A Life Among Whales
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Weaving together natural information on whales and biography, Billy Haney was able to created a riveting film, A Life Among Whales. A Life Among Whales delves deeply into the unique relationship between humans and whales, it also shows whale hunting facts. A Life Among Whales allows people to contemplate, should whale hunting be banned? This story is told by renowned whale biologist and activist Dr. Roger Payne. For four decades Dr. Payne has advanced the boundaries of science and activism to ensure that in saving whales we humans can learn more about studying ocean animals facts.
It all began with his pioneering work showing information on killer whales in the 1970s documentary song of the whale, which was the start of his study on whale facts like the types of whales and sea animals in the ocean pollution today. With a beautiful and haunting collection of whales pictures like killer whale pictures, gray whale pictures, and Orca whale pictures Dr. Payne allows the viewer to see interesting facts about whales by swimming with whales.
Dr. Payne has not only swam with a list of whales like Orca whales, grey whales, right whales, humpback whales, blue whales, toothed whales, and white whales, but he also an opponent against whale hunting. His goal is to stop whale extinction by presenting facts about whales through whale watching tours presenting fact about whaling history and the whale population.
Dr. Payne also address the countless whaling techniques that companies use to obtain whale meat, oil, and blubber from whales. Payne, shows us the secret that most whaling companies do not want the general public to find out, and that is it is covering up deceptive whaling practices in the name of science.
As a result of the countless whaling techniques over the years a large majority of whales in the ocean population have come close to extinction. The blue whale is an example of this fact. About 10 percent of the total population of blue whales have been killed in one year due to fishing practices. As a result a record of whales being killed by every. Dr. Payne shows us it is time to act and respond to these negative practices done by whaling companies.
A Life Among Whales forces us to question our stewardship of the Earth and our coexistence with some of its most intriguing creatures.
Roger Payne’s Whale Facts
Some of Roger Payne’s facts about whales includes the term whale which is a common name for several different types of marine mammals which include whales, dolphins and porpoises and make up what is known as the cetacean whale species. Whales facts can sometimes refer to all cetaceans it usually excludes dolphins and porpoises.
The two primary types of whales (suborders) include the Odontoceti (toothed whale) which includes both dolphins and porpoises, and whales such as the sperm whale, killer whale, beluga whale and narwhal whale, and the Mysticeti (baleen whale) which includes the humpback whale, bowhead whale, blue whale, and minke whale among others.
Some whaling facts that most people do not know is that all whales share several physical characteristics, they all have flippers designed for swimming, a tail with flukes used for navigating the water, and nasal openings (blowholes) for breathing.
Roger Payne’s Whale Research
Some of Roger Payne’s information on whales has led to an increase in whale conservation. The center for whale research has the longest continuous study of different types of whales based on other previous research from known individuals. The study began in 1970 when Ocean Alliance president, Roger Payne, discovered that one could tell individual right whales apart by the differing patterns of white markings on their heads. He realized that by following the lives of individuals, one could learn far more whale information than was being learned from killer whales in captivity and dead whales by scientists who worked with the whaling industry.
This Project is now directed in the U.S. by Dr. Victoria Rowntree, and in Argentina by Dr. Mariano Sironi. Today, many of the animals Roger identified in 1970 still return to the Peninsula, but now their new calves are accompanied by the calves of their daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters. The value of such a long-term study increases exponentially as each new year of data gets added to it. Ocean Alliance now has an invested interest in saving the whales by following the lives of more than 2,600 known individual right whales.
Through annual surveys and focused investigations, Ocean Alliance has created a detailed picture of baleen whales and right whale biology with an invaluable record of the population’s growth, distribution and habitat preferences. The techniques that Ocean Alliance pioneered are now used to study humpback whale information and other endangered whales throughout the world. Now questions like, what do whales eat? Where do blue whales live? can be answered with ease.
With bonus features including theatrical trailers, short featurette ‘Lethal Sounds’ by Pierce Brosnan, exclusive interviews with Roger Payne and Director Bill Haney, and much much more!
“Exquisite visuals… Confronts a global query, can a single individual save the world?”
-School Library Journal