Watching Whales Watch Us

Incredible (if extremely long) article in the NYT about whales.

A few highlights:

A list of items from the article that impressed me:

Whales, we now know, teach and learn. They scheme. They cooperate, and they grieve. They recognize themselves and their friends. They know and fight back against their enemies.”
Scientists don’t really know why whales jump up out of the ocean, roll in the air.
Whales hunt in teams and use tools. For example, they blow bubbles around cod to form a crude net.
They’ve learned to steal the fish that human fishermen have already caught, right off their rods, and some fishermen are losing 10% or more of their yield.
Gray whales live 100+ years. Hunting them was banned in 1937. Many whales today still have scars from harpoons.
They tend to form extremely complicated social hierarchies, with leaders, assistants, followers, friends, rivals, etc.
They mourn their dead.
Many whales have spindle cells. These cells are linked to higher cognitive functions like self-awareness, a sense of compassion and linguistic expression”. It is believed that they make love possible. They were supposed to be the difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, but it looks like whales evolved them in parallel. Considering that their brains weigh 5-6 times what ours do, it’s no wonder they’re thinking is so advanced.
The thesis of the article, is that, considering how smart whales are, and how well they’d learned to avoid humans, the recent friendly behavior by a small group of gray whales near Baja may be a sign that they’ve forgiven us.
Scientists generally frown upon anthropomorphizing animal activity, but it looks like humans are the best proxy through which to understand a lot of whale activity.
Whale sightings for humans are usually accompanied by a feeling of euphoria. It’s not uncommon for people to break into song. Last year, while sailing in St. Lucia, several dolphins swam along with our sailing crew for ~5 minutes, playfully performing tricks. I didn’t start busting out show tunes, but I have to admit I was a little giggly :-)