THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 – Review

A whale, apparently the only one of its kind, wandering the Pacific and persistently calling with no answer, is the subject of Joshua Zeman’s documentary THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52, or more precisely, a search for the whale no one had ever seen. That search of the seas aboard a ship named Truth is the framing devise, but director Zeman also examines at the human response to the whale’s plight, anthropomorphized reaction reflecting at a time when people were talking about social media and loneliness, as well as a brief exploration of humankind’s history with whales. Aboard a ship named Truth It adds up to a mix of sea-going adventure,

In 2004, the New Times posted an article about a whale that struck a chord with many people. “For many years, a whale had been cruising the Pacific from central California to the Aleutians, calling out with a voice unlike any other whale’s, and getting no response,” Andrew Revkin wrote in his New York Times article. The story was based on a scientific research article, “Twelve Years of Tracking 52-Hz Whale Calls From a Unique Source in the North Pacific,” in which Dr. William Watkins and other scientists detailed their 12-year study of the whale as it roamed the Pacific Ocean. The sound was first picked up in 1989 by a naval surveillance sound array, a unique repeating 52 Hertz sound like no other, just above a tuba’s lowest note but well above the range of other whale calls. Whales are highly social animals who communicate largely through sound, and this seemed to be a single whale, unable to communicate with other whales, perhaps the first of its species – or the last.

By the time filmmaker Josh Zeman heard about the 52 Hertz Whale from scientist Dr. Vint Virga, there were memes, poems, paintings, songs, sculptures, even a play about the loneliest whale. Clearly it had tapped into a deep well of feeling in the era of social media’s physical isolation and virtual connection. The heartbreaking story had quickly spread through social media, the sad story of the loneliest whale and his persistent unanswered calls resonating with so many.

Zeman was hooked, and began to wonder, naively, if he could find the 52 Hertz Whale, known to scientists as Watkin’s Whale or just 52. The documentary THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 follows Zeman’s search. offering is a mix of mystery tale and high seas adventure, with a nice science slant, as the director enlists the help of a team of scientists to find 52. While the scientists hunt for the 52 Whale, the documentary serves up details on whale biology, whale songs and whale behavior, the history of underwater sound detection, a musicologist’s look at whale songs, a bit of meditation on the psycho-social meaning of the world wide response to this haunting tale of the lonely whale, and mankind’s long bloody history of whale hunting.

Tracking of the 52 Whale stopped in 2004 with the death of researcher Bill Watkins, and no one knew where the whale was now. Whales are long lived but more than a decade had passed, so no one even knew if the whale was still alive. Zeman approach several scientists about searching for 52, and got the same response: “a needle in a haystack.” Whales may be large but the ocean is vast, and finding a single whale was an impossible task.. Some scientists laughed when Zeman told them what he wanted to do, and when he said, “no, I’m serious,” laughed some more. Still, the idea intrigued some of the scientists, people who love a good puzzle and a challenge.

So Zeman turned the problem the other way. He asked several whale scientists to search their records for the sound of 52 – and gets a hit. The 52 Hertz sound had been recorded just a few years back and, conveniently, off the coast of California. The hunt was on, and it turned into a quest for Zeman, which he described as “Ahab-ian,” referencing obsessed captain of “Moby Dick” but without his bloody intent.

The documentary is packed with marvelous underwater photography, exciting footage of the search at rolling sea, and is filled with the infectious enthusiasm of the scientists Zeman recruited for the quest.

The search teamed Dr. John Hildebrand, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who specializes in whale sounds, with John Calambokidis, a research biologist and co-founder of Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, who is an expert in the field work to identify whales. “In terms of a person who actually gets out in the field and does work with large whales, he’s the guy, ” Hildebrand said in the documentary. This scientific whale dream team and director Zeman embarked on a search for 52, starting with the last known location of the California coast, with Hildebrand’s team in tracking whales by sound and Calambokidis and his team chasing them by boat, taking skin samples and tagging them with tracking devices, so they would know when that particular whale would pass by that particular hydrophone singing.

Obviously, there is a lot of adventure in a seagoing quest, for a whale that many have heard but that no one has every seen. The hunt has the feel of adventure tale, and the scientists are all-in on the quest, heightening the documentary’s energy. There is plenty of excitement, gorgeous high seas photography, whale sightings and close encounters. Quest is full of tension and excitement but it does not follow the expected path. While there are startling discoveries but does not lead to a simple resolution.

Zeman mixes the sea-going search footage with wide-ranging background materials, including interviews and archival stills and footage. When not on the sea, the documentary presents a host of experts on whales ans whale song. When the Navy built its Sound Surveillance System ( SOSUS ) in the Cold War early 1950s, they were listening for Russian submarines. “No one knew there was whale sound underwater,” Dr David Rothenberg, musician, professor and author of “Thousand-Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound.” While sailors long were aware of some whale sounds above the surface, no one knew the sounds traveled so far underwater. When a record of the haunting calls of humpback whales was released in 1970, it sparked the “save the whales” movement to end whale hunting, and a fascination with whales and their songs.

THE LONELIEST WHALE: THE SEARCH FOR 52 quest for 52 does not end as neatly as one might wish but what it does uncover is intriguing and raises new questions, in a coda at the film’s end. This is an enjoyable and well-made documentary with a wonderful underwater photography and satisfying scientific ocean adventure, and makes a fine pairing with another science-based whale documentary FATHOM released earlier this summer. Fans of whales, the ocean, or science will enjoy the adventure, for this is a whale of an outing.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars