WHALE STORIES - DRIFTING OFF

A personal story:

"When we first began studying humpback whales we didn't realize that they sing all through the night. The first time we heard a night chorus was by accident. We had been drifting far off shore all afternoon and - the weather being fair - we decided to stay out overnight. We were out of sight of land over Argus Bank, a shallow plateau that rises from deep water about thirty miles from Bermuda. It is a place where humpbacks gather.

Whenever they sing in deep water, suspended far above the ocean abyss, the echoes are distinct and one gets the sense of vast, vaulted spaces as if the ocean were a great cathedral. Now, however, we could tell that they were up on the bank. There were no echoes and their songs sounded flat.

As darkness fell, the wind died down and we were carried only by the slow ocean currents. We passed the night immersed in the sound of whales. It was a strange and lovely sound as if of sleepers singing. A mingled, convoluted drone of voices. It was as if they sang as they drifted off from consciousness right through to sleep."