The ocean is alive with sound! Discover how blue whales and other ocean dwellers communicate. This tutorial will help you explore the Blue Whales AR Encounter, so you can use their sounds to compose your own musical masterpiece.
Videos
From the Giant Screen to your computer or cell phone, the spectacle of the blue whale is always better in motion! Below, explore a selection of videos, including excerpts from the IMAX film, behind-the-scenes footage, and educational videos that will help connect the blue whale story to the wildlife in your own backyard or city block.
Discover the amazing and gargantuan biology of the blue whale, right in your web browser, phone or tablet! This tutorial will help you explore the Blue Whales AR Encounter, so you can take a dive alongside the whale as it swims in the open ocean to see its behaviors up close.
For three decades, Dr. Diane Gendron has been coming to Mexico’s Gulf of California each year to study the largest animals on the planet: blue whales. Her reverence for the species – and their surprising grace given their incomparable size – has grown hand-in-hand with her rich understanding of the whales’ behavior, growth, breeding patterns, and health.
Award-winning actor, Andy Serkis, discusses his experience narrating the film and his joy in helping to bring the world’s largest animal to the world’s largest screen.
Academy Award-winning composer Steven Price discusses what made working on the film so special.
Marine biology student Ella Nancy discusses her experience being a part of the giant screen film.
Learn more about the film’s incredible drone photography from research assistant Jasivi Arcos Diaz.
Watch the official trailer for the feature-length film, releasing to Giant Screen theaters across North America in May, 2023.
Director Hugh Pearson describes his passion for filming Blue Whales and the new opportunities created by filming with drones.
Can You Hear Me Now? Activity Guide
Marine species can communicate with each other across extreme distances. For blue whales, that’s hundreds of miles of open ocean! Dr. Kate Stafford uses specialized tools to listen in on “whalespeak,” but understanding what the blue whales are saying is a unique challenge.
Feeding Time! Activity Guide_0.pdf
The relationship between animals and their food is often more complicated than we realize! And for blue whales – the pursuit of a meal is a jaw-dropping endeavor. Hear from marine biologist Dr. Jeremy Kiszka about how whales hunt their only prey: tiny crustaceans called krill, which the whales gulp down millions at a time!
Blue whales can grow to be over 100 feet long – bigger than any other species ever to roam the planet. No doubt the scale is impressive, but the process that scientists undertake to measure big blues is also a pretty wild endeavor. In the Gulf of California, meet marine biology student Jasivi Arcos as she pilots a drone to measure blue whales from high in the skies.
Put a couple of meter sticks and a math equation in the same space, and you get a tool to estimate the size of a blue whale! This video offers visuals and directions that will make this extension activity in Size Up! a breeze.
Size Up! Part 1 is all about making the large measurements of a blue whale possible, but how do we show that with our own bodies? Check out the ideas and information in this video that will make leading the activity smooth sailing!
Are you ready to make sounds visible? Use this video to build a do-it-yourself device called a photophone that can turn your voice into a visual pattern.
Who doesn’t love a good guessing game? This video will walk you through how to lead the Can You Hear Me Now? activity with ease and confidence!
Get ready to engage participants in an active game to lunge feed and migrate like blue whales. This video will walk you through the Feeding Time! activity and give you the tips you need to lead it with ease and confidence!
Ever wonder how we measure 80-foot blue whales in the ocean? Using math, technology, and photographs, scientists can estimate the size of a blue whale and much more. Hear wildlife biologist, Dr. David Cade, as he explains the incredible feat of sizing up a blue whale.
It’s not very often that you are around the largest living creature on Earth when it poops, but when you are…you race your boat alongside it to scoop some up! What can poop tell us and why is it an important factor in the ocean’s ecosystem? Hear from wildlife biologist Dr. David Cade on why he studies blue whale poop and what’s so important about it!
Meet Dr. David Cade as he shares his experience and research as a wildlife biologist in our series of Whale Talk videos.
A blue whale’s call is the loudest sound on Earth, but humans can’t hear it without special tools! Listen in on how wildlife biologist Dr. David Cade describes what the sounds feel like and explains what they might mean.
Follow wildlife biologist, Dr. David Cade, in the field as he studies blue whales and their unique feeding method - the lunge gulp! Check out the tagging system he uses to help him find answers to questions such as: How often do they feed? How much energy does it take to feed?