't remember, half-a-dozen or eight whales, 129 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,160 and then we didn't encounter them again. 130 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:09,200 The rest had vanished. 131 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:16,000 The memory of the almost-empty bay preoccupies Bob Brownell. 132 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,520 And 25 years later, he still wants the truth. 133 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:27,480 There must have been somebody who witnessed this crime. 134 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:52,760 IN RUSSIAN: 135 00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,520 When there's a cover-up, documents are destroyed, 136 00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:20,720 but rarely all of them. 137 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:23,760 Bob Brownell asked Yablokov for help. 138 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,680 On one of the factory ships was a young scientist, 139 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:47,600 Yuri Mikhalev, who was collecting data. 140 00:12:55,800 --> 00:12:58,520 In the '60s, he was based in Odesa, 141 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:01,640 working on the whaling data from the South Atlantic. 142 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:06,480 IN RUSSIAN: 143 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:39,400 Mikhalev hid the stolen records, 144 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:41,520 photographs, newspapers 145 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:45,520 and even an old Soviet newsreel showing the whaling flotilla. 146 00:13:47,880 --> 00:13:50,280 These are his original records, 147 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:52,640 made while on a Soviet factory ship, 148 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:54,400 the Sovetskaya Ukraina. 149 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,640 A 13m whale was processed in 90 minutes. 150 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:32,120 The records are detailed - 151 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:34,960 location, age, sex and weight. 152 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,360 From discovering how many died, we can work backwards 153 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,160 to uncover how many whales there once were. 154 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:46,240 It's gone from hundreds to tens of thousands. 155 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,560 If whales lived in such huge numbers, 156 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,640 you'd expect clues on the coast, 157 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:54,200 as well as in the ocean. 158 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,440 Many whales, when they die, end up on the beach. 159 00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:05,880 40 tonnes of food brings life to the land. 160 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,280 California condors are rare, 161 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:13,040 but nobody considered that a land-based bird 162 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,280 might eat so much whale. 163 00:16:15,280 --> 00:16:18,480 Yet tests on a 200-year-old museum specimen 164 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,600 revealed whale isotopes in its bones. 165 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,360 If whales really predominated in the sea, 166 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,120 in places, there would have been dead whales every few kilometres. 167 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,920 For any coastal animals, whales were likely to be a key food. 168 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:43,440 Polar and grisly bears living near the coast 169 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:46,760 evolved to be bigger than mountain or forest bears, 170 00:16:46,760 --> 00:16:49,320 probably because they had whales to eat. 171 00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:54,240 And without beached whales, the lean years are tougher. 172 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:56,360 And now, there are fewer bears. 173 00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:05,840 Occasionally, we glimpse what it could have been like. 174 00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:09,160 A single whale feeds animals over a wide area, 175 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:12,000 and lots of bears come to the picnic. 176 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:18,840 Whales would have fed us, too. 177 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,480 Early humans spread around the globe, following coastlines. 178 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,360 It's possible that we were only able to cross into North America 179 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:29,240 by surviving on whales. 180 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:36,240 If the influence of whales on land is significant, 181 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:39,120 imagine the effects in the ocean. 182 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,440 Picture the sea thousands of years ago. 183 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,160 As well as many more whales, 184 00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,400 the oceans had ten times more fish. 185 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,040 With more plankton, more food, more everything. 186 00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:34,200 No one thing seems to have caused the collapse. 187 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:37,760 The ocean works as a single system. 188 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:40,640 It is more interconnected than the land. 189 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,040 Animals here depend on each other in unexpected ways. 190 00:18:58,440 --> 00:19:01,160 A keystone species is one that, if it goes... 191 00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:05,120 ..its place isn't filled by others. 192 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,480 Rather, the loss cascades through the whole ecosystem, 193 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:12,880 like a building losing its foundations. 194 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:23,360 Knowing about whales, we can look for clues 195 00:19:23,360 --> 00:19:25,960 as to what has happened to the oceans, and why. 196 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:40,080 Most of the ocean is desert, 197 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,080 with life congregating around shallow water 198 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,400 or nutrient-rich currents. 