Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventure; Call of the Killer Whale (Granada Version)

Highly intelligent. Dangerously powerful people unchallenged sovereign of Earth's oceans. They are the killer whales and their complex societies extend back into a stick with. The dust. Our modern society now threaten thier. Children from shelter still in his teens. Investigate Cummings mirror in the water and discover that the orcas fight for survival is in fact. It's John Michel Cousteau ocean. Floor. Above. The bed. If she was a wonderful Well when I was first out here I

had no VHF radio had no radar and not a compass and once became lost in the fog. I felt like I was in a glass of milk you just can't see anything. And I could hear on the hydrophone this big cruise ship headed for me anyway. And her family. For the next 20 minutes came up so close to my boat. That I was constantly switching me engine into neutral because I didn't want to help them. And after a few minutes I could just barely see something and it all was an island and I hopped out and I was into the glorious sunset and in the clear. And I kept waiting for Eve's family to come out of the fog but they never did. And. That was for me was like. Worlds colliding trying to figure out what had gone on that she had turned around that she stayed by my boat and then when the I was safe she turned around again. At that moment I believed all the stories about dolphins pushing sailors to shore. I don't know what it is about these whales but

they do things like that and everyone studying these whales sees the same. Thing. Our counterparts in the sea. The most complex marine species on the planet. Orca. The ruler of the ocean. Male orcas can be nine times thirty two feet long. With a towering dorsal fin six feet tall. But crowned with a smaller curved fit. It may be the females that rule the pond. They're the most widely distributed marine mammal in the world. Their realm extends from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Largest of the dolphins. Orcas also called Killer whales. A number fewer than a hundred thousand worldwide. And finding them would take Sean Michel Cousteau and his team across the globe. Accompanied at times by his son

Fabian and daughter Celine. The Cousteau team will journey to both a northern and southern hemispheres as they seek out killer whales in the Pacific Ocean. The team will discover that people in orcas share surprising similarities even similar needs. A fact made clear by their experiences with Keiko. The world's most famous killer whale. The team will also learn how some of the characteristics we consider strictly human. Like language and culture may have also evolved among killer whales. Bill travel among groups of walkers there are a similar and as different as we are from each other. Their journey begins in the Pacific Northwest where orcas have been revered by native people for millennia. Studied by scientists for decades and where our story of the complicated relationship between orcas and people begins.

What we're trying to do is to make the connection between humans and nature. Comparing humans and ask us. They are the dominant species in the ocean. We are the dominant species on land. And we all depend on the same thing. The killer whale the orcas is such a powerful animal in terms of its appeal to people is it captivates the imagination. Because we know that there are large dolphins and they are very intelligent they live in very social groups much like our own. John Ford is a pioneer in orca acoustics. The first scientists to identify dialects in their calls and to change our beliefs. Even though I've only been involved studying orcas for around 30 years things have changed so drastically in our attitude towards this incredible animal the attitude at that time was that these were dangerous animals a threat to people a

threat to the livelihood of fishermen. And I was caught up in that when I was young. Growing up on Vancouver Island here we'd go out fishing and a group of orcas would go by and we would be terrified if they swam under the boat because that was the feeling that these were dangerous animals on our coast in the 1960s to mid 1970s there was a live capture fishery for orcas and they were sent to aquariums all over the world. I actually got a job at the Vancouver Aquarium and soon became a whale trainer in the early 70s and. Got to know them in that context and they were fascinating animals of course. Even then it was quite controversial holding them in captivity but I I realized we had so much to learn from them or because very complex brains. And when I first caught sight of an old brain which was you know on the show you know that I was really quite amazed. So the first question that came to me was once

Jerry's do with that brain. Still the question I ask was 40 years ago when you worked with captivity in 1967. Behavioral Research with an orca. Named Scott record and then they want to turn somebody just how do you know where what did you learn from. Mostly I think I learned that this was a very and suitable place to keep That was around the time actually. Dr. Michael big who died in 1990 and was very much our mentor and the true pioneer whose vision led to the photo identification. He started learning about the societies of these whales Libyan around our coast and that these were incredibly complex animals with very elaborate social relationships. You put the grave implications of that together with the social side and you understand immediately putting her in a concrete tank

