THE MAN WHO SPEAKS TO WHALES.
Captain Nemo Photographed by Pablo da Ronco
Can whales ever reconcile with humans after so many centuries of slaughter? Fernando Martin Velazco’s view is yes and that they might even be able to understand us.
Since immemorial times cetaceans have captivated the imagination of humans, but also they have been victims of man’s ambition and ignorance.
Eschrichtius robustus, also known as gray whales, were considered practically extinct at the end of the 19th century. The species disappeared from the Atlantic, a small group survived in the eastern Pacific thanks to the hunting moratorium. Now its quantity outnumbers the twenty thousand individuals. In spite of this, the population of whales finds serious risks for their survival in an increasingly industrialized sea, where the threat of silence hovers.
The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen gray whales return to their original territory. Everything threatens them and, despite their good memory, they seem to have forgiven their nineteenth-century annihilation. They have learned to live with the small boats that enter the lagoon to which they offer their dance in friendly gestures and their whisper incomprehensible to the human race. Does a gesture of reconciliation make any sense? Fernando Martin Velazco, also known as Captain Nemo, thinks so.
Gray whale’s carcass Photographed by Pablo da Ronco
In February 2017 the Stultifera Navis Institution made a first expedition to the center of the Peninsula of Baja California with a specific purpose: To read poetry and sing to the whales. This is the place where two centuries ago the biggest atrocity towards the species was committed in a single blow. That being the reason for the placing of the experiment as an initiative to subvert the history of what happened there years before. As well as an attempt to find other ways of interacting with the species. “There, where we (humans) inflicted the greatest damage to them, we wanted to grant the best possible human act, that of poetry.”
To the surprise of the crew the whales turned out to be great enthusiasts of the human lyric. This was confirmed in a second expedition in March 2017.
In successive tours, the gray whales came up in an unusual way according to the testimony of the members of the Cooperative Society “Bahia del Vizcaíno”. that for two decades have lead whale watching tours in the region. At the lagoon its common that gray whales approach the boats with children and for prolonged periods of time, but not repeatedly.
The conclusion of this experiment is that whales are receptive to our orality, to our music, to our emotions and as a generous public, they show it, repeatedly.
Gray whale Photographed by Pablo da Ronco
El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve is one of the most extensive protected natural territories in the world. Located in the center of the peninsula of Baja California, Mexico, it is sheltered by its difficult access and its distance from the cities and roads. That is where the Ojo de Liebre lagoon expands and serves as a winter shelter for gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus). For the whale, the Lagoon is a place of reproduction and birth. Coastal dunes prevent access to predators, as well as reduce underwater pollution. Its calm waters and high levels of salinity help the young to float in their first swim and to the young in their rituals of seduction and mating.
The studies on the language of the whales are meager. However, some scientists dedicated to the subject, such as Luke Rendell and Hal Whitehead, begin to affirm that culture is not the exclusive property of the human being (2001). This leads us to intuit that this unusual practice is part of a legacy; that the lagoon to which they learn to return, the geography of their origin, constitutes an emotional heritage of collective memories, expressed in underwater elegies.
Ojo de Liebre Lagoon Photographed by Pablo da Ronco
The Leviathan Games is a reciprocal initiative. Faced with the impossible intelligibility. The cycles reveal itself against the biblical warning: “With the giant of the sea tenderness is not possible.” (Job, 41) and thus, builds a bond based on gestures, rhythms, and emotions.
Captain Nemo Photographed by Pablo da Ronco
