Unexpectedly, the storm abated and the wind dropped to a just
manageable ten knots. The film's Science Advisor, Roger Payne,
quickly activated the speaker anchored in the surf below, broadcasting
right whale calls out into the ocean. Dr. Payne, who helped direct
key parts of the film, co-discovered the songs of the humpback
whales and pioneered many current whale research techniques.
Within 10 minutes of playing the whale calls, a group of whales
had gathered at the base of the cliffs and a boat dropped Kim,
a young diver, near the whales. Time after exhausting time she
struggled to approach the whales and they eluded her. Roger Payne
related what followed next.
Then it happened: I noticed a curious sub-adult turn back toward
Kim as she was swimming. I told Kim not to follow it, but just
lie still and let it come to her.
The sub-adult circled her closely, gliding against her. Then the
other whales all came, including a mother who made eye-contact
with Kim (first with one eye, then the other). The mother kept
Kim stationed right over her head while her calf came up curiously.
Now slowly from the bottom of the frame, a huge lone whale came
up. Meanwhile, another entered from the left until there were
so many whales around Kim I lost count. All of them crowded into
a single frame with Kim in the middle and surf everywhere. The
magic of that image is incredible. I radioed to Mariano (still
in the boat waiting for Kim) 'We're getting it, we're getting
all of it,' and he replied in his wonderful Latin American accent
'I know, I know, I'm weeping.' And he was.
The underwater Patagonia footage is remarkable. In one shot, a
camera is actually knocked to the surface by a passing whale's
tail! The Patagonia film includes a rare white right whale calf
with its mother (less than a dozen exist at any one time) and
dynamic images of whales breaching, playing and tailfluke sailing.
Copyright Whales, LLC 1996.