HOW TO SPEAK WHALE by Tom Mustill / CÓMO HABLAR BALLENO.

Hi my dear friends. Do you like whales? Do you think it's possible to speak to them? Today we are going to discover it!

Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Os gustan las ballenas? ¿Creéis que es posible hablar con ellas? Hoy vamos a descubrirlo.

Info: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: National.Geographic (2) RTVE.es (2) elDiario.es.

HOW TO SPEAK WHALE!

If you could talk to your pet, what would you say? Beyond instructions or expressions of affection, what would you honestly want to tell him or her? What would you like to know about your pet's life? Or, if you could talk to your favourite animal, be it a penguin or a lion, what kind of conversation would you want to have with it?  Would you ask about its feelings or its fears? Are you ready to hear what animals have to say?

A VIRAL ENCOUNTER

Tom Mustill asked himself many of these questions after a thirty-tonne humpback whale nearly killed him in 2015. Born in London in 1983, Tom is a biologist and filmmaker with over twenty year's experience making wildlife documentaries for the BBC and National Geographic.  He has worked alongside public figures like David Attenborough.

On a cold September morning he was kayaking off the coast of Monterey, California, with a group of fellow whale watchers, when a majestic humpback whale breached the surface and landed on top of him and Charlotte, his companion in the small fibreglass vessel!  The incident was caught on video and went viral. 

Tom Mustill has explained  the incident mentioned before. "When the whale jumped onto me, my father had just died, and we were very, very close.  So when these kind of major things happen, you do reevaluate your life and what you'd like to contribute to.  I  think I was mostly very happy to be alive afterwards. It felf like a second chance, because I was so sure that we were both going to die". 

A PERSONAL JOURNEY

That near-death experience inspired Tom to learn everything he could about the indredibly complex communication system of whales and cetaceans in general. Perhaps one day he could communicate with that very whale, which was later identified by a scientist as a bull (a male) and tagged with GPS tracker.  Tom's journey took him around the world, from the coasts of Dominica and Cornwall to the forests of Hawaii, as well as to the Bioacoustics and Comparative Linguistics departmens of various universities. This quest ultimately led to the creation of his book "Speak Whale"

WHALE CULTURES

After interviewing scientists from many disciplines, Tom concluded that we actually know very little about these marine mammals, the largest animals on Earth.  However, one thing we do to know is that different whale populations in distant parts of the world develop their own distinctive cultures and even dialects.  A striking example of this cultural development is the case of orcas that have been sinking yachts in the Strait of Gibraltar.  Scientists belive that the killer whales are not attacking the ships, but are instead playing with their rudders, treating them as toys.  This type of behaviour seems to be spreading across different orca populations, as Mustill explains.

BACK TO THE WATER

As they are mammals, cetaceans have warm blood and breathe through their lungs, like we do.  They give birth to their calves and nurse them with milk. According to paleontologists, the ancestors of the whale -also distant relatives of ours- once lived on land. About fifty million years ago, somewhere near moderns-day Pakistan, they returned to the water.  In the depths of the seas, they developed a highly sophisticated communication system that allowed them to work together and thrive in this new environment.

WHALE SONGS

Whale calls are highly complex.  Much like birds, their vocalisations are called "songs" because they follow repeating patterns that can last up to twenty minutes, with a range of pitches, from high squeaks to deep, mournful moans, that can reach up to 230 decibels, louder than a jet engine.

KILLING WHALES PLAYING

For centuries and still today, whales were hunted ant turned into commodities such as dog food, fertiliser, lubricant, margarine and even chewing gum. Nevertheless, there has always been a mutual curiosity between whales and humans.  

IMPLICATIONS

Mustill's book is filled with fascinating insights that have far-reaching implications for subjects like the nature of language and the definition of consciousness.  More importantly, it introduces new arguments in the debate about humanity's role in nature and the increasingly plausible possibility of interspecies communication. According to him, the meeting of AI and nature holds incredible potential -even beneficial or harmful- depending on how we choose to use these tools. He wrote his book, he says, to encourage people to talk this idea seriously.

WHAT TO SAY

After this enlightening journey, has Tom decided what he would say to the bull that jumped on top of him if he could speak whale? He says that his question would be: "Why did you do that to me?" but the question could also be: "Tell me what is exciting or interesting or important to you."  The best conversations just begin with saying hello and then you see where it goes.

www.tommustill.com

VOCABULARY

-HUMPBACK WHALE: ballena jorobada  /  -FELLOW: compañero, colega  /  -TO BREACH: emerger  /  -INQUISITIVE: curioso  /  -BULL: balleno  /  -TO TAG: etiquetar  /  -STRIKING: sorprendente  /  -RUDDERS: timones  /  -CALVES: ballenatos  /  -HIGH SQUEAKS: chillidos agudos  /  -MOURNFUL: lastimeros  /  -MOANS: gemidos  /  -TO STRIKE: sorprender  /  -INSIGHTS: ideas  /  -ENLIGHTENING: revelador.