completely shutting off the company of her kind. No mystery unfair and you know appropriate thing. But at the time it was through the close contact of captivity that we begin to learn about them. I want to talk. The story of one whale in particular named Keiko. Stirred our passion and raised enduring questions about captivity. Keiko was captured in 1079 in Iceland and became one of the 136 workers taken into captivity since 1961. But he did not become one of the more than 100 that have died there were one of the forty two killer whales that remain in captivity captured at age 2 and eventually sent to Mexico City. Keiko was breathing the world smoggiest air a master of the ocean at 7000 feet above sea level in the order official seawater of a shallow pool where he entertained the crowds. I find this with the work particularly in studying the ones in captivity there are

enormous optimists. They generally try to take the best of a situation and they give us the benefit of the doubt. Keiko would have lived his life in poor health. Swimming in circles except for one thing. He became a movie star. As Willie he was freed to 10 million film Going to children. But in reality Keiko went nowhere. The stress of his environment caused a skin disease which spread as his health seriously deteriorated. The real well was slowly dying and Keiko had to be moved. When it was learned that Keiko was still captive. Millions of children are already demanding his freedom and a spontaneous movement was started to free the sick whale. Keiko Zoners donated him for the unprecedented experiment of reintroducing him into the wild. And the Oregon Coast Aquarium customized a pool for his

care. Suddenly. The reality of freeing Keiko became far more interesting than the movie. As Keiko began a long and complicated journey toward freedom. Ultimately true freedom for Keiko was. Being accepted into a pod of wild whales since orcas lived their entire lives and tightly connected social groups where all members are related to each other. It's now understood the best chance for Keiko would be to find his mother. It very much is a matriarchal society or a matrilineal and everybody in the group is related through female descent to have a female ancestor. Individuals stay with their mother or their grandmother for the whole life and it took some years to understand that because it is very unusual in that the large adult males never leave the group. The bond between a mature male and his mother is very very strong. I know that the way they came to you in the way that nature. Might happen when she

passed away. Even Lee had two sons no daughters and those two males went around Hanson island for weeks and didn't survive her death for very long. Generally the males will join their sister's family but they may become a loose satellite and never again have the bond that they had with the mother. It's a unique social system or has a very conservative animal. Basically you only socialize with somebody who your mother introduced you to. The resident populations on this coast. Are you fairly clearly divided socially into two different groups in the residence. Of 240 whales 16 pods southern residents around 90 whales three pods. Quite a bit smaller. What's really interesting and we don't really understand this but they never mix. And then we have overlaying that we have transients the mammal hunters they don't mix with the residents but they will often mix with other transients and then occasionally we have these offshore whales and they don't mix with these others either so we have these whales that in many ways

are just focused on their very familiar neighboring groups that are of the same lifestyle. It's a pattern strangely familiar. Much like human tribes existing near each other but separate with languages and behaviors learned and passed on over generations. We define it as culture. And for both humans and orcas. Different cultures exist among the same species. More than a thousand miles to the south. New Zealand's rugged coastline yields to a powerful ocean. Here Fabian Cousteau and the team will encounter an orca culture is different from the Pacific Northwest. As the landscape. This is all for the Seabrook capital of the world. We're 86 species of birds are nourished from deep and often mysterious waters. Team photographer Carey Von Gerhard dives in search of the schools of fish that attract

more species of whales and dolphins to move Zealand than anywhere else in the world. In fact. Half of all species of whales dolphins and porpoises are found among the supporters. But the Orca of New Zealand. Number only about 200 and until recently little was known about. No one knows when better than Dr. Gingerich Dysart. In 1992 she began the first in-depth study of workers in the South Pacific and she studies them with a passion. Kerry and Fabian experience what inspires Ingrid. You know when you look at you. Yeah I think you know. Right.

From the top doctors and I both think that it is. Right. With. With. The New Zealand or cry fan a just so completely different from the Pacific Northwest. I had this paradigm that that was how Oka were around the world. They had a mitral lineal society and state and very strongly bonded groups and that there was another population who fit on marine mammals. Well it turns out here that the New Zealand or Carra moving around between groups they feed on fish shacks rice and marine mammals acoustically they're different. I have a good Kiwi twinning just like I do. And it looks like they are moving big distances compared to the animals at the. I've got them travelling an average of 100 to 150 kilometers a day. Ingrid's were brought protection for these organs and her thesis revealed unique social patterns.

