A humpback whale breaches very close to whale watchers.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
On NATURE "The Whale Detective," a filmmaker investigates his traumatic encounter with a 30-ton humpback whale that breached and just missed landing on him while he was kayaking. What he discovers raises far bigger questions about humans’ relationship with whales and their future.
A filmmaker investigates his traumatic encounter with a 30-ton humpback whale that breached and almost landed on him while he was kayaking. What he discovers raises far bigger questions about humans’ relationship with whales and their future. Aired: 01/08/20
Whales face major threats from plastic and fishing gear entanglements and have been turning up injured or dead in record numbers, with a 300% increase in humpback entanglements in the last 5 years. In a never-before-filmed sequence, witness a group dedicated to disentangling whales as they undergo the dangerous process of trying to cut free a whale trapped by a rope while not harming themselves.
Determined to find the whale that breached on his kayak in a viral moment, Tom Mustill enlists the help of the founder of Happywhale, a citizen science database that collects thousands of whale tail photos. A humpback’s life story is written in the unique pattern of scars on its tail flukes.
When dead whales turn up in San Francisco, they’re towed to an uninhabited island for autopsies. Whale scientist Dr. Joy Reidenberg hopes to better understand why these animals died and how to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Jen is a web producer at KPBS, responsible for program promotion, membership-related activities, and is the editor of the KPBS community calendar. Jen has worked at KPBS since 2000. She is originally from Las Vegas and attended UNLV.
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