All language subtitles for Secrets.of.the.Whales.S01E01.Orca.Dynasty.720p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-LAZY_eng

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Whales are the world’s
most intelligent giants...

but they’re still a mystery.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Only now are we beginning
to understand their secrets.

BRIAN: Right there! Right there!

SIGOURNEY: Three years of filming
reveal an extraordinary truth.

Whales have culture.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY:
Each family speaks a unique language.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: They love deeply.

Play with joy.

And mourn their dead.

-(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
-(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY: Whales are just like us.

(WHALE GROWLS)

SIGOURNEY:
And one of the smartest of them all

is proving that these social bonds...

are the secret to their success.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

(THEME MUSIC CONCLUDES)

SIGOURNEY: They’re known as killer whales,
but their real name is orca.

(WHALE CLICKS, WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
They’re the ocean’s top predator.

(CLICKING, WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: But their tough reputation
is because orcas put family first.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
Each pod faces unique challenges

and its members work as one
to overcome them.

One family in New Zealand

has ruled its waters
for thousands of years.

They’re tougher than any shark...

as smart as any dolphin.

But it’s how they work together

that makes them different
from all other whales.

This family of five’s favorite pastime
is a never-ending game of hide and seek.

Three different rays
hide somewhere among these rocks...

masters of disguise.

These orcas need to find them

if they want to eat.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
The first step is to spread out.

(WHALE WHISTLES, CLICKS)

SIGOURNEY:
In this household, Mom's in charge.

And she takes the lead.

She learned everything she knows
from her mother.

Like how to maneuver her four-ton frame
through the shallow channels,

without getting stuck.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Her sonar is more advanced
than any submarine's.

It listens to her environment
and makes a map of the ocean floor.

She’s most likely in her 30s.

And by now,
she knows every inch of this area.

She uses echolocation,

a series of clicks that bounce off
her surroundings...

(WHALE CLICKING)

..and can identify something
as small as a coin.

(WHALE CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: Found one, a stingray.

Rays can disappear in an instant.

-Mom can’t let it slip away.
-(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
She uses a secret family technique.

(WHALES WHISTLE, CLICK)

SIGOURNEY: She flips the ray upside down,
which puts it to sleep.

Only New Zealand’s orcas know this trick.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Mom is this pod’s best hunter,

and she provides for her whole family.

She calls them to the table
with a series of chirps and whistles.

(WHALES WHISTLING, CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: Three generations,
from grandmother to the youngsters,

come together to share the meal.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: The rich organs inside
hold the nutrients they need,

so they work together to prep the food.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

Mom cares for her kids and works hard
to keep up with demand.

Her family can eat a dozen
or more rays a day.

It takes a lot of fuel
to power their 15-pound brains.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: This traditional family feast
fills their bellies

and strengthens their bond.

But today, a new distraction
pulls them away from their meal.

National Geographic explorer

and renowned whale photographer,
Brian Skerry,

hopes to join the orcas for dinner.

BRIAN:
We have a unique population of orca here.

How they relate to each other,
their dialects, all very specialized.

I think that we can learn a lot from them.

SIGOURNEY:
Skerry’s spent the last three years

documenting the secret life of whales.

But it’s his first time
with this New Zealand pod.

BRIAN: Strategies for success
are all a little bit different

depending on where orca live.

And feeding is a big part of that.

SIGOURNEY: His goal is to be ignored,

and witness the orcas bonding over dinner.

But things take a surprising turn.

Brian is invited to share the feast.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
Perhaps mom sees him as an underfed orca,

who needs to put on some weight.

BRIAN: What I saw with these orca
was off the scale.

This one female adult orca came in
and, you know,

was sort of checking me out.

It was kind of looking at me,
checking out the ray.

It was kind of like, you know,
"Are you gonna have that, ‘cause if not,

"I’m gonna go grab it."

And then just sort of picks it up
and almost poses for me,

just kind of lifts her head up.

It was really remarkable.

SIGOURNEY: It’s a rare glimpse
into the mind of an orca.

