Adventure Ocean Quest: The Giants of Rurutu | Free Documentary Nature

[Music] the humpback whale a true heavyweight of the sea a colossal creature at up to 19 metres long and weighing up to 36 tonnes but although its sheer size commands respect its blasted peaceful nature and downright elegance are remarkable only a lucky few have ever come face to face with his gentle giant it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience adventure ocean quest an encounter with the world under the way [Music] with divers who become underwater beings themselves they work together with scientists on all the world's oceans [Music] deep under the surface of the water without a sound and without a breath [Music] adventure the depths of the sea the likes of which has never been seen before the island of Ruru - in the South Pacific an exceptional team of divers with a set of specialist skills is about to embark on a journey in the tracks of humpback whales their aim to study the whales in an unusually intimate way I think free diving is a very good way to explore the underwater world and it's probably the the less invasive way of exploring the underwater world in spite of their massive size whales are extremely shy animals and difficult to approach most people are only ever tolerated for a few seconds there are still a lot to learn because we should have an estimation about 15,000 animals maybe comebacks in semi sphere but among them only a few proportion has been identified with pictures to explore their secret lives beneath the waves it is essential to meet the whales in their element and on their terms these whales are enormous they're not small fish they weigh 30 tons that's a bit like an approaching bus they are really majestic and measures true [Music] Naruto is a tiny island in the middle of the South Pacific discovered by James Koch in 1769 it now forms part of French Polynesia few visitors ever set foot on this isolated island so its greatest asset is its unspoiled wilderness only seven kilometers long and three kilometers wide it lies far off the main shipping roads but it does lie right in the path of another very special route the migration of the humpback whales they were once hunted by the native peoples but today French Polynesia has been turned into a unique conservation area for marine mammals diving with conventional equipment is strictly prohibited here it makes it an unusually safe and peaceful haven for the humpback whales and this is where they come during the harsh winter months in their Antarctic feeding grounds it is an epic annual trip of 7,000 kilometers although humpback whales tend to be loners it is possible to find whole groups of them here it is an ideal place for a whale nursery the cows give birth to their calves in these warm tropical waters you their young are safe from deep sea predators and protected from violent storms it is mid-september the intense tropical colors typical of these South Pacific Islands have vanished and roo-roo too is immersed in the threatening gray of a tropical storm the weather is unusually unpredictable and threatening it's been raining for days the idea of spotting whales just off the shoreline remains of distant tree these are bad conditions for the free divers Frederick Wien and William winrep their expedition to find and catalog the whales could be in jeopardy they're on their way to assist Caecilius ba a founder of the Polynesian conservation organization a mana autumn wanna or spirit of the ocean the weather forecasts are very vague the team can only hope for the best finding the whales and the waters around the rule to is usually not a problem but they need better weather to conducts this you study effectively a lot of students have been done on wares and other marine Treacher for the past decade and it's very interesting to get information we know the for example the wedding has damaged a lot of this population and we also know now we've all studied that population is in a better shape it's taught you will produce and we hope this is going on the good side but we're not sure because there are so many changes in the world that may be I hope right now is going to be really different in a few years the new kind of research we have been developing with fred going on the water with the well and be very comfortable as well in Annavaram is going to help us having new type of information and also share it with other people and this is one of the key where if we could study why life without too much interference we may get more information more accurate information and got too much disturbance and so we hope that this is a new step in in research and that could be maybe an example worldwide about how humans can use its ability to adapt to nature to better study finding a whale requires discipline and patience since whales tend to keep their bodies mostly submerged it means having to spot a whale's back as it's about to dive even better is to search for the blow the cloud of fine spray when the whale exhales on surfacing but even once awareness spotted getting into the water with them and obtaining useful images is far from easy the first thing is to locate the whale since it's always in motion when it's moving it's tough to film it so you have to wait until it finds a resting place if you're watching a mother with her calf you can wait until she feeds the baby then the whale will remain calm and still and you can carefully enter the water right now that's not possible this whale is swimming around the island it's moving and we can't film it the search for whales is tough and time-consuming even once a blow has been spotted there's no guarantee that the whale will continue its travels in the same direction underwater and actually getting into the water to attempt a closer encounter is only worth it when it's certain there's still a whale in the vicinity the only option is to keep your eyes peeled and constantly evaluate the situation but the team will also have to keep an eye on the tourists whale watching Birds the danger when you are involving ocean activities it's always human