{"id":3906,"date":"2021-01-25T15:49:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T22:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2021-01-25T15:49:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T22:49:06","slug":"the-past-and-present-truths-of-big-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2021\/01\/25\/the-past-and-present-truths-of-big-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"The past and present truths of \u201cBig Miracle\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Rachel Kaplan<\/a>, PhD student,\u00a0OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife,\u00a0Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we all try to find ways to be together safely this winter, the GEMM Lab has started a fun series of virtual movie nights. Just before the holidays, we watched \u201cBig Miracle,\u201d which tells the story of the historic whale entrapment event in Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly called \u201cBarrow\u201d) that captured the world\u2019s attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The 2012 film stars Drew Barrymore, who plays a Greenpeace activist, and John Krasinski, a television reporter covering the story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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In late September 1988, three gray whales became trapped in the sea ice just off Point Barrow. Local attempts to free the whales quickly became national news that captured the attention of millions, including President Ronald Reagan, pop legend Michael Jackson \u2013 and elementary-schooler Leigh Torres. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the movie, Leigh told us about how she had religiously followed television updates on the rescue as a child. Hearing her memories of the event and its part in inspiring her to pursue a career in whale research was one of the best parts of watching the movie together as a lab.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuning in from my parents\u2019 house in Fairbanks, Alaska, the story felt surprisingly close to home for me too. I had never heard Inupiaq spoken in a feature film before, and I was stunned to recognize the landscape around Utqia\u0121vik and realize that some of the movie was filmed on location. It was also the first movie I\u2019d seen represent the myriad of human dimensions that surround whale research and policy, including Indigenous rights, oil and fishing industry interests, and environmental perspectives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain elements of the movie also made me uncomfortable, and thus made me wonder about the movie\u2019s accuracy. Why were the main characters in the film people from outside Alaska? How did the rescue logistics and decision-making processes really play out in Utqia\u0121vik? Why did the whales become trapped in the first place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was curious to learn more about the whales, and how Utqia\u0121vik experienced both the massive rescue effort and the Hollywood-ized retelling of its story. During a great Zoom conversation, I learned more from Craig George, a whale biologist who has worked in Utqia\u0121vik since the 1970s and was involved during the entire 1988 rescue mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all Hollywood movies based on real events, “Big Miracle\u201d mixes facts with a healthy dose of fiction and storytelling. The movie portrays the three entrapped whales as a family unit, given the names Wilma, Fred, and Bam Bam. Craig described them in more scientific terms \u2013 three subadult gray whales, all 25-30 feet in length. He and the other biologists onsite collected data throughout the three-week rescue effort, recording the whales\u2019 behavior, dive times, and vocalizations. They calculated that the whales’ respiration rates were double that of typical rates, revealing the whales\u2019 distress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rescue team named the whales Crossbeak, Bone, and Bonnet based on each individual\u2019s notable morphological traits. Photo: Craig George<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe community effort to free the whales was amazing,\u201d Craig said. \u201cLow-tech approaches and local knowledge are typically most effective in the Arctic, and all the best ideas relied on the Inupiaq knowledge of the area.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the aim of leading the whales offshore to safer waters, a team of volunteers cut a series of breathing holes at regular intervals in the sea ice. The approach seemed to work well, and so the ice-breaking crew was puzzled when the whales stopped using the new holes \u2013 until they realized the area was underlain by shoals that the whales were unwilling to cross. They began cutting in a new direction, and the whales appeared in the new hole instantly, before the opening was even completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whales were trying to tell us the direction they wanted to go,\u201d Craig said. \u201cIt was really astonishing, because there was definitely a dynamic between us. We tried to train them to work with us, and they also trained us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0A team of volunteers cut holes in the sea ice, creating a path to open water, while journalists document the moment. Photo: Craig George<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over three weeks, the rescue effort grew from local to international. Companies donated chainsaws and fuel, and people following the news outside Alaska flew to Utqia\u0121vik to volunteer their help. Several attempts to break the ice, including an ice-based pontoon tractor and an ice-breaking helicopter, failed. Working around the clock, and in temperatures below -20F, volunteers continued cutting breathing holes in the ice for the whales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, one hurdle remained between the whales and open water \u2013 a massive pressure ridge of grounded sea ice, about 20 ft high and just as deep. It was impossible to cut through with chainsaws. Two Russian icebreakers, the Vladimir Arseniev<\/em> and the Admiral Makarov<\/em> were enlisted to come break the ridge and clear the way to open water \u2013 no small diplomatic feat during the Cold War. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Craig said, the real story\u2019s ending isn\u2019t quite as picture-perfect as the one in \u201cBig Miracle\u201d \u2013 no one <\/strong>actually knows whether the whales made it out or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know that the whales swam out the icebreaker track, because their blood was found on ice shards,\u201d he said. \u201cThey might have made it out, but we never saw them again and don\u2019t know for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This map shows the path of holes cut through the sea ice, icebreaker track, and pressure ridge of ice. \u201cBarrow\u201d is the former name of Utqia\u0121vik. Source: Geoff Carroll and Craig George<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 40 years later, Craig says the story still comes up often in Utqia\u0121vik, but in a different context \u2013 climate change. In 1988, the sea ice froze up in late September. In 2020, however, there was no shore-fast ice until early December. Craig remembers that, during the rescue, temperatures dropped to -24\u00b0F one night — colder than Utqia\u0121vik had experienced yet in January 2020, when we last spoke. Today\u2019s dramatically different conditions have impacts for the entire Arctic ecosystem, as well as the people who rely on it to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watching \u201cBig Miracle\u201d sparked so many questions about the past, and talking with Craig gave me just as many questions about the future. How will changing ocean conditions impact gray whales, and other Arctic whales? How will the social and environmental dynamics that \u201cBig Miracle\u201d depicted \u2013 environmentalism, resource exploitation, and Indigenous rights \u2013 adapt and evolve in a changing Arctic? What will the Alaskan Arctic look like in another 40 years?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rachel Kaplan, PhD student,\u00a0OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Department of Fisheries and Wildlife,\u00a0Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna Lab As we all try to find ways to be together safely this winter, the GEMM Lab has started a fun series of virtual movie nights. Just before the holidays, we watched \u201cBig Miracle,\u201d … Continue reading The past and present truths of \u201cBig Miracle\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10751,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1310699,634945,1310687],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arctic","tag-gray-whales","tag-rachel-kaplan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3910,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}