Whale Wise

I'm back and refreshed. I visited Maui for the first time and on a Humpback Whale watching trip, among many other interesting whale facts, I learned that you can hear whales with the naked ear just by being under water.
I remember being mesmerized by these recordings when I first heard them years ago but I had always thought that these sounds were detected with some type of elaborate device maybe only available to scientists. When I got back to shore I couldn't wait to try it out so I donned my snorkeling gear and swam out past the other sound makers nearer to shore and sure enough I heard them loud and clear and it was magical.
The best I can do to describe it is to say that it truly sounded like conversations, not unlike listening to someone speaking a foreign language. It was eerie and needed a little cognitive work to erase the Moby Dick thoughts but it was wonderful and just what the doctor ordered, some order of things that put my absurd little life into perspective.
I listened and imagined conversations about their long haul back to Alaska. There were debates over the merits of leaving sooner over later including some concerns over the juniors who hadn't quite mastered those all important deep diving maneuvers yet. There were Orca worriers and disgruntled young males who had failed to mate. There was talk of hundred pound servings of krill that awaited them. There were the more casual songster pod members belting out tunes and the no nonsense traditional leaders barking orders. Some met pod expectations and some didn't and some wanted respect and some wouldn't give it and some got plenty of it but couldn't care less. Somehow when it came time they all fell in and began their long journey to their summer home.
I guess I've taken a little humanization liberty here but I was surprised at how little is really known about these incredible creatures and what is known is being constantly revised.
Part of this is because they are protected and research is primarily done by observation. Other than the Japanese who still harvest 50 per year for what they say is research, Humpback Whales are pretty much left alone. So unless they start swallowing boats or ramming submarines I guess we'll have to wait to know a whole lot more about them and that's perfectly all right by me.
Too bad we can't take this approach more often.