Sorry to bother you. We really would like to see all these connections who were telling us about. Sure let me show you. So I base thing to illustrate it with it would be this. So what we have here basically these numbers represent different orca individuals. And the thickness of the line indicates how much time they spin with each individual. So in this example here in CA 41 and indeed 40 seem to give the some of the time but in zip 39 in zip 41 seem to get the most of the time. But indeed 41 and indeed 28 have never been seen together. So this group hangs out together and this group hangs out together but they don't meet up with each other. So that's quite a simple concept. But then if we start looking at it into depth then you start getting things like this. And so you've got some end of the jewels that sort of in a group but they start spinning a bit of time with other animals and these ones are in sort of a group and here again and here again. So it's quite complex.

It really means when you see this for the other part of the population with different parts of the world it's completely different with different organ populations. It's one of the things that's nice me about. Different. Cultures even though I know in some I have a bigger Let me get over this of being stable and a social group so we're looking at now for the truly thousands of years. If you look at this society and understand that this is evoked over a very long period of time you realize that you're looking at a at a successful society but Kaikoura grown up alone and was never part of the site while. The challenge for him would be enormous since strong social bonds may actually define what it means to be an orphan at the time no one knew how to free a captive orca who's a new frontier to trainers like Steve Clawson for years and Michel became involved in the effort and he struck a chord as a symbol of more than

just one whale. Whatever curator no one hardly knew how far Keiko was from a wild orca. We're trying to teach Keiko to not only work for us within the school so we can take better care of him but we need to let him become a killer Well again we need training. Our goal all along has been to give him control of his life were an active part of it especially since he is here myself but the idea Celeste him to make. Those decisions. What he wants to do when he wants to do it. Previously anytime I did anything. Somebody asked for it. Even with vastly improved conditions. Keiko continued to demonstrate his frustration from living in an artificial environment. He expressed his stress in Mexico by knowing the concrete pool damaging his teeth. And it continued in Oregon on his favorite rock. A decision was made to cover it in order to discourage the behavior. And to protect the teeth of the

ocean's greatest predator. An Orca shark conical shaped teeth make feeding on large prey possible. But Keiko primarily eats fish which was swallowed whole so his damaged he should not be a problem in the wild. When he arrived in Oregon Keiko was a thousand pounds underweight but soon doubled what he was eating in Mexico. With his waistline increased by three feet. He gained nearly 2000 pounds and grew eight inches longer. But he still had to be taught to catch live fish. As a milestone for his release. And in order to survive in the wild. Accustomed to only dead fish. At first he treated the life like a toy. Surrounded by walls. Keiko never been observed using echolocation in

captivity and to a wild killer whale. It's a fundamental skill. The whales hearing spectrum is many times ours. Their sensitivity is incredible. They see with sound. So when they're finding food they use their echolocation they make sounds they get echoes and they can turn that into a metal three dimensional image somehow. When they hunt they'll generally split up and go either side of the channel back and forth. And when this way this well we'll know everything that's in between if there's a poor fish or other whales. Because the way the sound passes through it. Even though it's the top predator in the ocean and has been documented feeding on everything from small schooling fish to the largest of the big whales The Blue Whale their diet is actually much much more narrow than that.

According to the whatever local population you're looking at you know when you go in to different places around the world and you look at it look at what the orcas are doing and understand that they've sort of figured out how to live in the particular Nish that they happen to be. It's really interesting looking at the differences. It's about to experience the oceans master predator and more. And they knew her in New Zealand. They're focusing on fading on a culprit attests to the fading on shacks and rice and they're also feeding on dolphins and whilst. They seem to be pretty opportunistic here in New Zealand. Also very specialized when I come across it types things like for instance when I feed on the rice I have a very stylised wise feigning. Thinning away at the hunting they have to slot if you're wise and they use different methods. So for instance if they're inside the funner right which is very shallow and

