What Would the Whales Say?

         Aboard the Fishswimmer, which was situated somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean, a young women tapped her instrument panel with a frown.  She was getting some strange sounds emanating from the hydrophone, which was the microphone they had put into the ocean.  She knew that there was a pod of Blue Whales nearby but what she was picking up sounded like a group people having an argument.  Maybe she was somehow picking up someone’s radio signal, or maybe someone was playing a joke on her.  Giving up, Susan stood up from her chair and went looking for the lead scientist.

         “Hey Luke, you wanna check this out and see if I’m going crazy or if what I’m  hearing is real?”  An older man with graying hair nodded and walked down with her to the transmitter.  Putting on the head phones his expression went from confused, to anger, to amazement.

         “Susan, this is a miracle, a…a…something has happened that I though could happen only in fantasy stories.  It seems as if the whales are talking, or more like arguing.”  She looked at him as if he’d gone crazy, putting a hand on his forehead to check for a fever.

         “Are you feeling okay, I thought it might have been someone playing a trick on us.  Maybe we should head back, let you lay down.”  He shook her hand away and stood up, pushing her back into her seat.

         “Do humans complain about how the fish seem to be disappearing, hunters killing them, and how awful the water has become lately?  Because that’s what I’m hearing.”  Putting the headphones back on, she clearly heard a strange argument.

         “I’m telling you, when are these humans going to understand that by polluting the ocean, the are essentially killing themselves.  I mean come one, the fish are getting harder to find and the ones that you do find taste strange.  Yesterday I saw this old net all tangled up in a reef.  What if that had happened to me, or one of you?”  A female’s voice asked, a strange clicking tone to her syllables.

         “I know!  Why just yesterday I passed by this poor dolphin that said he was going to go beach himself to avoid the pain that the slow poisoning was causing him.  I guess he had eaten some really bad fish.”  There came a deep silence and a small hum that sounded like a mourning song echoed back and forth in the water.

         “He will be missed.  But you must remember sisters, not all humans are bad.  There are some out there that are tying to stop the pollution and save our lives.  They go through the out-most extremes to save every single one of us.  Look over there, it’s a vessel that has all that funny equipment studying us.  They are trying to stop those that hunt us.”  Susan started, eyes wide as she understood that they were talking about their vessel.

         “They are far too few of them to make up for those that are careless.  I can’t tell you how many boats have passed by and thrown their garbage into the ocean.  There have been days that I wanted to use my tail to throw their garbage back up at them.  I wanted to shout at them that we don’t go and throw our waste on their homes, why must they do the same for us?”

         “They are a young race still, growing and learning as they age, just as we all did.  Give them time my children, soon they will realize the error of their ways.  As Sluuen said, some are trying with everything they have to save the ocean.  They are educating their calves, whom in turn are caring more for the world they live in.  We have to remember, people are just like us, some care more then others.  Now come, I hear fish a few clicks from here.  It promises to be a feast.”  Somehow this voice conveyed more depth and understanding in its rougher tones.  Their voices became more faint as the moved away from the vessels startled occupants.

         “Was that being recorded?”  Luke asked Susan, who shakily nodded and put her headphones down.  That conversation had left her with many things to think about.  She wondered why all of a sudden the whales could speak, or maybe they always could but choose not too.  It would remain a mystery.