BRIAN: When you see them underwater,

you realize they actually have
very rich lives and complex behaviors.

How they feed or what they know
about their local waters,

how they socialize,
their parenting techniques.

These animals have culture.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: New Zealand’s orcas
are friendly and curious...

traits that help them adapt
to the world around them.

But it doesn’t always serve them well.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Nearby, another resident pod
plays among fishing ropes

anchored to the bottom...

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
...when suddenly, playtime stops.

The big male is trapped
in one of the lines.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Whales, dolphins, and porpoises

all breathe air like we do.

And nearly a thousand drown every day,

tangled in fishing lines.

He struggles for air.

His family looks on, helpless.

The National Geographic divers
decide they must intervene.

The big male could easily
kill the diver...

but he seems to understand.

(WHALE CLICKS, WHISTLES)

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
For orcas, the dangers and challenges

of providing for your family
depend greatly on where you live.

BRIAN: Whales
are some of the most intelligent,

sentient, cognitive animals,
that... that live on this planet,

so it’s not surprising at all
that they would have rich cultures.

Having shared these experiences with orca
in New Zealand,

I can't help but wonder how their customs
might be different

on the other side of the world.

SIGOURNEY: Human cultures in New Zealand
are unlike those in Norway.

And it just may be the same for orcas.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Two hundred miles
above the Arctic Circle,

a very different pod
shapes its traditions around a fish.

(WHALES WHISTLING, CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: More herring pass
through the fjords of Norway every spring

than there are people on Earth.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
This pod is here to round them up.

Just like New Zealand,
a matriarch leads this family.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY: She uses pulsed calls
to talk to her pod,

in a language only spoken by these orcas.

(WHALES WHISTLING, CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: Her goal is to herd the herring
into a ball.

(WHALES CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: Once everyone is in position,

her contact calls turn into directions.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY:
She instructs her sister to go below...

and flash her white belly
to frighten the herring.

(WHALE CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: Another blows bubbles
to force the fish to the surface.

Then, the matriarch slaps the ball of fish
with her tail...

knocking them out.

(WHALES WHISTLING, CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: She’s the keeper
of this family’s time-honored tradition.

But it's a changing world.

There are new challenges.

(BIRDS SQUAWKING)

SIGOURNEY: And new competition.

A Norwegian fishing boat

can pull up hundreds of tons
of herring a day.

Instead of competing with humans...

these orcas learn
to take advantage of them.

It’s as easy as plucking fish
from the net.

Work smarter, not harder.

Thousands of years of tradition
change in an instant.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

SIGOURNEY: Brian Skerry is here to see
these techniques for himself.

-(BIRDS CHIRPING)
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

BRIAN: These are not innate traits
that they're born with.

They're teaching behaviors
that they need to survive in the ocean...

just the way human mothers
teach their babies.

SIGOURNEY: The next generation
is growing up with new traditions.

But it can come at a heavy cost.

BRIAN: I saw a family of orca,

with what I think was probably the mom,

carrying a dead calf.

She was just pushing it through the water.

SIGOURNEY:
We may never know why this calf died...

but this female may stay
with her dead infant for days...

even weeks.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

BRIAN: To see that empathy,
I don’t think there’s any other way

to describe that,
other than mourning and grief.

It speaks to the complexity
of these animals and their culture.

They are very sentient beings,
they are highly evolved,

they possess cultures
that we don’t fully understand.

Life is precious.

That's what I’ve learned from the whales,

that love and tenderness and family,

and one another, that's all we've got.

SIGOURNEY: There is no solace

for a mother who loses a child.

Young orca
are a pod’s most precious resource.

It takes the whole family to raise kids,

especially in the harshest place on Earth.

The frigid waters
of the Antarctic Peninsula,

in the Southern Ocean.

The orcas in this pod
are among the smallest on the planet.

And they spend so much of the year here

that they change color.

Their skin’s yellow hue is algae.

The cold water prevents new skin
from growing.

They can’t shed their old.

They’re among the world’s
most social orcas,

with as many as 75 animals in one pod.