Sandy they tend to just chase the rice at full speed. But if they're in an area along the coastline which is very rocky then they find these rights that I hide and I selectively pull them out by grabbing the tip of the town very carefully lifting them up and then another one comes in and bites the right. You see them definitely carrying the food around but I don't think so much of the supply at least not for the old random ones. I think a lot of it's training sessions because rights are a very high risk butat because of these stings and I think it's potential to kill. Or pretty much trying get rice but some of them a just better at it that happens sometimes you will see behind the right and then the whole life of someone else

is much better at catching it and it depends on the situation as they are in a really sandy beach sure they will each time to make a rock which will hurt as that goes grabs the. Rice hair. I guess what you call a primitive brain system. And so if they get flipped very quickly this interest is what's called tonic immobility and ally the and sometimes even when you swimming along the bottom when the old graffiti in different places you find rice upside down just lying there and it's still alive but the oak will come back and get them light up. Looks like they're pretty much tied in with what they saw the have and what I can spin a method for catching me. For instance in Antarctica using wives to watch the seals on the ice to hunt for water demonstrates the workers ability to watch. The first created.

They then circle. Apparently analyzing them clearly planning. As the younger Wells watch and learn. Then in perfect synchrony they charge. In Patagonia off the coast of Argentina. The challenge is to swim on shore in pursuit of sea lion pups. The danger is getting stranded. So every maneuver also becomes a training demonstration for young whales of the bottle. As gray whales migrate up the coast through Monterey California. A part of trends in orders show why they're called Lords of the sea. They hunt in packs

to isolate. And then overpower a grey whale. It's a predictable heart. As many as a third of the Cavs take in my orchestra. 20 to 30 whales may work together and share the bounty. Sharing seems to be very important in these groups. It seems to be part of the way that the whales live together to avoid competition. Certainly don't feature when it comes to feeding on larger animals. But that's probably more a facet of the fact that these things will be feeding on much whiles aside and there's not many of them and Tim's if I kill one then everybody has to face. A female. The best hunters will bring up the fish and others from her match line will come over and share the prey. What's kind of surprising for the residents. They will share even a salmon that's perhaps only 5 10 pounds.

They will share that even though any whale in the group could easily swallow it has given us a new appreciation and insight into the workings of their society. That said even though their dietary preference is culturally maintained and driven They don't seem to be really adaptable in the short term it might take a while before they can start focusing on alternative species or will traditional If they only do it Mom get the women. Then they socialize the wealth and mom socialize when they really don't like ranchero So if you have a habitate chines and then taking them right isn't on the air anymore. Then it's difficult for the welcome to end. Within decades and for a variety of reasons. Or because throughout the world maybe at the crossroads of adaptation or extinction as their prey diminishes. Something the resident whales of the Pacific Northwest now face. It's a growing issue for the future but is similar to the question of whether Keiko would be able to adapt to hunting live fish in the wild without another whale to teach him.

Keiko initially seemed confused about the shift in his diet until finally either hunger or common sense kicked in. And he began to catch a few live fish in the wild. That wouldn't be enough. Using ultrasound to measure Keiko's fat layer or blubber the staff identified where it would show if he weren't even tougher. In theory by measuring his blubber so easily in the wild from an extended poll scientists could know if and when they would have to intervene. They did know that Keiko would have to be in better shape than he had ever been. So even as 30 different toys were designed with a purpose. Filled with water a 200 pound ball became Keiko's workout. When he first arrived Kate who could barely hold his breath for three and a half minutes he soon progressed to almost 18. Nor for a wild killer whale. But Keiko is still far from a wild whale which was vividly seen when at night

he gathers his toys around to sleep. In a rave cameras and hydrophones captured Keiko's movements and sounds. Taking advantage of this opportunity a scientist carefully analyzed his vocalizations. Trying to match them with specific behaviors hoping to take a step toward understanding killer whale communication. Keiko however had not communicated with another ORC in more than 20 years. Studying a pair of whales called Orkin and Corky. They would begin conversations with certain sounds and conversations with certain sounds and I realized that studying communication between those two whales in captivity would be like studying communication between two people in a prison. That there was no way I was going to actually learn what they were saying and the real context of their lives.

I'll tell you that the main thing about Corky and she's a survivor. She has been in captivity for 38 years about 43 years old which is incredibly old for a captor Bowker. Most of them die within 10 years. She still uses the course said the five part and she is swimming in it. Brown ran the tank and in a concrete tank it sounds if they make reverberated off the walls of the to. Their constantly but in an in an acoustic fries I think it's an incredibly stressful environment simply because of that and how is your research cared ARCA lad different. Well when I was working in captivity and I understood that before and wanted really to learn about them you needed to go into the wild and study even at a distance and that's where we got into developing the remote hard to form systems that enable us to hear where else that we can't see.