199 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:47,400 It has seasons and cycles 200 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,040 that we are only now beginning to understand. 201 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:52,320 PULSED CALLS 202 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,160 Whales migrate around the planet, 203 00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,000 guided by past memories 204 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:02,240 and instincts of where and when food gathers. 205 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:04,080 PULSED CALLS 206 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:10,320 These humpback whales 207 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,880 travel to the Eastern Pacific in search of anchovies. 208 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,400 GULLS CRY 209 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:12,760 Humpbacks work together, 210 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,480 eating millions of anchovies each day. 211 00:21:20,640 --> 00:21:22,720 Most of the fish escape. 212 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:25,600 If they didn't, there would be nothing next year. 213 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:31,320 Whales and fish evolve together. 214 00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:33,440 They balance each other. 215 00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:35,280 If the whales don't come, 216 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,520 anchovy numbers explode, 217 00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:39,520 and then they eat more plankton. 218 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,400 And when that runs out anchovy numbers crash, 219 00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:47,560 leaving seals, birds and other fish to starve. 220 00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:49,480 Everything is connected. 221 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,240 The whales from the Southern Ocean move north, 222 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:57,000 towards the tropics, to give birth and mate. 223 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,240 On the way, they pass through the Cook Strait 224 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:04,480 that separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. 225 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:08,240 For 200 years, small shore-based 226 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,920 whaling stations lined the coast. 227 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:15,040 But by the 1950s, only the Tory channel station remained, 228 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:16,640 and was celebrated. 229 00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,320 Dividing New Zealand in two halves is Cook Strait. 230 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,280 And at its narrowest part, only 12 miles separates 231 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:24,000 the North Island from the South. 232 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,760 Looking out over its waters are men of the Tory Channel 233 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:28,840 whaling station, searching for whales. 234 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,360 From each of these 40 or 50-tonne creatures 235 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:33,880 will come up to six tonnes of oil. 236 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:37,120 Oil valuable in the making of margarine and other foods. 237 00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,560 We had records of all the whales we'd seen, the whales we'd caught. 238 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,680 Everything we saw, we recorded. 239 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:50,960 Peter Perano remembers 1959 and '60. 240 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:54,000 One year, they were all over the place, 241 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,160 and then they just dropped straight off within two years. 242 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,120 It hit us just like that. 243 00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,720 Yeah, it was quick. It was really quick. 244 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:07,760 And, er...they were...they were gone. 245 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,680 It was a mystery, and there were suspicions. 246 00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:16,840 But New Zealand whalers told themselves 247 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:20,040 that the humpbacks had maybe found a different migration route. 248 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,040 But thousands of whales can't just disappear. 249 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,000 Alexey Yablokov knew the truth. 250 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,640 And in 1993, he set up a network of scientists 251 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:38,080 to find any original documents not destroyed. 252 00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:53,000 As a young man, Dmitry Tormosov, 253 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,240 like Yuri Mikhalev, 254 00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:57,600 was responsible for monitoring catches 255 00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,520 onboard Soviet factory ships. 256 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:13,680 IN RUSSIAN: 257 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,240 Blue, humpback, sperm whales. 258 00:24:34,240 --> 00:24:36,720 One season, one expedition. 259 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:39,760 One page for each whale. 260 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:48,720 HE SIGHS 261 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:14,360 By the 1970s, the Soviet whaling flotillas had to be invisible. 262 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,360 Meanwhile, the anti-whaling movement was pushing for a ban on whaling. 263 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:28,960 People were risking their lives to protect the whales. 264 00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,960 Protests focused around the International Whaling Commission, 265 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,400 or IWC. 266 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:42,680 You're standing up for 267 00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:44,200 what you know is right...! 