The Whale with a Name
名前のあるクジラ
Sofia leaned over the side of a small boat on a cold spring morning.
Below the grey water, a huge humpback whale rose slowly toward the light.
"I have watched whales for ten years, but this one feels different," she said.
It was the largest animal that she had ever seen so close to a boat.
With careful hands, she attached a small GPS , which would send signals for months.
The device felt tiny against the giant, dark body of the whale.
"I will call you Ao," she whispered, using the Japanese word for blue.
Ao was a female whale which had probably been born near these warm islands.
Humpbacks have travelled these waters for thousands of years, following the same ancient routes.
"I have tracked many animals," Sofia thought, "but I have never felt so curious."
For the first two hours, Ao swam exactly where the scientists had expected.
The moved south, toward the deep waters which humpbacks love in winter.
Sofia smiled, because everything followed the that she had studied for years.
Then, without any warning, the little dot on her screen turned north.
North was the wrong direction, which made no sense for this time of year.
"Whales have never done that in spring," said her , staring at the map.
Sofia checked the , the software, and the link three times.
Every part of the system, which she had tested carefully, was working perfectly.
The data was correct, and yet Ao was breaking every rule in the book.
"I have read hundreds of studies," she said, "but none of them explains this."
Something in the ocean was pulling the whale away from her natural path.
A whale which ignored its own instincts was surely trying to tell them something.
Sofia grabbed her notebook and wrote a single question at the top of the page.
"Where are you going, Ao," she asked the empty sea, "and why?"