They can live as long as humans...

but have very few calves.

So, each newborn is cherished.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: In a pod this big,
that means all hands on deck.

This teenage female
has a most important job.

She is the babysitter.

Much like a human teenager,

while mom and dad are away,

she’s in charge of the kids.

(WHALES WHISTLE)

SIGOURNEY: She must keep
her younger siblings and cousins

out of trouble.

When young ones head out exploring,

their big sister has to follow.

The young orcas stumble upon
a large colony of seals.

(SEAL GROWLS)

(SEALS CHIRPING, BARK)

SIGOURNEY: The only problem,
this pod doesn’t hunt fur seals.

So, the fur seals don't fear them.

(SEALS CHIRPING)

SIGOURNEY:
One teenager with a bunch of youngsters

can’t stand up to the angry mob.

The fur seals attack.

(SEALS GROWLING)

SIGOURNEY: The babysitter has no choice
but to gather the kids

and retreat back to the larger pod.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: There is safety in numbers.

The young female has passed a crucial test

and taken her first step
toward becoming a matriarch.

By the time she’s 14,

she’ll find a male
outside her immediate family,

and have a baby of her own...

adding strength in numbers to the pod,

and continuing their legacy
at the bottom of the world.

While some pods rely on numbers,

others don’t have that luxury.

Smaller families must work
with what they have.

Unique knowledge passed down
from one generation to the next.

Nearly a thousand miles north,

another brave mother faces a foe

many times stronger
than Antarctic fur seals.

To feed her family,
she will attempt to infiltrate

the Falkland’s largest
elephant seal colony.

(SEALS CHIRPING)

SIGOURNEY: These giants are way too big
for most orca.

(SEALS GROWL)

SIGOURNEY: A female elephant seal
weighs nearly a ton.

(SNORTS)

SIGOURNEY: A big male can weigh more
than a pick-up truck.

(GROWLS)

SIGOURNEY:
The mother orca’s finely tuned strategy

is an ambush...

taught to her by her mother.

She waits for sundown,
when elephant seals head out to fish.

She knows where they get in and out
of the water.

This is all about providing for her pod.

If she’s seen,

her family won’t eat.

(SEALS GROWL)

SIGOURNEY: Her top fin acts as a rudder,

but for this trick,
she has to keep it hidden.

Once she’s in position, she waits.

Grabbing the creature
is only the first step.

-(WHALE CLICKING)
-(SEAL GROWLING)

SIGOURNEY: Elephant seals are
heavily armed with teeth and nails...

so orca mom calls for back-up.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Her four family-in-training
rush to help with the fight.

This hands-on test
is the key to their future.

No other orcas on Earth
catch elephant seals quite like this.

It’s how their family
has survived for generations.

The eldest daughter is a teenager,

and she’s like a clone of her mother.

If she learns the skills she needs,

someday she will inherit
this patch of ocean.

It will be her job
to keep their way of life alive...

and pass the family’s customs
down to her daughters.

For now, this small family of females
rules the Falklands together.

But legacy is never guaranteed.

(SEALS GRUNTING)

SIGOURNEY:
For an orca pod to have a future,

they must pass down
valuable family knowledge.

The more complex their traditions,

the harder it is
to keep their culture alive.

To the north in Patagonia,

one of the world’s most famous
and powerful pods

performs the most impressive feat of all.

Catching a sea lion off the beach

takes the wisdom of an elder.

This 40-something grandmother
is the best teacher in the pod.

She trains her family members
to do the impossible

with a time-tested playbook.

Step one, know where to go.

She brings her family
to a small break in the reef.

A sacred place

that only this pod knows about.

Tide and conditions must be right.

Step two, listen for the sound
of movement on pebbles...

the sign that a pup is in the water.

Hide your fin.

Be patient.

Wait for your wave.

And most important of all,

don’t get stuck on the beach.

She makes it look easy,

but she’s spent her life
mastering this technique.

Not everyone can.

-(WHALES WHISTLING)
-(HORN BLARING)

SIGOURNEY: This big male was adopted
by the pod as a young adult.