268 00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:45,960 THEY CHANT 269 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,480 ..and say no more whaling, 270 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:50,600 no more whaling ever! 271 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,960 Governments send representatives to a meeting each year 272 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,040 to negotiate whaling quotas. 273 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,720 Without rules and regulations 274 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,240 to provide for the proper conservation of whale stock, 275 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,400 and the orderly development... 276 00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,560 SPEAKING RUSSIAN: 277 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,440 Every whale has a different history. 278 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,720 Grey whales tell their own story. 279 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,560 They migrate from Mexico to Alaska, 280 00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:54,560 staying close to the shore. 281 00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:00,240 They suck the sand from the seabed and filter it for shrimp or feed 282 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:02,280 on mysids and kelp beds. 283 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:07,240 This way they're not competing with a sea full of other whales 284 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:09,560 looking for krill or anchovies. 285 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,360 There's another theory as to why they stay near the shore. 286 00:29:16,360 --> 00:29:19,760 A large number of grey whales would have attracted predators, 287 00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:21,760 and shallow water is safer. 288 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:27,840 It's hard to imagine anything hunting a grey whale... 289 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:32,240 ..but in fact, their predators are still out there... 290 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:37,280 ..killer whales, or orcas. 291 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,920 They attack many different whales and work as a team. 292 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,560 CLICKING 293 00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:49,240 Almost every whale has adapted to deal with orcas. 294 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,720 A whale's huge size may have evolved in response. 295 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,880 The killers approach silently from behind. 296 00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,360 They're not whales, but giant dolphins. 297 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,400 The orca's strategy is to drown the calf. 298 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,080 They want to eat its tongue. 299 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,680 It's their favourite bit - a delicacy. 300 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:47,880 The battle is finely balanced, 301 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,840 as it would be if they evolved 302 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,760 together in large numbers. 303 00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,440 These are old enemies from an ocean of giants. 304 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,600 The baby has several instinctive strategies. 305 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,000 He spins his body and tries to hide 306 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,160 his head on his mother's back. 307 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:13,920 The mother has other tricks. 308 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:15,720 She tries to put her body 309 00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:17,520 in the way of the orcas. 310 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,160 She slaps at the orcas 311 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:31,520 with her tail. 312 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:47,720 The calf and mother use every 313 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:49,960 strategy to fend off the orcas. 314 00:31:57,800 --> 00:31:59,320 Though the calf isn't seriously 315 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,480 injured, the battle seems lost. 316 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,680 But the mother and calf's defences are well-practised. 317 00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:15,280 It's extraordinary. 318 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:17,200 The attack is over. 319 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:25,280 One orca gives the baby a gentle nudge, 320 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:26,880 eye to eye. 321 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,640 Hunter and hunted have evolved to understand each other. 322 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:59,200 Grey whales have also provided another piece of the puzzle. 323 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:03,400 An analysis of their DNA reveals an historic breeding group 324 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:07,840 of about 100,000 grey whales on the North American coast. 325 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,400 There were many other populations around the world, 326 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,120 now extinct. 327 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:17,280 Before whaling, 328 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,480 we can imagine an ocean of a million grey whales. 329 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:32,400 There's another species of whale that we know for sure was 330 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,240 once common - sperm whales. 331 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,920 Sperm whales were by far the most valuable. 332 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:54,320 In the 1850s, a single sperm whale was worth about $500,000 333 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,200 at today's prices. 334 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:01,040 As recently as the 1950s, there was still no substitute 335 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:06,200 for sperm oil, and it was used in cars and nuclear weapons. 336 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,400 For secret whalers, sperm whales were the jackpot. 