BBC News - The freedivers who swim with whales - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news...
Sep 17, 2014
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Eivind,
imabonehead,
rønin,
John (bird whisperer),
WoH: Professor MOTHRA,
Lisa L. Seifert,
Iván Abrego,
Jenny H.,
Steve C, Team Marina,
bentley,
and
Maitani
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"I'm floating in the Indian Ocean, six miles off the north-east coast of Sri Lanka. A sperm whale and her calf are facing me, 150ft (45m) away. I can see them swimming towards me, hissing, blowing steam and clicking loudly like a pneumatic drill. "Don't swim, don't move. They're watching us," whispers my guide Hanli Prinsloo. She grabs my hand and pulls me beneath the surface where we watch a hazy black mass materialise. Details gradually emerge: a fin, a gaping mouth, a patch of white. An eye, sunk low on a knotted head, peers in our direction."
- Mark H
"The clicks are so powerful they can penetrate flesh and allow whales to see not only where objects are, but what they look from the inside out. In essence, sperm whales have X-ray vision. Getting "scanned" in this way is not only incredibly loud, it can also be incredibly painful. One Dare Win researcher told me how he was diving with sperm whales a year ago and attempted to push a calf away from his camera. The calf's nose was vibrating so violently from the clicks that it paralysed the researcher's hand for four hours."
- Mark H
It never occurred to me that there were physical aspects to the clicks. I mean, not *that* physical.
- bentley