it's never the creator or the weather or anything it's always human and ear the biggest problem is that we are like four boats around the whales so you have to be very careful not to be run over by one of the codes and Nora when they like that with not a lot of Sun all the colors are the same on the water and or which you got quite dark and you have to be very careful so that's why we have two spots each other which we have I know they're not to be but the whale watchers give up Fred and the team have more patience and continue their search finally a humpback whale the camera team gets ready they will watch Fred from a distance diving is usually strictly prohibited in the area the loud noise associated with conventional diving equipment agitates the animals and since they're supposed to be left in peace to mate and raise their new calves these disturbances are not tolerated but the free diving team has special permission to observe the whales underwater free divers are different they move silently through the water years of training allow them to spend several minutes at a time below the surface they are perfect underwater observers they can search for the whales without the help of noisy technology and wait patiently until an opportunity arises to get close to the animals but the whales are very alert despite the free divers utmost care they soon put an end to their rest period and move on the good news for the team is that they don't seem to be nervous they even take the time to investigate the divers it bodes well for any future encounters [Music] Fred can clearly observe and document the unique patterns on the whales delicate underside [Music] [Music] conditions improve the weather gradually clears up but for now the team's luck has run out and they don't spot anymore whales Fred and we'll decide to find out more about the indigenous population were used to hunt whales around the island perhaps they can shed some light on the best places to find the whales they visit the caves in which the original inhabitants lived and from where they would look out for passing whales the steep cliffs provided not only protection but also a good vantage point to scan the sea calm and protected Bay's allowed them to go out to sea even in rough weather but reaching the caves is anything but easy and involves traversing difficult terrain the caves themselves are also dangerous without a guide it's easy to get lost in this underground network of chambers and tunnels the native people had vantage points scattered across the island from where they could observe the whales [Music] roo-roo toes hills reach almost 400 meters above the sea level there are no signposted paths up here time for arrests beneath some spectacular stalactites even today there are still people on the island who remember the old waiting days and their ancestors tradition Ares Fred has been told about mama Perry one of the oldest Islanders she's written a book about the history of haruto perhaps she can explain the whales current elusiveness after their initial brief encounter love it's a feeling we've been here for several days already and we still haven't come close to anywhere else are there years when there aren't any whales hear me on the auto did you go got the way of come every year American and Japanese whalers killed hundreds of them so now we see a lot less of them than in the past now the question won't have to go on long journey but usually you still see a lot of whales here they have used themselves you couldn't watch them from the beach as they jump out of the water it's a disadvantage for you since you've not been allowed to hunt whales for years but the Japanese still kill many we caught one whale in 1930 and then the last one in 1957 that's over 20 years later you didn't catch any whales for 20 years do you think that they'll come back soon a few people so I'm not long ago they told us it was a mother with her calf izombie big friend has also been told about another sign of whale season on Naruto and he decides to follow it up it's the flowering of the whale tree a fisherman takes fred to this special tree so the tree is in full bloom at the beginning of the whale season yes that's when it's covered in blossoms when it begins to flower it means that the whales have arrived that's when the whaling season starts that's right and what happens when the trees finished flowering that's when the wires have gone so we may have come at the end of the season yes if this bit of local folklore is correct the team has come here at the right time but then there's another setback sirens sound an alarm he knows there's been a fax from Papa to the capital of Polynesia it's a tsunami warning nobody seems to have concrete information the team desperately tries to find out more which is on contact Ave Ave climbing con type inference it's possible this is the last chance to be in touch before the tsunami hits they know that we're taking all necessary precautions to evacuate so we stay here until it arrives out what I didn't read it I guess see what it looks like the islands shoreline is quickly evacuated technical equipment is packed and everyone hastily retreats to higher ground the wait begins but tsunami hits Samoa and kills 120 people but it doesn't reach fruto the island has a lucky escape for the expedition the first few days on the island have been very disappointing so when a call from dr. michael pool a humpback whale expert on maria reaches a dive team they're quick to take up the opportunity dr. Poole would be interested to meet them Maria is one of the society islands 600 kilometres to the northeast of Naruto it's bigger neighbor is Tahiti it is located right in the heart of the Conservation Area for marine mammals that was established in 2002 lush vegetation and high trees covered the island and imposing volcanic peaks rise up from the sea it is the essence of tropical tranquility the bright turquoise bays with their deep clear waters are lined with a protective fringe reef that reaches right around the island dr. Poole has been based here for the last 15 years he's