We have a network of hydrophones Cubs but 50 square kilometers of the area around us and we have speakers all over the place with listening to all of them all of your time 24 7 365 that we are normally listening to a space and there are many voices in that space. A sort of general sense where the Statler and the West are doing certain things go instead when they're chasing fish. Because we're hearing they're going to stand when they're arrested because Sydney is really no cheese course. But we don't know who the bushes belong to. So I think the really fascinating area to get into the question of who is it as individuals. I was listening to that and if we can

understand who's speaking maybe ultimately we might begin to understand what has been said. On average it makes about a dozen distinct calls having dialects at the family level. Is almost unheard of in members. There's OSS there's the dolphin ship which the orca is the largest and some primates monkeys and apes that are able to learn and make new sounds. And it's that ability that has evolved perhaps independently even in the primates and in the dolphins that kind of opens the door towards more advanced communication systems ultimately to language. I wanted to take all that I had learned in captivity and apply it to wild whales. And so I contacted a brilliant scientist in Canada Dr. Mike big and I asked him Do you know what family of whales or king Corkey came from which sounds like an extraordinary request. But here at the time was photographing each dorsal

fin and saddle learning to tell them apart collecting all the pictures from the capture. And there was a bunch of pictures that showed this well we now call it 23 with a little baby Corky just before she was taken from her mom. So I had no boat experience I threw everything into a pickup truck and we pumped up the zodiac and Alert Bay and we went out there and I stopped and I put the hydrophone. But on the headsets. It was her family calling and for the first time I heard these sounds in their natural environment just rolling rolling. My first feeling was an enormous guilt that it was me that was there but. That's how I feel. One promising factor in Keiko's finding his friend was that orca calls can be heard 10 miles away. There was hope for a dialect match among North Atlantic orcas where Keiko would be reintroduced 100 miles from where he was captured.

To prepare for his move. The bait pen was constructed in the pristine Icelandic bank. Finally the day ride to return Keiko to the home he barely. This had been Keiko's unexpected journey to freedom. The millions of children demanded. But that no one knew exactly how to accomplish. From a shell that washed transformation from Two and a half years and had witnessed to his devoted fans. Even the U.S. Air Force had agreed to rent a C-17 cargo plane and crew for the trip. Announcing it was in the. Best interest of the nation to fly Keiko. He was covered in oil and for the fly to protect his skin from trying. Not for 15 anxious hours out of his element. Keiko was at last returning to the cold

ocean waters of his birth. It was seen as the first step to restoring what had been taken away when he was captured. Keiko would first have to acclimate inside the confines of the bay pen. Months later his world expanded to the enclosed Bay where for the first time he ruled in relative freedom. It was Kant goes first chance at a small piece of the while. Not since he was two years old and he experienced the sights and especially the complexity of sounds of a natural ocean environment. It had been 23 years after his expected lifetime since Keiko had even

seen the bottom of the sea. Keiko's world was gradually expanding for the next step. A satellite tag was attached to his rare floppy dorsal fin in order to follow with it see. Its attachment was no more painful than a piercing ear but the tag and Keiko would have to wait another season the following complications to be tested to see. Find the summer of 2000. See trials began. There. Anything from that I was up to. The difficult promise to give him the choice of freedom. Had been kept. Then at last Keiko was within feet of wild killer whales. He seemed enthusiastic of first. But then experienced what might have been shyness with fear

turned back. Right. Yeah. Later encounters looked aggressive and Keiko continued to seek the shelter of the boat. Right. Right. Or defeat. Over three summers Keiko continued to approach passing whales spending more time with them possibly learning their ways. Then in 2002 after watching a pod feed on Herring he simply swam away in the proximity of whales. For over two months Keiko was tracked by satellite. His course revealed no details about his experiences in the wild but he emerged a thousand miles away sufficiently fed and unscathed an enormous success. Then perhaps seeking human companionship or just chasing an easy meal.

