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We also talked about how lucky we were to have seen what the whale had looked like so close up.
Q. Tom, you’re a nature videographer and—I’m assuming—a nature lover. Has this changed the way you look at nature at all?
Tom: I’m really lucky that my job allows me to spend time in extraordinary places and with some marvellous creatures. Before I worked in film-making I was a conservation biologist, and it was the desire to transmit a feeling of connectedness with the natural world that prompted me to change careers. I’ve tried to make films that inspire and enliven people rather than being full of doom and gloom.
This experience was very strange because I don’t think my brain can fully understand it. I have become a little obsessed with trying to find out as much as possible of what we know of the minds of these animals.
I actually wrote about this last week. Some people reading this have interpreted it as my thinking the whale gave a crap about squishing us, which I’m not saying at all! I’m most excited by how we have no idea what it thought. Isn’t that extraordinary? I would like to make a film about whales now, focusing on what we don’t know about their inner lives. This is partly an excuse to spend more time with them, but mainly to highlight how nuts it is that there are these gigantic living animals living alongside us and, although we’re making some headway, we still can’t really fathom what they’re thinking.
Q. What do you hope happens as a result of your story spreading across the world?
Tom: If we’d been kayaking there a few decades ago, we’d have been more in danger from the awful water quality than any sea beasties. Monterey Bay is one of the great conservation success stories. It’s alongside a huge human population with lots of farming and industry. The bay used to be so polluted the water would turn leaded paint on boats black. No whales or other life would come anywhere near the shore.
But thanks to the work of a whole bunch of people over the years, we could kayak out past rafts of sea otters and snuffling sea lions to a bay where gray, blue, humpback and orca whales visit. The day we were out our guide had never seen so many whales, let alone feeding so close to the shore.
But there is a really simple message that no one can avoid from watching the clip of our narrow escape: there are huge and fascinating beasts still in our seas. In fact, the humpback population has recovered so much that they might be removed from the endangered species list, and this is a triumph. I don’t want to die yet, but being ended by a resurgent humpback whale—a champion animal for life bouncing back—I’d take that over any other option I can think of.
Charlotte: I would love people to watch the video and take from it what an amazing animal this is, and how brilliant it would be if there were more of them. I’ll leave it at that.
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