52:The Search for the Loneliest Whale

Friends of Fifty Two!

IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!!!

It’s finally happening.

Five years ago Director Josh Zeman first learned of the mystery of the loneliest whale in the world. At that moment he decided to set off on a mission to share this story with the world in the hopes of one day finding 52. Today, we are finally taking our quest to the water, and this is because of you.

We are incredibly excited to announce that today – a team led by Director Josh Zeman and expert marine scientists Dr. John Hildebrand (SIO), Dr. Ana Sirovic (SIO), and Dr. John Calambokidis (CRC) – are hitting the great Pacific Ocean in search of the mysterious whale.

We are humbled by all the people who came together to make this happen.

We thank the over fifty thousand active followers across our social media platforms who encourage us to continue in this effort each day; the faithful and dedicated Kickstarter backers who gave us the means and exposure to make this research a reality; our partner organizations that share our beliefs and care for the oceans; our brilliant team of scientists who we are so honored to call our team leaders – experts in the field of marine biology and bio-acoustics, bringing with them not only the technology and their expertise, but also the willingness to strive for knowledge in favor of ocean health; and finally our amazing crew and production team without which this would not be possible.

Our mission: to research this amazing whale who calls out at a frequency no other whale can understand, and to study why this happens. This is how it will work, in the words of our lead scientist, Ana Sirovic: “During the expedition, the Scripps team will be using multiple directional hydrophones (underwater microphones) to triangulate on interesting whale calls. When we can isolate a calling whale (maybe, if we are lucky it will be the 52Hz whale), we will dispatch a small boat manned by researchers from the Cascadia Research Collective to its location for collection of photographs to allow us to catalogue the whale and create a photo ID, collect a genetic sample, and, if we are still very lucky, deploy an acoustic tag on the animal so we can track its diving behavior.”

Meanwhile, our director and film crew will be documenting it all – above and underwater!

This is the next giant step towards our goal of opening the world’s eyes to the importance of ocean health, primarily ocean noise pollution, and the great effects that the deterioration of the waters have on creatures in them.

A few notes about our expedition :

We are departing on our vessel, known as The Truth, into the Pacific this evening!

The Truth will be too far out in the blue waters to have service, so our updates will come once the boat has docked.

Josh, our Director, will be tracking the research done through daily video logs and diaries from inside the ship!

Our leading scientists are expert bio-acousticians and whale taggers. They will be using state of the art technology to study these sounds and majestic creatures in the most careful and non-invasive manner.

We want to hear from you! What do you want to ask our scientists while at sea? Learn about, talk about, find? Please send us your questions. What does searching for the Lonely Whale mean to you? We will send these to Josh- via satellite phone!

Again, we thank you so much for your support of this project. Absolutely none of this could have happened without you.

With the expedition on track, we can confirm that the Kickstarter rewards fulfillment for Lonely Whale will take place in the Spring of 2016.

Stay tuned- more pictures/ updates/ science to come!!

The Lonely Whale Team!

Taylor Swift has something to say about the Lonely Whale. Here’s an excerpt from her Rolling Stone cover interview:

Swift pauses, searching for a metaphor that will help her explain herself. “Have you heard of the Loneliest Whale? There’s this whale – I think Adrian Grenier is making a documentary about it. It swims through the ocean, and it has a call unlike any other whale’s. So it doesn’t have anyone to swim with. And everybody feels so sorry for this whale – but what if this whale is having a great time? Because it’s not bad that I’m not hopelessly in love with someone. It’s not a tragedy, and it’s not me giving up and being a spinster. Although I did get another cat.”

‘He’s real, and I think we’re all damn curious about him.’

Read a gorgeous telling of 52’s story in, 52 Blue, by Leslie Jamison . An excerpt of the story can be previewed here via Slate.

( timjeffsart: I just illustrated a book by Leslie Jamison called “52 Blue” which was published by The Atavist.com. You can purchase it for $3.99 on their site. It’s a wonderful story and project to work on. #52blue #whales #whale #ocean #story #sea #sealife #bluewhale #art #artsanity #artnerd2014 #artwork_spotlight #art_spotlight #supportart #pendrawing #drawing #ink #instago )

Imagine roaming the world’s largest ocean year after year alone, calling out with the regularity of a metronome, and hearing no response.” Ten years ago, a very unique, very lonely whale was recognized by the New York Times. Today, we are on a quest to find him.

Bid now for your chance to spend the day with Adrian Grenier on the set of our film “52: The Mystery of the Loneliest Whale” this fall. All proceeds go to the support & celebration the 20th anniversary of The Whaleman Foundation. Check out the auction now for more information.

With Dr. Watkins’ death in 2004 there was no one left to listen for 52 Hz, until now.

(Illustration via meganlynnkott)