the director of the Marine Mammal Research Program at the island research center and environmental observatories he's one of the driving forces behind the set up of the whale and dolphin sanctuary every time we find an answer or partial answer to one question there are five other questions that pop up and some basic things that we do not know how do whales navigate we don't know how do they find their breeding ground how do they find their feeding ground 7,000 kilometers distance between Antarctica and here in Tahiti and how do they undertake that migration and find we find some of the same whales coming back different years to the same island how do they do that we don't know the song of the humpback whales the male's that sing the song what is it really for we have different hypotheses but no one is totally sure really what's going on why does the song change during a season in over years why does the song evolve over time we don't know this at all and so we're searching every day we're out every week were out every month and over years to try to find answers to these questions myself my colleagues our students all trying to find answers these questions we've never lost that fascination because there's so much that we don't understand and another reason why you and your ability to dive deeply and stay long is valuable to our research is that you can photograph the underside of the individual or the side of the individual and with your photographs we can sex the individual freediving has a long tradition in Tahiti both fishermen and pearl divers have used the technique for hundreds of years local knowledge is always invaluable in the Tahitian free diver etana tamanna accompanies Fred on his next dive on the way she has a chance to show Fred a very special local attraction stingrays had shown no fear of humans Christiaan patrol gets his equipment ready the stingrays are already waiting right under the boat due to the venomous Barb's and their tails they have a reputation as lethal marine creatures but here they're a tease and don't pose a significant threat [Music] elegantly gliding through the water the Rays live up there docile reputation and don't respond nervously to the divers [Music] [Music] [Music] but to find humpback whales the divers have to leave these shallow waters the tireless search for the whales begins again dr. Poole doesn't usually work with divers he tends to watch and identify the animals from the surface using a catalogue of photographs humpback whales have complete the individual tail fins distinct both in shape and coloration occasionally the whales give spectacular even acrobatic performances they emerge from the water and thrash the surface with their tail fins these may be attempts to rid themselves of irritating parasites the energetic spectacle means that fragments of whale skin come loose which the scientists quickly gather from the water it allows them to analyze the animals DNA over time it can piece together a more and more detailed description of each individual Fred prepares for a dive should a whale approach he has to be ready Christian is only too aware that it will take a bit of luck to get the chance to film fred near the whales it can mean hours of waiting ready to get in the water in minutes patience is one of the absolute requirements to make it as a wildlife filmmaker then they're in luck they spot a whale cow with her calf they seem to be resting near the surface there's no time to lose Fred always makes the first explorative dive on his own by the time the other divers managed to reach the required depths the whale may have already moved on [Music] [Music] this time luck is on their side the whale calf is not at all shy even playful while its mother is having a rest further down it's a one-off chance for a close encounter the divers have to be very careful even a calf tailfin could wreak havoc but this intimate meeting of the whale baby and the free diver is over all too soon the mother eventually intervenes the two majestic marine mammals move on but then Fred spots another opportunity the school of pilot whales passes nearby for a few minutes Fred can swim alongside them [Music] [Music] but the pilot whales are being followed an oceanic whitetip shark is on their tails this is a formidable predator reaching around 3 metres in length but the whales are safe in its company oceanic whitetip sharks are often found in the company of pilot whales although the reason for this association is not fully understood it's a breathtaking experience for Fred for a few seconds a few minutes I'm really part of the environment as one of the Abbott ins that enrollment I try not to bring my human abilities with me but try really to forget about them bury them somewhere in my brain and just being like an animal or part of the area and diving free diving it allows and as Fred becomes one with his environment the animals he encounters seemed to perceive him as one of them he can witness their behavior in an entirely different way [Music] tracking whales is laborious and time-consuming but there are some shortcuts sometimes it's possible to hear these giants before you see them and Fred's luck hasn't run out yet [Music] [Music] photographs like these can only be taken underwater they're a very welcome addition to the whale researchers catalogue so maybe we can talk about the beasts mark that's really pretty Fred I mean from an aesthetic viewpoint it's absolutely beautiful nice marks yes and look how these throat pleats bifurcate you go backwards just a second right here splitting into two indeed allowing more spread more expansion as it takes in water and food very very nice these detailed photographs of the whales unique markings are invaluable to dr. Poole's research working from the boat he would normally be unable to take any pictures as detailed as these [Music] we can actually identify whales not only by their tails not only by their dorsal fins we can identify them by their pleats they are different for every individual great photograph red yeah it's really really nice but Fred soon has to return to Row 2 to continue his original mission it isn't looking positive will has told him that the team still haven't managed to cite any whales this is highly unusual for this time of year normally there are always several whale groups in the area could there be a connection with the disturbance of the storms or the tsunami not a blow anywhere to be seen a frustrating wait for the divers nothing yet in the past yes sometimes period of one week to ten days we snow animals because they go to other islands okay so hopefully it's the case and they just stay for one week or so but still it's apparently like eight days now they haven't seen a whale we have to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best [Music] friend tries to stay optimistic he knows only too well the value of his abilities to a mission like Cecile's the best example of the difference between scuba diving and free diving it's that for example in many places it's forbidden to scuba dive with the animals like whales dolphin sharks or even reefs and the scientists understood that it's disturbing a lot most of the time free diving is allowed for example the ER in the Volvo - you cannot scuba dive with the whales but you can free dive with free diving you don't disturb them as much but of course with free diving you can also disturb whales right doesn't mean you just part of the water and they don't notice you but the general disturbance is smaller with free diving but you still have to be careful when you approach them to approach them from front not from behind otherwise they feel you in a go away and try always to be in their field of vision it's not because you're a free diver that you can go everywhere and do whatever you want you still have to keep an ethic to your work and the way you you work with animals it's not I would say a general visa being a free diver you still have to to be careful the team continues their efforts again the boat is loaded with equipment and supplies they're committed to their mission but of course the seal - time is running out she's expected back on Maria so Christian wants to try a different tactic to track down the whales he has a special hydrophone a microphone for underwater recordings encased in a watertight housing this highly sensitive microphone registers sound waves underwater and records them castillon's plan is to listen for signs of the whales just like on maria and if you can hear away you can also find today conditions at least are very favorable the visibility is good and the sea relatively calm Fred and we'll get into position in the water crystianna's the hydrophone drift around ten meters below the surface and the tactic seems to be working they pick up some interesting sounds and these are special they clearly originate from a whale the problem is to work out the direction from which the sounds are coming finally success they've come across a singer whales take up a particular position in the water when they're about to sing they remain motionless in the water column head down and fins outstretched underwater it's actually possible to feel the powerful sound waves the exact method of generating the sounds is unclear unlike land animals the whales don't exhale while producing them it's possible they manage to recycle air within their bodies to continue their songs without having to breathe for the divers this encounter with a singing humpback whale was a first real success in their mission near route Oh they return to dry land and prepare to brief cecile in the evening but precious underwater images as well as observations of the behavior witnessed male humpback whales sing during the mating season it's possible they're trying to attract a mate with their serenades but their songs could also serve to keep potential rivals at bay studies have shown that different whale populations have their own distinct songs the tunes the male's produce are complicated and travel for hundreds of kilometres underwater the different sounds combine to produce individual verses which are repeated in a particular order and are constantly developed further [Music] Cecille explains to Fred why is she so interested in more information about the whales what is your hope for the future so I think even if we feel there has been very good action in the past we still need to go and do more and we need to go very fast so I think we're very appealing to people and if really there is a message that where's our still threatened by all the human activity even if it's not hunting but now it's pollution and global warming then we hope that these people may be more sensitive to react we also found that when people had the close contact with the wild animal they fear they know this animal better they feel it different way and when I come back home they are like okay now maybe I'm going to recycle my trash so we tried the divers are eager to continue their work the next day but they don't get very far the engine breaks down without engine power the boat drifts helplessly and threatens to run aground on the reef they have to abandon their whale search before it even started the priority now is to call a rescue boat can you use that I decided all day but I've read about they've been lucky to escape with no further damage but it's a further disappointment for today they're unable to start another excursion Fred and we'll try to spend their time usefully and visit the next village to stock up on supplies around lunchtime after school the place comes alive with young people the people are very friendly here too you see it's a very small island so everybody knows each others when you walk in the street people say hi everybody is really friendly you can go everywhere they give you food from the garden you can ask them to pick up fruit from the garden if you need people are so friendly other than exuberant wilderness guru - doesn't have much to offer its visitors the villages are not packed with tourist attractions but customs have to be kept alive in traditional crafts which are one of the main forms of income for the Islanders but there are one or two surprises in store for the divers Ruto also has French roots after all the divers need to have a high calorie intake and they found just the place to get them I did not expect to find this on this small remote island no it's French Polynesia if you have some traditions oh wow well their boat is being repaired they can only wait and watch while others demonstrate their diving progress a new day brings fresh hope but although the sun's out diving conditions are bad the divers want to reach the open sea through a pass in the islands fringe reef there are only a handful of these gates in the reef things aren't going to plan this is the condition today there's no way to vote can pick you up on the other side it's way too rough for us conventional divers big waves aren't a problem we can dive under them but for the free divers it's impossible because they get overrun by the waves and can't prepare their dives even the stunning South Pacific beaches are no consolation the divers are again forced to wait until wind and waves calm down eventually they're able to try their luck once again this time the start is more promising now they have to follow the whales [Music] a last equipment check they've managed to find a whale cow with her calf they're an ideal target for the divers since the pair will definitely have a rest period at some point the divers continuously check that they haven't lost the whales they don't want to take any chances and miss their long-awaited chance of a close encounter with the whales of Roberto [Music] finally things seem to be going their way they can risk approaching the animals face-to-face underwater the whale mother remains motionless and the depths resting floating upright in the water column her eyes lifted towards the surface she keeps an eye on her baby [Music] [Music] Macau is very curious playful exuberant [Music] [Music] although still a baby it is already an enormous animal and Dwarfs Fred it seems curious about this silent intruder into its underwater world and shows no signs of nervousness [Music] [Music] on this occasion fred has enough time to watch the animal closely and catalog its distinctive marks in detail [Music] [Music] it's a unique and rare opportunity to meet these mysterious creatures on their own terms and in their own element before finally it's time for the mother and calf to move on this mission turned out to be no easy task for Fred in the team but despite all the setbacks they've been successful in delivering some important underwater images of the ruruta whales they will provide valuable information and identification clues for the researchers she said a picture did the other day of the mother and calf the calf was very playfully it was where to be be careful because it was really like a little kid a little pup didn't know where to put his fin so we're to be careful so you have a very good access to the belly yes you know and so this is a very distinctive mode that will grow with Denny more much more did you get an estimation of the size besides I think it was around 6 meter long it's it was young but from this year for sure but maybe one one and half month old already it was just not a newborn ok so you know Fred this is very important because this kind of marks on the skin that are so distinctive and so impressive they are going to say all the life so this anymore if it's seen in one month two months ten years twenty years maybe four years you can tell this is the Seminole spotted by you in which you this year so that's very interesting maybe during my next trip to Antarctica my Yap bump into that whale again exactly so this is how it's very important for not only researchers but tourists and any people have access to words and take pictures to be able to download the pictures to this very extensive catalogue and then if you have specific correct mouths like that or natural mode like that there should be labeled so people could find them again yes I'm always happy when one of my picture can be used for something else that just being a picture if he can help and improve the knowledge about these animals it's it's great yeah it's a great feature and you know but it could also use it was really fascinating by the pattern of the that a birthmark is just I've never seen that before part of the fascination people seem to have developed for the whales here must truly also lie with their exotic summer territories the South Pacific what we find here in islands like co2 it's it's the Pacific Islands 150 years ago familiar impacts whales are the most fascinating whales because every year they do thousand and thousand of kilometers to go from their feeding ground in Antarctica back here in the South Pacific island to rest and mate and have two babies and then go all the way back with the newborn babies in the feeding run of Atlantica and that's a mystery because they do this very very dangerous journey twice a year it's fascinating to watch them how they move in the water it's also its awe-inspiring to feel so small when you're next to an enormous whale you feel tiny and sometimes when I'm free diving with a whale here in the hole - when they sleep they lay up 25 meters I'll look at at the whale and I say yeah that's a wonderful life it's the whale therapy yeah I mean all your problem disappears when you see creature like that because it's so big it's there for like thousand and thousands of years it's it's just perfect creature and and peaceful and after spending time with them yeah you could change for sure to change by themselves they can change you from inside we can really do that [Music] [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary - Nature

Views: 40,914

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, Rūrutu (Island), Beach, Quest, Adventure, sperm whale, Scuba Diving (Interest), Diving (Sport), skin diving, Adventures, Culture, Freediving (Sport), wale, Whale (Animal), humpback whale, nature documentary, whale documentary, documentary (tv genre), documentary - topic

Id: 6RM2flGsY5c

Length: 52min 1sec (3121 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 12 2020