Good morning. Out at sea, a Canadian whale scientist witnessed something close to a miracle – more on that below, along with Ontario budget takeaways and the Toronto Blue Jays. But first:
Today’s headlines
- The Procurement Ombud has found a sweeping failure by Ottawa to enforce its own Indigenous contracting rules
- NATO says that Canada’s military spending has officially hit the target of 2 per cent of GDP
- The International Olympic Committee unveiled new policy that will exclude transgender athletes from competing in women’s events
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Female sperm whales from Unit A holding the newborn sperm whale calf above water until it is able to swim on its own.Supplied
Happiness
Miracles and mysteries at sea
Hi, I’m Erin Anderssen, the Happiness Reporter at The Globe and Mail.
This week, I tell the magical story of the first fully recorded sperm whale birth – and a Canadian scientist’s lifelong connection to these elegant gentle animals and their complex society.
I first interviewed Shane Gero, a Canadian biologist and one of the world’s leading whale experts, a few years ago, for a story on ocean noise pollution.
Dr. Gero has spent the last 20 years following the sperm whales that reside off the coast of Dominica – and when we spoke, he was full of excitement about a gift, as he still calls it today, that the whales had given him. But before he spoke more about it, he wanted to study the data and mull over the meaning of what he’d witnessed.
The first two papers about the birth were published yesterday in the journals Science and Scientific Reports, detailing documented evidence of sperm whales attending to the mother during labour and supporting and protecting the newborn afterward.
“This goes down as one of the most caring, co-operative examples ever seen of a newborn entering the world,” said David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI, the non-profit research group that documented the birth.
David Gruber (L) pictured here with CETI Marine Operations Specialist, Odel Harve in Dominica. Jan. 25, 2024.Michael Lees/National Geographic/Supplied
On a July morning in 2023, a multidisciplinary team of robotics engineers, computer scientists and biologists happened upon the whale family off the coast of Dominica, an island in the Caribbean.
They captured hours of video footage and sound recordings as the whales focused on the mother during labour, supported the baby when it was too weak to swim and guarded the new addition from a marauding pack of pilot whales.
Over the next two years, they used specialized computer vision to identity which whales were where at what moment and employed machine learning to analyze the data.
The Project Ceti team used machine learning and computer vision to track whales individually during birth. The first graph shows the number of times each whale touched the baby. The second graph shows when the contact happened.Courtesy Project CETI
But what makes this science even more amazing is the knowledge of Dr. Gero, the biology lead for Project CETI.
Thanks to his patient, long-term field research, this wasn’t a random cluster of whales, but a family; he knew that the expectant mother was Rounder, being attended to by her mother, Lady Oracle, her daughter, Accra and the rest of her family.
For two decades, these whales – along with the other family units he’s identified – have been telling him a deep and complex tale of love and community.
Like the whales themselves, Project CETI is a close-knit group of individuals co-operating to achieve an important goal – not only to decipher the sperm whale’s complex language, but to ensure the world cares enough to keep them safe.
Canadian Biologist Shane Gero on the dock at Soufriere Bay in Dominica, Feb. 9.Michael Lees/The Globe and Mail
The work they published this week is an excellent example of the value of long-term field research and the use of new technology, especially AI, to expand our understanding of one of the most remarkable animals on the plant.
“In my opinion, AI was invented solely for this reason,” said Gruber. “To show us a way where we can use this new tool to expand our consciousness and understand other sentient life on this planet.”
The (relatively) little whale has since been glimpsed from a distance but is yet to be named. Dr. Gero now waits a few years – having had his heart crushed too many time when newborns vanish. In 2016, he found that one in three babies didn’t make it to their first birthday, dying from natural causes, or the killer whales or pilot whales that can occasionally snatch the smaller calves. Or they are lost to human hazards, such as plastic pollution, ship strikes and fishing-line entanglement.
The chances for this young one will, hopefully, be higher: In 2023, Dr. Gero helped Dominica establish the world’s first sperm whale reserve in the area where the baby’s family lives.
Later this year, he will return to the Caribbean, hoping for a closer look at Rounder’s calf, now three years old. And Project CETI will continue to unravel how the whales communicated during the birth, while devoting many more hours on the water to listening and observing and learning.
The whales, as Dr. Gero would say, have secrets yet to tell.
The Shot
‘It feels like we never left.’
Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. warms up during a workout day ahead of the team's season opener in Toronto.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
The Blue Jays play the Athletics today for their season opener, and Kevin Gausman will be up to pitch into a highly anticipated 2026 season. Cathal Kelly asks: Can the Jays turn their October fling with Canada into a real, full-time thing?
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Here are six key takeaways from the Ontario budget, which projects a $13.8-billion deficit.
Abroad: President Donald Trump said he would pause attacks on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days and that talks with Tehran were going “very well.”
Friends: G7 allies meet in France against the backdrop of wars in Iran and Ukraine, economic uncertainty and an unpredictable U.S. foreign policy.
Family: A McCain Foods heir is suing the French fry maker after failing to sell her $1-billion-plus stake.