On April 25, well-known Russian biologist and TV host Ivan Zatevakhin premiered his film “Talking to White Whales” at Moscow’s State Darwin Museum. Screened as part of the annual Earth Day programme, the 60-minute scientific documentary is sponsored by the Russian Geographical Society and is about a recent discovery made by Russian marine biologists studying the acoustic communication capabilities of white whales.

The film was shot on the Solovetsky Islands in the summer of 2014 and uses video materials collected during an expedition by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology to the Solovetsky Archipelago, including footage obtained with the help of areal and underwater cameras in the White Sea. In addition, it explains how scientists research the signalling system of White Sea whales, also known as belugas.

Ivan Zatevakhin met with audience members after the show and answered numerous questions. It turned out that that task of establishing “trustworthy relations” with the timid sea mammals had proven to be harder than he had expected. But thanks to the scientists’ patience and the professionalism of the film crew, that difficulty was successfully overcome and it’s now possible to learn about this unique marine research project.