Whales have Free Willy. Dolphins have Flipper. But what about the humble porpoise?

The porpoise doesn’t star in any Hollywood blockbusters. These shy, elusive “deer of the sea” are often overshadowed by their more charismatic cousins – but don’t let their social anxiety fool you. In fact, porpoises are speed-fiends with an insane metabolism and an outrageous sex drive.

Host Nate Hegyi and producer Marina Henke explore the Olympic sprinters of the sea and wonder if the fate of the endangered vaquita might hinge on being oh-so-very-cute.

Featuring Michelle Dutro, Barb Lake and Ruxandra Guidi.

ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

The second season of Rux Guidi’s podcast, The Catch, covered the plight of the vaquita.

In 1999, the Department of Defense studied the speed and hydrodynamics of dolphins, whales and porpoises to build better underwater drones.

Here’s a picture of a porpoise penis, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.

SUPPORT

To share your questions and feedback with Outside/In, call the show’s hotline and leave us a voicemail. The number is 1-844-GO-OTTER. No question is too serious or too silly.

Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to join our Patreon and get ad-free episodes of the podcast.

Follow Outside/In on Instagram, TikTok, or join our private discussion group on Facebook.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported, produced, and mixed by Nate Hegyi

Editing by Taylor Quimby

Our staff includes Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, Marina Henke and Jessica Hunt

Executive producer: Taylor Quimby

Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio

Music by Revel Day, OTE, Wanderer’s Trove, Dian Shuai, Lennon Hutton, Duke Herrington, Baja Banks, LeDelorean, and Da Sein.

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

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Audio Transcript

Note: Episodes of Outside/In are made as pieces of audio, and some context and nuance may be lost on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.

Nate Hegyi: All right. From NHPR. This is Outside/In a show where curiosity and the natural world collide. I am your host, Nate Hegyi, here with producer Marina Henke. Hello. So, Marina, have you ever gone whale watching?

Marina Henke: I have not gone whale watching. No.

Nate Hegyi: Have you ever wanted to?

Marina Henke: Oh, yeah, I've wanted to. But, I mean, when you grow up in the Midwest, it's like there's not, you know, you're not going whale watching on spring break.

Nate Hegyi: You live in Portland, Maine now. Like you can go whale watching any weekend you want.

Marina Henke: You know what? You're right. Sometimes I forget as an adult, you can actualize your dreams.

Nate Hegyi: Exactly like I actualized my dream. And I actually did go whale watching recently, and it was everything I hoped for.

Whale Watching Clip: Look at it go? She's just going parallel. Yeah.

Nate Hegyi: Best part. Humpback whale surfaced about 25 yards from our boat.

Whale Watching Clip: There she goes. Yay!

Nate Hegyi: Point is, whales are SUPER popular. Like I argue that whales are the Harry Styles of the natural world. Like everybody loves them. People cry with joy when they see them in person. I mean, they've even released an album, songs of the humpback, released back in 1970.

[SONGS OF THE HUMPBACK WHALES CLIP]

Marina Henke: Harry Styles is gonna listen to this and she's gonna say, I don't know if I agree with this comparison.

Nate Hegyi: Okay. Yeah. I mean, like, I could have said the Beatles or you know I’m not saying that Harry Styles is a whale….

Marina: Stop while you’re ahead, stop while you’re ahead.

[MUX GIMME - BAJA BANKS]

Nate Hegyi: It's not just whales, right? Like it's a lot of marine mammals are super popular. I mean, just look at Hollywood movies, you know, killer whales. They have Free Willy.

Marina Henke: Yeah they do.

Free Willy Clip: Come on. Willy. You know the signals.

Nate Hegyi: Sea lions have Andre.

Andre Clip: He's got a seal for a pet.

Nate Hegyi: Humpback whales. They have an entire Star Trek movie.

Star Trek Clip: What's going to happen when you release the whales?

Nate Hegyi: But I want to talk about a marine mammal that doesn't have a Hollywood blockbuster about it. One that the whale watching boats they are not looking for. One that despite living on coastlines from Alaska to Maine to England to Russia, does not get the same level of adoration as other whales. I am talking about the porpoise.

