Transcript:

Largest Animals on Earthambience, blue whales Heres a program from our archives.Whales are the largest animals that have ever lived on earth. We humans have both hunted and revered them, but have you ever wondered what whales think about us? I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.Payne: I think a part of what make humans so fascinated by whales is the fact that they are so large and they dwarf us and make us feel small. That's a good feeling for people to have.Roger Payne is president of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. Those low frequency hums in the background are Blue Whales. To give you an idea of their size, the tongue of a large Blue Whale weighs about the same as a moderate sized elephant. Payne: One of the things about being very large is that a lot less perturbs you than perturbs something that isn't so large. And I think with whales basically almost everything is beneath their notice and I also wouldn't be surprised if the have practically no idea at all of fear when they see something that's new or different.And that attitude amongst whales has brought them again and again when ever they were hunted back to the same areas irrevocably without any chance of turning away to be killed by humans. Basically the boats are what we are to whales. That we are the bottoms of boats which float into their world. And I think a whale could have seen thousands of boats and never seen a person at all. And have therefore no idea of what this alien intelligence is that's moving that object across the water so that people leaning over the side of a boat and patting a whale may be so many cilia or flagelli or appendages which are stroking the whale. But whale are attracted wildly to that, some species are. Maybe all are if we give them a chance to get near boats without blowing them out of the water." This archival program is part of our thirtieth anniversary celebration. Im Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.