Whale secrets: Annabelle Wall tells what you didn't know about giants of the sea

Mail Online | 7/20/2019 | Daniel Piotrowski for Daily Mail Australia
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Whale species speak their own 'languages', have their own cultures and they fast, dance, mate and get jealous just like humans.

But to one whale researcher who has been 'serenaded' by them, the most special thing about these magnificent mammals is what they can say with their eyes alone.

Magic - Annabelle - Wall - Life - Researcher

'The magic is in the unspoken,' said Annabelle Wall, a marine life researcher with Sydney's Macquarie University.

'(It's in) the silent acknowledgement of one another. The mutual respect. The eye contact.'

Ms - Wall - Metres - Whales - Coast

Ms Wall has swum just metres away from whales off the coast of Tonga and shared spectacular pictures of her underwater encounters with Daily Mail Australia, and an insight into their lives in the depths of the world's oceans.

Just like humans, whales 'teach each other things, they talk to each other, they have their own languages,' Ms Wall said.

Words - Groupings - Whales - Cultures - Lessons

In other words, different groupings of whales have their own cultures. They also teach each other lessons that help them survive the seas.

'Whale cultures differ between regions of the world, just like how people's culture vary throughout the world,' she said.

'Different - Whales - Methods - Eating - Chopsticks

'Different whales use different methods of eating, exactly like how the Japanese use their chopsticks and Australians use their forks.'

For instance, whales off America's east coast feed with a 'lob tail' method in which they slap the surface of the water with their tail and 'stun' the fish which the pod can then feed on.

Humpbacks - Coast - Japan - Nets - Blowholes

Humpbacks that feed off the coast of Japan work together to create 'bubble nets', in which they use their blowholes to surround the school of fish with an impenetrable ring of bubbles and then, on a cue delivered by the leader of the group, eat them.

'It's very sophisticated, said Ms Wall. 'They're all working together, it's so amazing.


'There's the one designated whale that does the...
(Excerpt) Read more at: Mail Online
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