Marina Henke: The porpoise?

Porpoise montage: Porpoise. Porpoise. Porpoise.

Nate Hegyi: Marina, do you know what a porpoise is?

Marina Henke: Well, it's like a dolphin. Um. And that's what I have. It's a tiny dolphin.

Nate Hegyi: No, no, they are not dolphins. This is. I'm going to hammer this point home in this episode. Porpoises are not dolphins. Like if dolphins are the Noah Kahans of the water world. I would say that porpoises are the Sam Fenders. They are overlooked, underappreciated, but they are actually really, really cool. And you should check them out.

Marina Henke: I don't know who Sam Fender is, so this also maybe adds to the problem.

Nate Hegyi: Exactly.

[MUX INFECTED - LADALOREAN]

Nate Hegyi: So today on the show we are doing another edition of our segment Holy Scat. This one is devoted to one of the speediest, most silent, and yes, sexiest marine mammals around. The porpoise. Stay tuned.

Nate Hegyi: From NPR. This is outside in a show where curiosity and the natural world collide. I am Nate Heggie here with producer Marina Henke. So you have not been whale watching before? Have you ever been to SeaWorld?

Marina Henke: I haven't been to SeaWorld. I've been to Monterey Bay aquarium.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah, I think SeaWorld is more like the Disney World of aquariums. You know, it's where a lot of Americans have had their first real life experience with marine mammals. And yeah, like these parks, they have been very controversial and they're kind of ethically dubious. But more than 20 million people still visit SeaWorld locations. They’ve got killer whales, sea lions, penguins… but no porpoises.

Any idea why?

Marina Henke: Um, I guess do they have dolphins?

Nate Hegyi: They do.

Marina Henke: So I guess, I mean, honestly, I feel like the marketing department was probably like, well, we got dolphins, so we're good.

Nate Hegyi: No… they can't have the porpoises because porpoises are notoriously hard to keep in captivity. Like they get super stressed out to the point where they actually get stomach ulcers. They often don’t survive.

Marina Henke: Oh.

Nate Hegyi: So if you want to see one, you got to go to the ocean. And Marina, that is exactly what I did a few weeks ago when I met up with these women, Barb Lake and Michelle Dutro.

Nate Hegyi: So where did you where did you see the porpoise?

Barb Lake: So they're kind of doing a big circle of OC rec right now. So we recently they came our way and then they went to the point and they've been kind of like over in the distance on that side.

Marina Henke: I have so many questions. Were you on a boat?

Nate Hegyi: No, they wouldn't let me on a boat. There was a liability problem. So we were hanging out on the shore in Juneau, Alaska. But Barb and Michelle, they they are wildlife technicians with Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, and they are running a population study on harbor porpoises this year. So harbor porpoises. That's one of the seven species of porpoise and the most common one, Marina, if you go to, you know, the Portland, Maine Pier and you look out and you happen to see a porpoise that is going to be a harbor porpoise.

Marina Henke: And can I see a harbor porpoise in Portland, Maine?

Nate Hegyi: Yes, with a pair of binoculars. And I have to say, it is actually really hard to spot a porpoise.

Barb Lake: So right now with the sun, you can kind of look for like a like sparkle. And that's like their body hitting the light.

Nate Hegyi: So you compare this to dolphins. Like if you've ever seen videos of dolphins swimming next to a boat, you know, they're swooping in and out of the water. You know, those are dolphins.

Michelle Dutro: Dolphins are famously interactive. They're famously social. They travel in larger groups. So not only are they easier to see, but people can form these kind of personal connections with them because they tend to approach boats and they tend to kind of put on more of a show. Porpoises classically are really shy, really elusive.

Nate Hegyi: Like if dolphins are the dogs of the sea, I would argue that porpoises are more like, I don't know, deer.

Marina Henke: You got to approach them gently and they might still not even want to hang out with you.