337 00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,120 CLICKING 338 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:15,360 Sperm whales are also perhaps 339 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:18,000 the whale most critical to the ocean. 340 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,360 They're a keystone species. 341 00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:25,400 If you remove them, the destructive effects ripple out and the fragile 342 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,080 ecosystem wobbles and falls. 343 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:38,400 As they dive to hunt a kilometre down, we see the first clue 344 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,760 as to why they are so central to the story. 345 00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:44,920 Faeces are released 346 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:46,640 and nutrients flood out. 347 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,960 It's what remains of food caught near the ocean floor. 348 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:55,760 This one effect is so great 349 00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:57,800 that they provide nutrients 350 00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:01,280 that bring life to whole areas of ocean. 351 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,640 It's called the whale pump. 352 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,760 Whales fertilise the oceans, moving 353 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:09,200 nutrients trapped far below 354 00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,720 back towards the surface. 355 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:16,840 This is one of the few sources 356 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,200 of iron, essential for plankton. 357 00:35:21,040 --> 00:35:24,080 Plankton is the ocean's nursery. 358 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:29,000 Baby fish, crabs and lobsters live for years in this miniature world. 359 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,640 Plankton comprises or feeds 80% of ocean life. 360 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:41,000 If whales are part of the system at all, we may be in trouble. 361 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,400 Plants called phytoplankton provide 362 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:51,480 half of the world's oxygen. 363 00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:52,920 As iron levels fall, 364 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,680 the amounts of phytoplankton also fall. 365 00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,280 Plankton and whales are linked 366 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:02,360 in other surprising ways. 367 00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:05,280 We've discovered that phytoplankton, 368 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,440 like these diatoms, respond 369 00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:09,000 to whale song. 370 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,640 WHALE SINGS 371 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,440 They are bioluminescent. 372 00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:16,920 We don't know what the flashing means, but we're beginning 373 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:19,640 to imagine a world full of whale song... 374 00:36:21,720 --> 00:36:25,320 ..with the animals and plants responding, 375 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:28,640 feeding each other and depending on each other. 376 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:35,800 There's more. 377 00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:37,120 A kilometre down 378 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:38,840 is a different world. 379 00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,600 For a marine mammal to enter is extraordinary. 380 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,680 They hold their breath for an hour's dive. 381 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,120 Swarms of creatures emerge from the dark. 382 00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,760 Huge squid, like these metre-long Humboldts, 383 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:01,240 feed on blind fish. 384 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,840 Sperm whales hunt giant squid 15m-long. 385 00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,840 We can only imagine that battle. 386 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:12,880 CLICKING 387 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:16,280 Sperm whales hunt by echolocation. 388 00:37:16,280 --> 00:37:20,640 They use a huge oil-filled lens on their heads to focus clicks 389 00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:22,640 like a beam of light. 390 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,880 They listen to the reflections. 391 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:31,520 The bottom is a graveyard. 392 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:35,280 The majority of all the whales 393 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:37,160 that die end up down here. 394 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,880 This carcass is a young grey whale. 395 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,480 Feeding are moose octopuses, 396 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,960 ratfish, hogfish, tube worms and crabs. 397 00:37:52,480 --> 00:37:55,160 The species that depended on whales 398 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:58,000 falling from above must be starving, 399 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,360 and many perhaps are now extinct. 400 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:07,560 The largest single ecosystem 401 00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:10,360 on Earth is the deep ocean floor. 402 00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:15,200 Whales are the ambassadors between one world and the other, 403 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:17,040 even in death. 404 00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:18,760 CLICKING 405 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,240 Sperm whales are special in yet more ways. 406 00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:31,720 They live in matriarchal families and communicate in one of the most 407 00:38:31,720 --> 00:38:34,680 sophisticated animal languages. 408 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,720 We can even detect dialects between clans. 409 00:38:37,720 --> 00:38:40,800 FAST CLICKING 410 00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:45,080 They sometimes listen to each other with their mouths open. 411 00:38:45,080 --> 00:38:48,920 Their jaw has hollow bones and acts as an amplifier. 