Keiko followed a fishing boat into a Norwegian fiord. Keiko was still alone but he was welcomed by enchanted children and must have felt they already knew him. Strong Bonds are undeniably formed between captive organs like Keiko and people. But we've been slow to consider that the ocean's greatest predator while getting free may also be curious to understand us. How did. You both of these whales take interest in your boat. Well you know as a scientist you have to cite. But as a y o haga. Oh for sure. You know there's no doubt in my mind. With me. I don't. Know what. The. What.

The but. You know. What we're looking. At. Just. Now. And I'm trying to find. It Right. Now not to so. Not be you know. I said. I might not. Have a good time. And time. With my kids. All. In an effort to both protect workers and to the public anger in front of the orchid project. Fantastic news and so what direction were they going when you saw them or nationally advertised Nobu rings with reports of orcas sightings and stranded like that of the whale should all be in 90 of them. And I knew him before the stranding But when you're involved with an animal of that sort a live is just something about it you know and I look and they're at risk and with being. We had an overnight old deal.

And then. We rescued him and the next day he was back with another group orca which was just incredible. But a year later I got run over by a bug and it was just tragic. But a year later our family. Has been in the back half a completely collapsed and forward by the side now he's got this funny little Fenway put sticks up in the wrist. But he survived and he's very cautious of bites now but he'll still come over to my body. I think that by showing people the variation within the individuals might be animals a little more personable a lot. If somebody can call me up and say Hey I just saw. It gives them a little bit of a spike in beans. And so hopefully you know they'll slow down maybe they'll drive a little more respectfully. The doctor of course is really valuable for my research but ultimately I want it to be that the public will want to protect these animals. Keiko however was at Rest of being loved too much by well-meaning public.

The Norwegian government passed laws to protect him and the Free Willy Keiko foundation in the Humane Society of the U.S. agreed to continue its care. He arrived in Norway obviously having found himself at sea. But without fish in the fjord concern grew. And the decision was made to begin feeding them again. Go had everything you needed except the company of his own car. In 2003 after more than a year in Norway. Age 26. Relatively young for a male Orca. Keiko took a final breath and died from a pneumonia like virus. His burial was the last outpouring of affection for the well we thought we knew. And who had done everything we asked. You can't go with the will we had forever changed. And no matter how

good our attention. He was the way we couldn't fix. For him to become what Nature had intended. In Oregon the close company of other whales. It wasn't possible even for the world's most blogged. Most famous whale. I think it would be quite impossible for anybody to propose capturing an orca or at least in North American orders at this point. So I think in that sense we have come quite a long way in terms of public attitudes in terms of what we understand about orcas. We have also come a long way. I think at this point we understand enough about the Sharkey too complex and remarkable going to be fascinating. We really don't have the whole story or what we do understand is really very interesting.

The debate about returning captive orcas to the wild and keeping them in captivity continues. Especially as we learn more about them and continue to discover that there may be few other species more like ourselves. There do still remain countries tolerant of capturing orcas. But in most of the world any Up Close hands on contact comes when a whale ends up on the beach stranded. Ingrid Visser is again changing what we know and there was a lot of controversy and there still is about saving stranded whales and dolphins. People say that they have crushed internal organs from from sitting on the beach for so long and then other people say yes but no longer viable strace hormones and all of the sort of thing that these animals can't reproduce and that they're basically a drain on society. You put them back because they're going to be eating fish and contributing nothing. So America she strained as she was race here in our hemisphere. Three years later. And then. And. There.

She had her nose. It was really really incredible to see the straining of being a mosquito man had a very nice car on the campus of my site. Yeah it was. In the middle of our research and we gets a call that a small female overcoat is stranded on an isolated beach in heavy surf. She and the team rushed to assist. She's somewhere on this bit of coastline here. We're not sure exactly we're these lines on the chart I'm marking that's really rough and safe breaking. So we're kind of right and we'll be able to pick her up and move here by tractor and trailer somewhere into here. OK well let's do that. Time is critical in this for any rescue. So angry things on the show will fly

directly while the team drives the five hours to the site. New Zealand's hills are bordered by a twisting ninety three hundred mile coastline. Whale strands are fairly common but successful rescues are not. Orca was first sighted around one o'clock by some hikers in a very remote part of the west coast west of Auckland tossing and turning in the surf. We ultimately got to the beach and indeed this young female a little over three metres long was very badly stranded. So when we first saw her at parsers the natural emotions of just wanting to break down and crying and knowing that she's away from her family and knowing that she has no idea where people there are going to help or hurt her but help comes by digging holes for her flukes and flippers to relieve the discomfort. Then keeping her skin moist.