[MUX BLAST FROM THE PAST - DUKE HERRINGTON]

Nate Hegyi: All right. So so let's talk about some very important differences between dolphins and porpoises. One of them has to do with taxonomy, where they fall on the family tree, porpoises and dolphins. They are both cetaceans in the same order as all the other whales of the world. But they diverge at the family level, which is actually a pretty big difference. I mean, like humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, we are all in the same family, but dolphins and porpoises are not.

Marina Henke: Wait, so we're more related to a gorilla than a dolphin is to a porpoise?

Nate Hegyi: Exactly. When it comes to the taxonomic tree, though, at first glance I can understand why people like you, Marina, might think they are more related. I mean, you got to kind of squint to tell the difference. So for one, porpoises, they don't have a beak like a dolphin does. Uh, they're also how do I say this nicely? Um. Portlier.

Marina Henke: Um, stubbier.

Nate Hegyi: And unlike a dolphin, porpoises have really small triangle shaped dorsal fins, which can also make them hard to spot. Like, for instance, when I was out there with Michelle and Barb, I, I thought I saw a porpoise.

Nate Hegyi: Oh, I just saw one. Yeah, I just saw the little glimmer right over there.

Nate Hegyi: But Michelle and Barb weren't so sure.

Barb Lake: The other thing that's kind of frustrating with porpoise, when their dorsal fin is out of the water, they're so small, they kind of look like sea ducks. So a lot of times what will catch my eye is ducks. And that's like basically the size of a porpoise. And then the ducks will dive just like the porpoise do. So sometimes that's really frustrating.

Nate Hegyi: I think I may have just seen a duck actually.

Michelle Dutro: I bet it was totally a porpoise.

Nate Hegyi: Was it okay? Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. That's right. It was a porpoise. It was a.

Marina Henke: Porpoise. I fear they're telling you. Telling you what you want to want to hear.

Nate Hegyi: I know,

So the next thing I want to talk about is a very special species of porpoise, because they are the Olympic sprinters of the natural world. But before I get to this Marina, I need to clear up what I think is some fake news internet BS. If you Google what is the fastest marine mammal in the world? What do you think it's going to tell you?

Marina Henke: Um, the fastest marine mammal like an otter. A really fast otter.

Nate Hegyi: I wish it would tell that I wouldn't clear that up. Even if it was fake news, I would still keep it and be like otters 60 miles an hour underwater.

Marina Henke: Yeah, they're ripping it.

Nate Hegyi: No, it is, of course, a flippin’ dolphin. The common dolphin.

Marina Henke: Oh, yeah. Okay.

Nate Hegyi: Go in speeds at 37mph. But this is based off of observations from ships where the dolphins were riding the waves those ships make. So there's a lot of complicated physics here, but essentially, riding in a ship's waves gives dolphins a free push, making them go a lot faster than if they were just swimming by themselves. Does that make sense?

Marina Henke: Yeah. So they're cheating.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like if you tracked a runner's speed by clocking them on one of those moving walkways at an airport, it is not fair. So in reality, a free swimming common dolphin, no boat waves to ride goes only about 29mph.

Marina Henke: Suddenly not sounding so fast.

Nate Hegyi: I mean, it would it would still finish a 100 meter dash in a little under eight seconds, about two seconds faster than Usain Bolt.

Marina Henke: Okay, okay.

Nate Hegyi: But if there really were a marine mammal Olympics, gold would most likely go to the dalls porpoise.

[MUX ONE MINUTE COUNTDOWN - VV CAMPOS]

Nate Hegyi: The dalls porpoise. It lives in the North Pacific. It's got the same kind of color markings as a killer whale. It's been clocked free swimming at 34mph. That's way faster than Usain Bolt. Way faster than a dolphin.

Nate Hegyi: Another thing just like Olympic athletes, porpoises have insane metabolisms. That's because they are small and live in cold waters, and water pulls heat from the body 20 times faster than air does. So they need to constantly be building blubber just to keep from freezing, like a porpoise will consume anywhere between 10 and 30% of their body weight in fish and squid every single day.

Marina Henke: Oof! God, they need to team up with Michael Phelps and the Michael Phelps Olympics diet.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah, exactly. All right. To take this whole Olympic athlete metaphor even further. You know how in the Olympic Village, they'll have, like, tens of thousands of free condoms for athletes?