He's been watching them hunt for years,

and is working to become one
of the few outsiders to learn this skill.

He knows enough to hide
his five-foot dorsal fin.

But this is all about timing.

Close...

but close doesn't eat.

(PUPS BRAYING)

SIGOURNEY: He struggles because he
wasn’t raised in this pod.

Only those taught by an elder
master this art.

As few as 12 orcas
in the entire continent.

Most of these orcas
were taught by grandmother.

And it's time the two youngest cousins
learn the family trade.

(SEA LIONS CHIRPING)

SIGOURNEY: First,
they must get comfortable in the surf.

They don’t eat seaweed,
they use it to practice.

But seaweed can’t escape.

The kids must train with the real thing.

(SEA LION HOWLS)

SIGOURNEY:
The orca matriarch catches a sea lion

so her granddaughters can learn
the family’s strategy

for survival.

She keeps the prey alive...

and lets it go in open water.

(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)

SIGOURNEY:
This practice helps the youngsters learn

to handle live prey.

It teaches them to work together...

and brings the pod closer.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY: Young orcas with a grandmother
showing them the way

are nearly five times
more likely to survive.

(WHALES WHISTLE)

SIGOURNEY: But no one lives forever.

The matriarch needs to find a successor,

or many of the family secrets
could die with her.

Enough practice.

It's time for the eldest granddaughter
to step up.

(PUPS BRAYING)

SIGOURNEY:
The family’s legacy is at stake.

(PUPS BARKING)

SIGOURNEY: She has the technique.

But hanging on to a sea lion
is trickier than it looks.

(PUPS BARKING)

SIGOURNEY: Now, she’s stuck.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY:
Her grandmother lets her struggle.

There’s no better way to learn.

But she always has her family’s back.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: She’s also their coach.

And there’s no room for quitters here.

The older the granddaughter gets,

the harder it will be for her to learn.

And soon, she may not have grandmother
to help her.

She must try again.

She remembers her lessons.

Stay low.

Time it just right.

(SEA LION GROWLS)

(SEA LION GROWLS)

SIGOURNEY: She is the future of the clan.

Ready to build her own legacy.

This is what culture looks like
for many whale species.

(WHALE WHISTLES)

SIGOURNEY:
They hone their incredible skills...

master their craft...

and pass their knowledge down
for generations to follow.

They seem so much like us.

Yet, we’ve only begun to reveal
the secrets of the whales.

JAMES: Our team went out
all over the world,

but this particular encounter
took place right here in New Zealand,

where I'm presently shooting
Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 together,

and a lot of which take places underwater.

Of course, my underwater work
on those films was in a tank.

Brian got to go out into the real world

and have these amazing encounters
with these animals.

FEMALE VOICE:
We'll give it another try, huh?

Yeah. Yeah.

JAMES: Every time he goes
into the water with his camera,

he stands the chance of seeing something
that humans have never observed before.

And this encounter with the orca
making a peace offering

is a perfect example of that.

This is such a beautiful moment here
when it drops off the... the eagle ray.

It says, "Here. This is...
This is an offering," you know?

"Welcome. Welcome to our waters."

(WHALE WHISTLES)

JAMES: Look at this big juicy eagle ray.
Wouldn't you just love to have that?

Mm. Tasty morsel.

And then eventually takes it again.
(CHUCKLES)

It's like, "Well,
if you're not gonna eat that, you know,

"I think I'll have it back."

So, they're communicating
in a way that they understand.

An offering of food is commerce.

It's a gift.

(WHALES WHISTLING)

JAMES: Now obviously,
they're the apex predator of the ocean.

Other whales fear them.
Sharks certainly fear them.

But there's no known record of an attack
by an orca on a human in the wild.

So, I can only attribute that
to their recognition in us

of intelligent behavior

and their, uh, either respect
or fascination for that.

They must see us is some way
very differently

than anything else in the ocean.

To our knowledge, this is the first time
this kind of behavior has been observed.

So, that's pretty remarkable.

(WHALES WHISTLING)