If whales had telepathic powers it’s likely that no human would ever know. The brains of whales are very large. Some have said the size of Volkswagens. It’s well known that the connections-dendrites, axons and such are large too and rather slower to transmit data around whale brains than in the brains of smaller, more optimally configured brains such as that of Theresa May. Do whales have the power of telepathy, and if so, what would extra-sensory perception be for-whales in comparison to that of normal human perceptions and data processing for cognitive purposes?
One might hold up specially marked cards in front of whales to determine if they can foreknow if the card has a salmon or a squid pictured on the reverse side. That test might not provide conclusive results to the intrepid researcher yearning to breathe free. Instead, the brains of whales may not prefer thinking about poor art on plastic-enclosed cardboard instead of real fish. Whale brains may have different functions that may encompass larger cognitive parameters than those of human beings.
Whales are of course an endangered species. The Atlantic Right Whale has reached near-extinction levels because of left wing collusion and the urge to plunder new frontiers. Whales are also victims of hate crimes because they are mostly black. If whales actually have an ability to think well and understand human predation upon them, how would they communicate with people with human predators and eco-yippees torturing and killing them should they wish to plea for relief for instance, to the ninth circuit court?
Maybe ecospheric gestalt and whale location appearance determinism would be a good place to start. Whales are used to sensing distant species unseen across large spaces in order to eat them or to take defensive measures, and even dating. Famously they also communicate with whale song over vast ocean distances. Maybe they can discern elements of human thought above-the-water in some way too.
I note the possibility because I’ve lived in an area where I occasionally encountered whales. Sure there are the spectacular whale breaching photographs and such and other behaviors that are typical examples of what we believe are the normal behaviors of the species in other locales. There are also the quiet individual encounters with whales that occur in northern waters. Sometimes people are lucky enough to interact with whales non-harmfully.
I tented in various parts of Alaska; most often S.E. Alaska with its coastal forests, and island archipelago. Sometimes eagles and ravens served as alarm clocks wakening one in the morning when one might otherwise be a little lethargic in getting out of a comparatively warm sleeping bag into the cold air.
Ravens are among the most intelligent non-human life. Though there brains are small in comparison to those of the U.S. Congress, their brains are wired good enough to let them think quickly and apparently have a sense of enjoyment and amusement in life. Ravens actually play besides having a large vocal repertoire and the capacity to make new sounds. Eagles are something like specialized seagulls that hang out along the shore- I watched thirty or so swirling over the water trying to pluck fish where they schooled. It always seems a little bit special to have an eagle sound awaken one. Yet even more so is the breathing exhalation and inhalation of a whale at close range.
I was awake yet still a bit unfocused early one snowy March morning. With the weather forecast to be worse next day I knew I had to launch a small inflatable boat before high tide in an hour and travel several miles to another location where I had some work, or wait several days for another good opportunity. Valuable time was passing and I was a little slow to just get with the schedule I had made. And then a whale respired a hundred yards away, more or less, motivating me to quickly get up , throw on shoes, grab a camera and head for the beach to get a shot. When I got there the whale was gone. However being up already I dispatched the tasks required to get the boat to the water and launch it and was soon under way.
Traveling through the falling spring snow about half-way on the journey the head of a sea lion surfaced. A small outboard motor must have been a pain to its hearing. I slowed and went past the sea lion, waving at it when it was even with the boat about ten yards away. It looked at me and dove breaching the water nearly completely down to the flippers. Near the end of the journey I slowed the boat down and a whale appeared once more just a couple hundred yards distant. At this particular location whales are a very rare sight so I stopped and appreciated it. I took a couple more pictures and went ashore. The whale had been a travel leader that Sunday morning without doubt, yet the question arises; what did the whale know and how did it know it?
In the 1990s another whale encountered near Cape Fanshaw when I was rowing a slow monarch scow south seemed to have a similar phenomenal gestalt. A whale intersected my course ahead, and when I arrived at the spot there was an empty soda pop can of Mountain Dew floating. Coincidentally, on my previous journey to town there was an empty soda pop can floating a couple hundred yards from where I launched- approximately where the whale surfaced to breathe on the return. Humans sometimes throw litter as a tool using culture without ecospheric competence regarding conservation. Gestalt-just saying.
Garrison Gibson: books and blog 