Marina Henke: Yes. And they all run out.

Nate Hegyi: Well, porpoises, they also have a really high sex drive.

[MUX BABY ITS YOU - REVEL DAY]

Nate Hegyi: A female porpoise will often spend her entire adult life either pregnant or lactating. And the males? Well, let's just say when I asked biologists Barb Lake and Michelle Dutrow.

Nate Hegyi: Okay, so so I want you to give me like five. What do you think are like the five coolest facts about a porpoise?

Barb Lake: Like what grade level?

Nate Hegyi: Oh, high school, high school, early college.

Barb Lake: So I ask because, um, especially for harbor porpoise, their penis size to body ratio is astronomical and a little terrifying. Um, it's like, I think the majority of their body is like their penis.

Nate Hegyi: So they've got big D energy.

Barb Lake: Yeah. Huge D energy. Yes.

Marina Henke: They're well endowed, as you would euphemistically say.

Nate Hegyi: This, this, this big D energy, or I guess I should say big P energy is very specific to one species of porpoise, the harbor porpoise.

Marina Henke: I mean, you almost have to think that that is like in the conversation of not wanting drag in water like this must impede them further their love for speed. So I don't know if they're workshopping that one.

Nate Hegyi: Well, I'm going to say this sex between harbor porpoises. It is more like aerial acrobatics.

Barb Lake: And so the males will chase the females and they'll actually jump out of the water and breed like in that leap out of the water.

Nate Hegyi: How.

Barb Lake: You're I mean, I don't know why. The question is why. Right. You're a marine mammal. You're living in the water. Why would you make that so hard on yourself? But I must, I guess that's why their penises are so long. To make it easier to make that successful.

Nate Hegyi: All this activity, coupled with an insanely fast metabolism, means that when porpoises aren't canoodling, they are constantly hunting for food. And the way they do this is much the same as other whales and dolphins by using echolocation. Marina, can you explain what echolocation is?

Marina Henke: Yeah. You use your own voice to judge space by how sound reverberates off of spaces.

Nate Hegyi: I couldn't say it any better myself.

Barb Lake: if it has two blowholes, it does not have echolocation. If it has one blowhole, it has echolocation because it's taken the second nostril and it's turned that internal. And that's what it uses to produce the sounds. And that's the echolocation.

Nate Hegyi: Unlike other whales and dolphins, though, porpoises use ultra high frequency echolocation. Their clicks are often at around 130kHz. Um. All right, I'm gonna have you listen to this.

Marina Henke: Okay.

Nate Hegyi: Did you hear it?

Marina Henke: No. Play it again.

Nate Hegyi: Okay. Did you hear that?

Marina Henke: No. I'm gonna turn my volume, like, super up.

Nate Hegyi: Don't. I'm not playing anything. That's because 130kHz. It is six times higher than the highest sound our human ears can hear. It is twice as high as a dog whistle. I could have played it for you, Marina. You wouldn't have heard. Jack.

Marina Henke: What does it say about me that I'm like, no. Play it again. I'll hear it this time. I'll use my really strong ears.

Nate Hegyi: Um, porpoises have this really high frequency echolocation for a couple of reasons. The first is that high frequency wavelengths can pick up on smaller prey and cut through the noise of murky water. And second, this allows them to be really stealthy when they are hunting, because porpoises have some pretty big predators of their own out there. And when I was out on that beach with Barb and Michelle, we were watching some porpoises when all of a sudden.

Nate Hegyi: Oh, show!

Nate Hegyi: That's exciting.

Barb Lake: And we were kind of like, yay, porpoise! Whatever.

Nate Hegyi: That's.I know, I'm sorry, but I do love orcas. I just yeah. Wow. Do you mind if I grab the, uh, the binoculars?

