From the BBC One, Big Blue Live web site:
It’s the final show from Monterey Bay and the team are aiming for the ultimate wildlife encounter with the largest animal on the planet, the blue whale. Catch up with the sea otters, sea lions, sharks and whales as Matt Baker, Liz Bonnin, Steve Backshall and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall conclude this extraordinary conservation success story.
Enjoy the spectacular footage.
Kill the drama people, kill the hype talk and let the whale tell the tale. The presenters constantly talking was a major and painful distraction.
Just an ornery two cents worth
Killjoy. 😉
And proud of it! ;^)
I honestly thought we’d driven them to extinction. But from the Wikipedia article:
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an underestimate. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. As of 2014, the Californian blue whale population has rebounded to nearly its pre-hunting population.
That’s not exactly great news, but maybe we can call it hopeful.
I was in that exact area about a week and a half ago – you could see tons of whales from the shore – I had no idea there were blues, I assumed humpback. I highly recommend kayaking behind the power plant there – otters and seals everywhere. Also spotted a ton of whales off Pacifica.
Haven’t watched the video yet (at work), but you make it sound like it’s more annoying than Double Rainbow Guy. So if it’s anything less than that I’ve been suitably prepared. Thank you. 🙂
I enjoyed their excitement and I have a mute button if I didn’t.
Great video but it wasn’t “live”. It was obviously a set up.
A great year in my backyard. I was boogie boarding with seals, dolphins and otters very close by a few days aback.
I woudln’t exactly call a blue whale a ‘critter’.. It is literally the opposite. 8)