WEBVTT

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(Video) (Orcas' sounds)

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(Applause)

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Orcas are magnificent creatures.

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They don't deserve
the nickname of "killer whales".

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First of all, they are not whales,
they belong to the dolphin family.

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And second, they've never
attacked any humans,

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in their natural habitat, that is.

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The first thing you feel
when you dive next to orcas

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is an intense joy, the joy of being
accepted into their social space

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and be able to observe
for a few dozen of minutes

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their underwater life.

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Occasionally, they get curious
and come close, very close.

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In this gaze, you can spot 
a vast intelligence.

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You feel scanned, analyzed, scrutinized,

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as if they had the power
to access our deepest emotions.

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But above all, you don't feel the fear,

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you don't feel the tiredness,
you don't feel the cold.

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You just feel a wave of emotions
and energy that overwhelms you

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and thrills you from head to toes.

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I feel it more and more each year.

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Today, I know why,
and I'm going to share it with you.

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My first encounter with orcas
goes back to 1997.

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It was two days before
an underwater fishing competition.

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This encounter changed
the course of my life.

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It was like an irresistible call.

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Two days later, I win this competition,

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and thanks to my sponsor's incentive,
I'm able to finance my first trip

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to go dive with orcas in the
north of Norway a year later.

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This first expedition in 1998 was
followed by a long series of others,

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21 seasons without interruption
during which I accumulated

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more than 6,000 underwater
encounters closest to orcas.

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This experience has enabled
me to design a method

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to approach and interact with them
respectfully that is a reference today.

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I've dedicated most of my time

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to the study of orcas' social
behavior and body language.

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This presentation 
refers to "singing orcas"

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but I made my first underwater
recording only in 2016.

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It was near Tromsø in Kaldfjord,

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and it was a magical moment.

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During the day just before the test,
we observed dozen of humpback whales

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and several hundreds orcas
that moved in the middle of the fjord

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close to our anchoring.

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At nightfall, we took our aluminium craft

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and we went to the site.

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The atmosphere was a bit special.

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There was no wind
which it's pretty rare.

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The fjord's surface resembled a mirror,

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and we could see on each side
of this narrow fjord,

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the snow on the mountains.

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It was a rather breathtaking moment.

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So we stopped the engine
and I immersed my hydrophone

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in the most absolute silence
at a dozen meters deep.

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A hydrophone is an underwater microphone

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that allows you to record
sounds while listening to them.

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I connected the speaker, and then ...

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Well, come with me on the boat.

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(Songs of orcas and humpback whales)

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A startling and perfectly orchestrated
melody rised from the dephts.

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I was overwhelmed
by the beauty of these songs.

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Our boat was at the interface
between two worlds,

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the orcas' world and
their secrets under the surface,

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and the sky and the stars above us.

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In the magic of the moment, I imagined
these two worlds connected

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and what connected these spaces
was the songs coming from the depths.

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The northern lights started
just above our heads.

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The singing increased
in intensity and harmony.

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(Songs of orcas and whales)

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Each orca, each humpback whale
was playing its own partition

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in what I called later
"The abyss's symphony".

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But above all, what was happening
was going far beyond this.

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It was not just an harmonious
melody pleasant to the ear,

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I felt enveloped,
permeated by those songs.

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I felt a wave of energy,

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the same energy that flows
when I dive in the vicinity of orcas.

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While I dedicated all these years
to the sole study of orcas' body language,

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I missed something important.

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I realized that evening of December 2016

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that sounds are of vital
importance in orcas' lives,

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and that that was where
we needed to direct our research.

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A few weeks after the end
of the season in March 2017,

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I went to Guadeloupe to meet
Pierre Lavagne de Castellan.

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Pierre is a bioacoustician
and he's the benchmark,

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Mister "Song of whales
and sperm whales".

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He's been in that field 
for more than 30 years.

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During our meetings, Pierre used to say,

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"The message is in the song."

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He'd hammer it like a leitmotiv,

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and I was hanging on
his words, saying to myself,

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"But what is this message?
What are they saying to each other?

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What are they trying to tell us?"

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I left Guadeloupe with
more questions than answers.

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I went back to France and I started
to do research on the internet

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to try to understand these concepts.

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I had no knowledge about sound.
So I googled "what is a sound?"

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A sound is a wave. Okay.
What is a wave?

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A wave is an oscillation
through a transfer of energy.

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Okay.

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It's defined by its
amplitude, its frequency.