Nate Hegyi: There was a whole pod of orcas crossing the bay. I also noticed that once the orcas showed up, those porpoises we were watching, they completely disappeared. Because orcas are one of their top predators. Which, even though we were there to see the porpoises, led to this really funny admission by Barb. [switch to Barb]

Barb Lake: I mean, if we were standing here and just watching orca like decimate a porpoise, I would. I mean, I would just be totally stoked. I love my porpoise. I love them, but that, I mean, circle of life. That would be that would be cool.

Nate Hegyi: I have to agree with you.

Marina Henke: That's so brutal. Can you imagine? I mean, I guess that's her job, right? But like, it is the circle of life and you are like, I spend my life studying this one thing and I would gladly watch it get torn to shreds.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah. You're like, you're a biologist. You want to see biology at play.

[MUX WHERE IT ALL HAPPENED - DIAN SHUAI]

Nate Hegyi: Orcas aren't the only danger to a porpoise. Dolphins also kill porpoises, and they do it just for fun. Marina. In fact, some scientists in California have dubbed this porpoise porpoises after watching three porpoise murders at the hands. Or I guess I should say flippers of bottlenose dolphins. They ruled out the usual motivations. They weren't killing to eat the porpoise. They weren't killing it because of competition. Dolphins and porpoises, they eat different kinds of seafood instead. Their best guess was that it was the height of dolphin breeding season, and some testosterone-addled dolphin bros were killing porpoises just for fun and to practice their fighting skills.

Marina Henke: They were like, we heard this public radio reporter was trying to sell you guys more. And we need to we need to nip it in the bud. You guys gotta go.

Nate Hegyi: Um, but can you guess the number one killer of porpoises? Marina?

Marina Henke: I feel like I, unfortunately can. Is it humans?

Nate Hegyi: It is humans. Yes.

[MUX FADE AND BREAK]

Nate Hegyi: From an NHPR. This is outside in a show where curiosity and the natural world collide. I am your host, Nate Hegyi, here with producer Marina Hank.

Marina Henke: Hello. Hello. Learning about porpoises.

Nate Hegyi: Yes, we are talking all about porpoises today. I always want to say porpoises for some reason.

Marina Henke: Porpoise, I.

Nate Hegyi: Do you know what the name porpoise means?

Marina Henke: Um. Poor. Poor. Is that Latin?

Nate Hegyi: Mhm.

Marina Henke: It is. Okay, I took Latin, um I and I've forgotten everything I know, apparently. So do tell me.

Nate Hegyi: It is derived from a Latin word: Porcopiscis.

Marina Henke: Pork poskus.

Nate Hegyi: Is always a combination of porcus and piscus. Porcus means hog or pig and piscus meaning fish. So it is a pig fish.

Marina Henke: That's a tough kind of nickname to have nothing against pigs, nothing against fish. You put them together. I don't want I don't want that.

Nate Hegyi: Now. When Mexican fishermen, though, first spotted a very particular porpoise living in a corner of the Gulf of California. They gave it a very different name. They called it a vaquita.

Rux Guidi: It's a Spanish name. So vaquita is a diminutive for vacca, which is cow. So it's a little cow.

Nate Hegyi: So this is a Rux Guidi. She is a journalist who has spent years writing about the vaquita. They are a type of porpoise and they are also the world's smallest species of whale. They're only about five feet long, and they weigh in at about 120 pounds.

Rux Guidi: They have these really tender features, like they have these like raccoon eyes and like almost like full lips that make them look, I don't know, almost cartoonish, like they stand out. And for some reason, I guess the first fisher that saw vaquita thought, oh, that looks like a little cow. So the name stuck.

Marina Henke: I love when you can hear an expert talking about something and you're like, oh, they love that thing.

Nate Hegyi: Oh, she definitely loves Vaquitas. But here's the thing. Rux has never Actually seen one. That's because nowadays there are fewer than ten vaquitas left in the world. [MUX Mountain Shadows - Wanderer's Trove]

Nate Hegyi: It has been a stunning population collapse. Like 30 years ago. Scientists estimated that there were about 600 vaquitas left in the wild. And the main reason they are dying off is because of fishing.

