Boat among dead humpbacks

A weekend cruise on a luxurious party yacht goes horribly wrong for a group of old high-school friends when they get stuck in the water many miles from shore and a happy reunion turns into a fight for survival.

Humpback Whales takes audiences to Alaska, Hawaii and the Kingdom of Tonga for a close-up look at how these whales communicate, sing, feed, play and take care of their young. Humpbacks were nearly driven to extinction 50 years ago, but today are making a steady recovery. Join a team of researchers as they explore what makes humpbacks the most acrobatic of all whales, why only the males sing, and why these intelligent 50-foot, 48-ton animals migrate more than 6,000 miles round-trip every year.

Latest research shows the humpback whales’ song to be a weapon used in verbal exchanges between bulls fighting over females. These battles can sometimes turn physical, sometimes endangering mothers with vulnerable calves.

Shot weeks apart, I made two films of personal sightings while on public outings, in the company of the great mammals off Cape Cod. Like icebergs, very little of their bulk, beyond shimmering back and a rearmost dorsal fin is visible as they glide the surface. These forty-ton humpbacks power dive with a grace and purpose that had me conjuring their descending views; diminishing jagged streaks of light into plummeting depths of darkness.