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It can be visualized by a graph.

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There are electromagnetic waves,
mechanical waves,

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stationary waves ...

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All of this didn't really speak to me.
I didn't see how I could use it.

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But one day, as I am searching
about stationary waves,

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I stumble upon the work
of Ernst Friedrich Chladni.

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Ernst Friedrich Chladni is an engineer,
physicist and musician

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who discovered how to visualize sounds.

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He had the idea to use a copper plate,

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attached to a stand,

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on which he put a thin layer of sand,

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and on the periphery of which
he used his violoin bow.

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Look at the result, it's surprising.

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(Video) (Grindings of violin bow)

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In this experiment, we can observe

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that the sand moves
on the surface of the plate

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and forms a geometrical figure.

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These geometric patterns are called
"Chladni's figures" or "Chladni’s plate".

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Chladni made a whole catalog
of several thousands of them

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because what's interesting

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is that each frequency
produces a specific image.

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Now where it gets truly exciting

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is when Alexander Lauterwasser,

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who is a German researcher
and nature photographer,

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discovered recently that the shape
of some living species

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was the exact copy of Chladni's plates.

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On this picture from his book
"Water Sound Images,"

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we can see a flower with
its corresponding Chladni's figure.

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It can also be the back of a turtle,

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or this picture taken under a microscope
of the Diatom Arachnoidiscus

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that is the exact copy
of the Chladni's figure

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corresponding to
5,000 Hertz frequency.

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From his discovery
Alexander Lauterwasser theorizes

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"the shape of living beings
originates from sound vibrations."

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The shape of living beings
originates from sound vibrations.

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A few years before him, Hans Jenny,
the Swiss scientist,

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worked on the effects of sound on matter,
especially on liquids and semi-liquids.

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Here's one of his experiments.

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We can see that under the effect
of a sound vibration,

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this semi-liquid paste that usually sits
at the bottom of the speaker

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rises up, sets itself up
despite the gravitational force

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and follows specific movements.

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According to Hans Jenny, these movements
are not chaotic nor random,

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they are perfectly organized
and reproducible.

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When I saw this experiment,
I immediately made a connection

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with old pictures that I took
of my first expeditions.

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They show a thin liquid film

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that is thrown forward from
the orcas' lower jaw while they swim.

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Initially, I paid no attention
to these pictures,

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but now I could see a link
with Hans Jenny's experiments.

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There is no reason for this phenomenon.

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I asked a hydrodynamic engineer
specialized in fluid dynamics.

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According to him,

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these shapes can't exist
in the absence of an outside force.

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Could orcas be creating
this phenomenon?

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Could orcas be producing this frequency

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that enables them to produce
these ephemeral artistic shapes?

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I've been studying orcas since 1998.

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These creatures belong
to the cetacean family.

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They have a bigger brain

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that is potentially more powerful,

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more efficient than that of humans.

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They're conscious of themselves
and of their surroundings.

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I saw them solve complex problems,

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especially by adapting their hunting
strategy depending on circumstances

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in an extremely reactive way.

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They are organized in society,

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in family groups that are led
by the oldest female, the matriarch.

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Orcas possess acoustic organs.

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They pass on their knowledge,
their culture, their language,

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from generation to generation 
for millions of years.

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Our civilization is 5,000 years old.

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Our technology has not
reached 200 years of age yet.

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We, humans,

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are dominating the world.

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We control almost all of the living.

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We think we know everything,
but there's still so much to discover.

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Pierre Lavagne de Castellan, him again,
has observed multiple times

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humpback whales
getting together in groups

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and giving acoustic
massages to each other.

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These recent observations show

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that whales but also dolphins and orcas

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have developed throughout evolution
know-hows that enable them to use sounds

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for something other
than simple communication.

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I pursue my research
with the hope, maybe a bit foolish,

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of understanding these phenomenons

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because what I feel
when I dive close to orcas,

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this well-being that I feel,

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is due, in my opinion,
to the sounds they produce.

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Our oceans are endangered
because of human activities:

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the consequences of climate change,

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noise pollution, chemical pollution,

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overfishing, sea traffic, plastic ...

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It's time to change our habits
to reduce these threats.

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Let's save our oceans
while we still can.

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Let's protect orcas,
this luminous oceanic civilization.

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Let's uncover the secrets
of their language.

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We will gain access
to their knowledge

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and then, yes,

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we shall be able to heal ourselves
with the songs of orcas.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)