412 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:55,200 Sperm whales have the largest brains on the planet, 413 00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,640 six times the size of ours. 414 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:01,360 Intelligence must have been important in a richer, 415 00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:03,200 more sophisticated world. 416 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:13,760 Now, with fewer whales, the nutrient whale pump is less effective. 417 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:17,000 The ocean floor is impoverished, 418 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,160 and diatoms flash, 419 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:23,000 but to ships and deep-sea drilling, 420 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:27,000 and the whale-sized hole has left a poorer ocean. 421 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:33,440 Sperm whales sleep. 422 00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,360 We think that they dream, like us. 423 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,560 Nightmares are full of memories. 424 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:45,560 The older whales have witnessed 425 00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:47,200 traumatic change. 426 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,440 Whales value their family and gather 427 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:05,560 attentively around the baby. 428 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,360 CLICKING 429 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:17,480 Childhood can last a decade, 430 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,560 adults passing on skills and knowledge that define 431 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,320 their whale culture. 432 00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:28,800 Cubs have to come up for air more often, 433 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:32,280 so here in the North Pacific, whalers would just wait. 434 00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:34,120 CLICKING 435 00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:37,040 They'd harpoon her, and the whole family would 436 00:40:37,040 --> 00:40:40,120 come to the surface to help. 437 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,600 They'd never leave an injured baby. 438 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:44,400 They'd all be killed. 439 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:52,160 The records of the number of sperm whales illegally killed 440 00:40:52,160 --> 00:40:54,240 are the hardest to find. 441 00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:58,680 Soviet whaling in the North Pacific was based in Vladivostok, 442 00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,920 with any information locked in state archives. 443 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,040 Heading there, undercover, is a young academic 444 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:13,920 called Yulia Ivashchenko. 445 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:21,480 The idea was to search archives and find the available information 446 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,080 in Vladivostok, and in particular sperm whales. 447 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,920 It just was astonishing because I was sure that most 448 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,280 of these records were destroyed. 449 00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:36,800 I would order as many reports every day as possible, because I stayed 450 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:41,480 there for months and I'll just copy and copy and copy and copy 451 00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:46,000 and copy. Because it was done pretty quietly without letting 452 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,720 the librarian know, because they could question - 453 00:41:48,720 --> 00:41:52,360 why would I do copies of the whole reports? 454 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:56,240 What emerges from thousands of hidden documents is that whales 455 00:41:56,240 --> 00:42:00,480 were taken in huge numbers, with their location, sizes, weights 456 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:02,240 and ages all recorded. 457 00:42:02,240 --> 00:42:04,440 In the North Pacific alone, 458 00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:07,880 25,000 sperm whales were killed 459 00:42:07,880 --> 00:42:10,480 and processed in secret. 460 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,400 An untold personal story emerges, too, 461 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:15,960 of individual people and whales. 462 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,800 At the same time, the International Whaling Commission was trying 463 00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:26,000 to impose quotas and inspect the Soviet whalers. 464 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,160 IN RUSSIAN: 465 00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:05,320 The story moves from Russia to Japan. 466 00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:07,960 IN RUSSIAN: 467 00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:27,080 At the IWC, the Japanese said that they caught large males 468 00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:28,560 within the quota. 469 00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:31,800 The Vladivostok archive proved that was impossible. 470 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:34,840 The Soviets never saw large males. 471 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:38,560 The Japanese were handing in clumsy lies. 472 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:43,720 All of the big old males had been taken years earlier. 473 00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:46,720 Scattered families were all that remained. 474 00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:55,920 The IWC conference in 2018 turned out to be the showdown. 475 00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:02,080 The Japanese want to return to commercial whaling. 476 00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:07,440 Our evidence of falsified Japanese documents was presented 477 00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,240 to the head of the Japanese delegation and chair 478 00:44:10,240 --> 00:44:13,840 of the IWC, Joji Morishita. 