Zeman talks with experts and scientists who knew marine mammal researcher William Watkins, the scientist who tracked 52 for 12 years and who wrote a paper that summarized his research and inspired the Times' 2004 story. Nor does he allow his own story to overtake his quest for an actual thing, namely 52, which might just be a hybrid between a blue and fin whale.
#THE LONELIEST WHALE FULL#
He hints around at the idea that the search for 52 may just be the search for his own soul - with visions of Cap'n Ahab never far away - but, thank goodness, never goes full bore down that path. Zeman narrates, perhaps a little too heavy-handedly, about 52 and its meaning to us. Zeman, who saw his first whale when he was 14 and working a summer job on a 19th-century schooner in Gloucester, Mass., investigates these and other aspects of 52's story.
Why do some of us feel a connection to this creature? Why do we project our emotions and needs onto a giant mammal we've never seen? And can a whale even feel loneliness? The timing is pretty spot-on, as many in the past 16 months have dealt with at least some level of pandemic-induced isolation and loss and can no doubt identify with a single whale alone in the cold, dark ocean calling out in vain for a friend. He was the subject of "52Hz, I Love You," a 2017 Taiwanese film albums, songs and a children's book have been inspired by his plight.Īnd now documentary filmmaker Joshua Zeman has entered the fray with "The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52." Over the years, 52 has popped up in pop culture. In 2004, Revkin's article created a buzz around the lonely whale. Navy through Cold War-era surveillance equipment at the bottom of the ocean.įor 12 years, the whale was tracked as it called out to others and never received a reply. Known as the 52 Hertz Whale after its sonic signature, it was first detected in 1989 by the U.S. Revkin, in a story headlined "Song of the Sea, a Cappella and Unanswered," told the story of a solitary whale swimming around the Pacific emitting sounds that no other whale could hear. In 2004 a whale no one had ever seen became a sort of viral star.
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