Photos: The Culture Of Whales

By Taylor Haney

Published April 19, 2021 at 7:08 AM EDT

Humpback whales, working in teams, circle herring with disorienting curtains of bubbles off Alaska's coast, then shoot up from below with their mouths open. This innovation developed among unrelated groups of humpbacks but is now a widely adopted practice.

Brian Skerry says it was "the stuff of dreams" to be in the water with a nursing sperm whale.

The National Geographic photographer and explorer dove into Caribbean waters to capture what he believes to be a unique image. He got within a few meters to get the shot.

"This was a very trusting mother, a new mom with maybe a five- or six-month-old baby that was nursing down at a depth of about 50 feet," he said. "I very gently approached, just breath-hold diving, swam down. She saw me and then actually closed her eyes. I mean, she was so relaxed that I could enter into that world. I was being allowed into her world and could make these pictures."

A killer whale, or orca, chases herring in a Norwegian fjord. Groups of killer whales (which are technically part of the dolphin family) have distinct eating habits. Some corral schooling fish. Others hunt sharks or seals, while some feast almost exclusively on salmon. These habits are partly cultural — learned behaviors passed down through generations.

That moment produced one of several rare images in a new issue of National Geographic magazine, the culmination of Skerry's three-year project exploring the culture of whales.

"Behavior is what we do. Culture is how we do it," he says, paraphrasing sperm whale biologist Shane Gero.

In the photographs, Skerry assembles examples of whale behavior that seem almost human: belugas play in the shallows, orcas teach their pups to hunt, sperm whales nurse and babysit.

Members of a sperm whale family near the Caribbean island of Dominica are part of a clan that's culturally distinct from others. Each clan communicates in its own dialect of click patterns, like Morse code.

Family units of sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean Sea near Dominica appear to "speak the same dialect, for lack of a better analogy," Skerry says. "According to the researchers like Shane [Gero], they don't intermingle with other sperm whales that might move into those waters."

Humpback whales, known for decades for their musical abilities, frequently and mysteriously change their tunes. Researchers observe new melodies travel through populations across the seas. Skerry likens the phenomenon to a hit song.

"It might sound like a hiccup ... or a creaking door or a rocking chair at times, or a woop-woop — you know, these different sounds. Then there's more of a sad, almost melancholy sound to it that is a little bit more like a song," he says. "But they memorize it. I mean, they have it down perfectly. And what you hear in one place is often exactly what you'll hear in another place."

A mother humpback and calf glide over a reef in a bay off Vava'u, Tonga. They'd joined a few thousand adult humpbacks to fatten up on krill in Antarctica during summer there before returning to the South Pacific for mating season. Along the way, young whales began to imitate adult feeding methods and other behaviors.

Skerry, a renowned underwater photographer, says this project made him reflect on his relationship with whales. The tender moments he witnessed contrasted with his childhood spent reading epic tales of leviathans like Moby-Dick.

"These are very complex societies in the sea," he says. "We know that they have cultures, that they celebrate identity, that they exhibit joy and grief. They understand that family, community, societies are important, and they need each other. And I think it's a nice reminder of what I think we already know as well."

A sperm whale calf that scientists named Hope rests in a sargassum patch. It has been suckling from an adult called Canopener, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's Hope's mother. Each sperm whale social unit may nurse differently. In some, aunts or grandmothers also provide milk to offspring. Or a single female may nurse two calves at once, even if neither is hers.

Like a whale maternity ward, beluga cows and their calves flock to the slightly warmer waters at the mouth of the Cunningham River in Canada's Arctic. At times, when they were temporarily trapped in river pools by receding tides, scientist Valeria Vergara recorded multiple belugas vocalizing at once. She now suspects they use individual calls suggesting they broadcast their identities.

Nearly 2,000 belugas frolic each summer near Arctic Canada's Somerset Island, nursing their young, chattering in squeaks and whistles, and swimming about in shifting networks of companions and family. Scientists suspect many whale species share cultural traditions, much as humans do.

A humpback cow and calf are joined by two males in the Cook Islands. Males escort females with calves in hopes that they will be the next ones to mate with the mothers. Calves emit soft, whisper-like squeaks, perhaps to avoid being overheard by predators. Adult males sing in low, guttural moans and high-pitched whoops and screeches.

You can find more of Skerry's photos in the May issue of National Geographic magazine, online at natgeo.com/planetpossible.