She was probably not alone struggling in the service. A mother whale may have tried to pull her back to sea. Judging from the marks raked across her tail stop. Angry and named her Reiki. Most important to our survival is keeping the young well hydrated after hours of stress on the beach. And really successful in getting her to accept it to bring in water. It's a tree that also involves reassurance and comfort. Here. Even with expert care under changing conditions. It's believed that orca can survive only about 24 hours of water. Hopefully she'll be OK and hopefully we're nice to me so hard. She's a young female. She's our family. We very very anxious to

see her back in the ocean. YOU KNOW WHERE ARE WE movie at all just just right up above this tiny little town where there is a facility where we could pull the truck and the trailer right next to a fresh water source. So we had a hose where we could water and we had an ongoing watch throughout the night. But finally by 4:00 a.m. We knew it was time for Ingrid and Carl and the team to discuss what the options were to get her back into the water. We are as a family. We shall annoy some orchestrations before we. Two hours after we released the Orca. It meet up with its family so the long way away and the animals will return to fight. I want people to hear what she's in so out of the bag. But then if we take her to the other coast 100 percent guarantee she won't find her family immediately. That's the worst call for both scenarios is that we are a family.

I just feel more for more fallout. Could you imagine the animals running operation. Trying. Yeah. Yeah. If you can show off its much yeah it is different. OK for her to have her only us all to Christ and she knows very well that pods here off the North Island will visit the West and East Coast frequently. So she felt confident putting this animal in the east side of the country that there is a very good chance that this young well will hook up with her family in the near future. A decision is made to move Reiki to the east coast and the team prepares for what must be done to save the whale. For the heart monitor. We put it on early in the morning and wanted to keep track of her heartbeat throughout the rest of her time on the flatbed. It's becoming clear to the team that a positive outcome for the rescue was not guaranteed. For me personally it was the first time I've seen an orca so close.

But Ingrid with her trust in us. We really were not only filming and assisting but we were participants and when she had asked me to sit next to the whale to help keep them apart monitor on her the entire time it was my job then to really have that continuous touch with the animal and really hopefully transmit my calmness to this animal and her heart was very normal was average between 60 and 80 heart beats per minute. And there were times when it even dipped a little bit which was hopefully a sign of her calmness. And so in the usual procession moved through Zealand's largest city. So we drove right through the heart of Auckland. 90 minutes through town. With a moment of just sitting there thinking I'm with the whale. I'm sitting here with a whale. We finally arrive over the east side and pull into the harbor in the.

The ramp are about to put the animal in the water and there is well over a hundred plus people tearing as we drive up. The whale is gently rock into the water. But is disoriented from the ordeal and lie still. From there there is a. Full flood of emotions at first the animal was hardly moving at all and the muscles if you could just imagine your muscles this cramped for. Hours and hours. Nothing else stretched so should just as they just you know stretching out and getting back into this fluid environment. And finally Ingrid says just as some of the people back away and only two of you stay close to her to support her. Sure enough as soon as three people backed away from the animal car let one of us that right by the head. She just gives a big kick up her tail and just see the

movement and her dorsal fin just life in the water slowly trial about the deeper water. We've heard the stories of dolphins pushing people back to shore and now this team has to carry the young whale back to the sea. Was a chance at life. Perhaps all kinds of people share an additional trait the ability to care for another species including each other. You know complicated relationship with nature. You may be gone there like any other. Just scraping the surface with these guys pretty much every time I go out I see something new and interesting. I just wish I knew so much more about them just the way the real bisects Where did I go when I don't know when I have what I sang to each other. How do they teach the young ones how to catch things and what happens to them when they know what a and just. Fun stuff like that as well. And then on the science side of things how are

they impacted by pollution in the marine environment. What sort of things can we do to protect the habitat. If you teach people about these animals they going to understand them better and to understand them better they are going to love the morning I love them. Then. I am going to look after them. I hope for a long time it's the people go why do we need the whales. Why do we need the whales. And you know in truth. Why do I need my earlobe. You know why do I need any specific part of my body. Because it's part of the whole. And you can. Live without cards. But it's a degraded existence because it's all knitted together.