479 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:17,320 IN ENGLISH: 480 00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:38,280 Since the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986, 481 00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:41,600 the IWC has struggled to achieve more. 482 00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:47,800 But now, here, in 2018, a new proposal is set to reshape the IWC 483 00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:49,960 to protect whales. 484 00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:52,040 The Japanese want to stop it. 485 00:44:53,240 --> 00:44:56,520 What happens next will play out in a day or so. 486 00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:03,640 Part of the debate is that there is good news for whales. 487 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:08,040 Humpback numbers have recovered worldwide to about 150,000. 488 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,440 The whalers overlooking the Cook Strait witnessed one 489 00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:15,000 of the worst massacres. 490 00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,240 They are still looking for their whales. 491 00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:28,080 Like the International Whaling Commission, they, too, have turned 492 00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:30,160 to protecting the whales that they hunted 493 00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:31,720 when they were young. 494 00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:35,320 I see something, 495 00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:37,240 right in line with that bloody... 496 00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:38,960 Boat out here. 497 00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:40,280 Oh, that white water? 498 00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,320 Yeah, white water, that's the whale. 499 00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:46,320 A few humpbacks are returning. 500 00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:49,040 Oh, yeah, breaching! There he is. 501 00:45:50,560 --> 00:45:52,120 Wow! 502 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:55,280 SHE LAUGHS 503 00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:03,240 Communities now make more money whale watching than whale killing. 504 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:08,320 But numbers are building more slowly here than elsewhere. 505 00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:10,280 THEY GASP 506 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:16,160 There is something about witnessing 507 00:46:16,160 --> 00:46:18,360 an animal doing well 508 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:20,600 that enriches all of us. 509 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,880 After travelling through the Cook Strait, the whales move 510 00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,520 on to their breeding grounds in the Tropical Pacific. 511 00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:55,760 WHALE SONG 512 00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:00,680 Here, they sing. 513 00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:04,040 SINGING CONTINUES 514 00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:19,600 Mothers come here to give birth in warm, protected waters. 515 00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:23,960 Like the right whales of Patagonia, 516 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:25,760 this is their sanctuary. 517 00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:34,000 The positive influence of the whales is beginning to reach out, 518 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:35,280 and life responds. 519 00:48:18,960 --> 00:48:20,400 It's shocking to uncover 520 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,480 that we slaughtered about 4 million 521 00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:24,880 of these magnificent creatures. 522 00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,520 And as the oceanic system weakened, 523 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:28,840 we lost many more. 524 00:48:31,320 --> 00:48:33,600 It will take centuries of careful 525 00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:35,280 support and protection 526 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:37,880 for their numbers to build back up, 527 00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:39,600 but it will be worth it. 528 00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:48,120 Not long ago, whale song must have filled the ocean, 529 00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:51,320 yet it is a song that is not always heard. 530 00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:36,280 Japan carries out their threat to leave 531 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:38,920 the International Whaling Commission. 532 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:43,800 In the winter of 2019, the Japanese 533 00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:46,480 drop any pretence of only whaling 534 00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,320 for scientific purposes, and that summer return 535 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:53,840 to commercial whaling in their territorial waters. 536 00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:09,920 We'll never know for sure how many whales they'll catch. 537 00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:22,000 The ocean was built around whales, millions of whales, 538 00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,880 and as they decline, everything suffers. 539 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:33,800 The investigation, the behaviour and the data have concluded 540 00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:36,280 that 4 million whales were killed 541 00:50:36,280 --> 00:50:39,000 out of 5 million alive 300 years ago. 542 00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,640 Before then, there must 543 00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:43,560 have been many, many more. 544 00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:53,160 Whales have witnessed one of mankind's most senseless crimes. 545 00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:58,000 What is extraordinary 546 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:00,040 is that sometimes they choose 547 00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:01,320 to trust us. 548 00:51:04,920 --> 00:51:07,600 We continue to destroy the ocean 549 00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:11,200 that they were a part of creating, 550 00:51:11,200 --> 00:51:14,960 but there is a fresh generation of whales, and people. 551 00:51:18,640 --> 00:51:22,520 One day, we may live to earn their trust.