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Introduction
“Beluga Kingdom” is the third episode of the “Secrets of the Whales” documentary by National Geographic. This articles captures a sneak peak of the 3rd episode which talks about Beluga and Narwhal whales similarities, their journey for reunion and their cross-cultural acceptance. This can be watched freely if you have a Disney+ subscription. The executive producer of this series is James Cameron who has been shooting Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 in New Zealand. It would be interesting to see what parts of this documentary is coming in “Avatar 2 – The way of water”.
About Beluga Whales
The episode starts by explaining the characteristics of beluga whale and their 1000 miles journey that follows an ancient roadmap. Beluga whales are white in color, they smile & show emotions with their facial expression, they have the largest vocabulary in the ocean kingdom & may give themselves name and they are highly social animals. Belugas are the only whale kind that can turn their head like human can. Beluga have their own language, deep family bonds and age-old tradition. They are toothed whales like Dolphins and their Arctic cousins are Narwhal whales.
Risky journey between ice
A family of Beluga travel from Greenland to Canadian Arctic every year like a pilgrimage traveling nearly 1000 miles. This path they choose is very ancient but is unforgiving with ice everywhere. As spring starts the ancient pathways opens up, where the ice melts and opens up a thin way but it is still dangerous. Whales breathe air like human do, so they need to come to the surface of the water for fresh air. If the ice closes above them, they cannot breathe and will drown and die. Families need to stick together from getting lost in the murky water. So they communicate frequently to stay in touch and it is observed they even practice calling each by a name. This journey between ice finishes after few 100 miles and the remaining journey is in open waters.
Risky journey in open waters
In open waters Belugas face even more danger. Orcas hunt Beluga whales and Orcas can hear Beluga speak. So Belugas teach their children that they need take small and quiet breathe, no chatter and all communication happens only by touching.
Family vacation and nursery – Cunningham Inlet
After six weeks of swimming they arrive at a special and secret location, Cunningham Inlet in Northern Canada where a warmer fresh water river pours into the sea. They use the gravel at the bottom to scratch their itch and also shed a layer of skin infected by parasites.
Around 2000 belugas gather at this spot for a grand reunion. They meet old friend and make new friends. Brian Skerry observes and narrates what Beluga were doing: spinning around, spy hops (lift they head and body out of water and sink back in), The Bananas (head and tail out of water with their belly touching the gravel in the bottom). They are simply happy and enjoying this place.
More importantly, Belugas use this spot to give birth to baby calves. Brian can spot some babies with umbilical cords still on. It is a giant Beluga whale nursery. Mother Belugas carry their baby for 15 months before coming here to deliver.
Mom communicates to baby from day one and baby learns by repeating them. As they grow old mom continues to teach them even more different sounds. When the calf is 3 years old, it will decide whether to stay with mom or head out on her own. But whatever it decides it has to come to this spot every year. It is a learned behavior not an instinctive one because other Belugas group will have different birthplace and different place to return to. Belugas have culture.
Hudson Bay dangers
The episode now moves on to Hudson Bay, Canada where a mom and son needs to navigate through the bay safely. Hudson bay poses multiple dangers like high tides (25 ft), shallows and sandbars. More than a 3rd of Belugas (55,000) come here during summer. The mom and son finally reach the reunion spot in the Seal River where they encounter multiple polar bears. Belugas get creative. As a bears jump into the water to attach a calf, the mother Beluga quickly alerts her son about the danger and ask him to swim fast. Bears can swim only 6 miles per hour but Belugas can swim up to 20 miles per hour. Loud jaw clapping is used by Belugas to alert other Belugas about the danger. As they continue their escape the tide drops too fast and water levels have changed and they are heading towards a sandbars. The calf was able to make it but mom and another adult Belugas are stuck. The calf is alone now and starts to cry but the mom struggles through the sandbars and eventually escapes and tries to retrace her son. But her son is no where to be found. Mom cries and continues to listen for sounds from her son. Finally they regroup together. But another bigger Beluga couldn’t escape the sandbar and becomes a meal for the polar bear. This is lesson for the young calf.
Lancaster sounds and Narwhals
The episode now moves to a frozen Arctic inlet in Canada’s Lancaster sounds which is the home of the one of the world rarest whales, the Narwhals. Narwhals is know for its legendary horn which actually is a long sensitive tooth which grows in some female and all males. Narwhals cross paths with Belugas and share same feeding grounds. They both eat 50-60 pounds of sea food each day but Narwhals can dive much deeper then Belugas. The use of the tusk has been a mystery. A big tusk means fertile mate but the tusk is also used to stun preys. A baby Narwhals drink only mother’s milk for first 20 months.
Just like Belugas, Narwhals have a journey that is 800 miles long. They travel every year from Canada’s Baffin Bay to more shallow and waters in the west. During this journey Narwhals and Belugas cross path each other.
Belugas and Narwhals cross path
The episode tracks a young Narwhal which got split from his pod and now is lost. In the attempt to return back to his pod, he travel alone for weeks, with every wrong turn, it enters stranger water. Now this Narwhal is 600 miles away from another Narwhal but interestingly a group of Belugas join him. Then the episode move on to St. Lawrence. The Narwhal get help from Belugas. Now they all travel together. If Belugas don’t teach Narwhals to hunt it is likely it will die. St. Lawrence is one of the Canada’s busiest place with lot of boat noise which makes it hard to for whales to communicate and hunt with sonar.
If Narwhals is accepted by Belugas it is a historic moment. The team awaits till Spring time to find this out. To their surprise they found that the Narwhal is still alive and has been accepted among Belugas. This history moment is now documented and it demonstrates the Belugas benevolent act and cross-cultural acceptance of another kind of whale within their group. This is an important learning for human too.
Digression
In India even today, oppression against lower caste continues to prevail. Similar hatred and oppression is observed in many right wing ruled countries. It will be good if human can learn humanity from Belugas.