Rux Guidi: There are two main species that are sought after right where the vaquita lives. One is the what's called the Gulf shrimp, or the blue shrimp, which is among the most prized, expensive, better tasting shrimp that you can find in the market. And then there's the other species that is even way, way more valuable than the blue shrimp. And that's the totoaba. That's the name in Spanish. It's a type of croaker fish.

Nate: And the bladder of this totoaba? It is very very sought after in some Chinese markets.

Rux Guidi: And, you know, one thing that really stuck with me in my reporting is a gram of totoaba bladder is worth way more than a gram of gold. I mean, this is any fisher that can get his hands on totoaba is, you know, it's gonna make it.

Nate Hegyi: In order to catch these blue shrimp and these totoaba, fishermen will often use a very particular kind of net called a gill net.

Rux Guidi: That's the net the vaquitas are ending up in where once they're caught, there's just no saving them.

[MUX sWELL FADE]

Nate Hegyi: There have been attempts to curtail this kind of fishing, like the Mexican government made it illegal to use gill nets in vaquita habitat nearly a decade ago, and conservation groups launched a boycott of blue shrimp in the U.S.. But despite all these bans, you know, the fishing has still continued. They've even tried to physically stop the use of gill nets by putting these huge cement blocks down in the Gulf of California that have hooks on them to catch the nets.

Rux Guidi: But then you would end up with the issue of ghost nets. And ghost nets are when you leave nets, nets, you know, the bottom of the sea, the animals are still going to get stuck in those, and they're still going to strangle them and kill them.

Marina Henke: Man. I mean, it's like the cascading effect of we tried to solve a problem by doing this thing that actually created a new problem, which is continuing the original problem that we started solving of the problem for.

Nate Hegyi: Yes, exactly. And the latest attempt to save the vaquita comes from the sea Shepherd. You ever heard of the sea Shepherd before?

Marina Henke: ISN’T IT A BOAT THAT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH ANIMAL ACTIVISM?

Nate Hegyi: It's actually a marine conservation organization that focuses on direct action, and they own a fleet of boats that they call Neptune's Navy. And they got famous by like physically interfering with whaling boats in international waters by sailing in front of them, blasting them with strobe lights, even using smoke grenades. They even had a show on Animal Planet a few years ago called Whale Wars.

Whale Wars Clip: Warning warning warning. Quit poaching whales and go back to Japan.

Nate Hegyi: Now, a few of the boats from the sea Shepherd are trying to save the vaquita. They’re in the Gulf of California looking for fishing vessels that are using illegal gill nets.

Rux Guidi: Sea Shepherd is constantly on watch. And then they report immediately to the Mexican Navy. And they've been able to catch some fishers that were doing illegal fishing in this area.

Nate Hegyi: And even though there are less than 10 left on the entire planet… all of this has been kind of helping to stabilize the population. I actually found myself thinking, how do you bounce back from that – but Rux thinks it’s possible.

Rux Guidi: They've always had this small gene pool. Perhaps they will survive at this population size. Ten years ago, scientists were saying they're going to go extinct very soon. It hasn't happened. Perhaps, you know, if we were to really stop illegal fishing in their little corner of the Gulf of California, they could someday thrive again.

[MUX AFTERNOON SPRING WEDNESDAY - DA SEIN]

Nate Hegyi: I think there is an irony to the vaquita facing imminent extinction. I started this episode saying, you know, really porpoises kind of get left out of the marine mammal love. But as the number of vaquitas has dwindled, attention for this particular porpoise has skyrocketed. It has been at the center of ABC News Investigations, a National Geographic documentary produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and of course, tons and tons of TikToks.

TIK TOK CLIP MONTAGE

Nate Hegyi: And I’ve been here telling you how awesome porpoises are, so that’s great right?

But I do think that if this little ocean cow wasn’t cute – if we were talking about an endangered eel, or mollusc – it would be pretty hard to get this kind of attention.

Nate Hegyi:

Rux Guidi: For me, I have to admit, and I hate to say it because scientists are always calling me out on this, but I do you know, I have this thing for charismatic species. You know, like I look at the vaquita and it's like,, you know, it reminds me of my pet or something. Now, you know, it's a wild species. It'll never be a pet. It'll never be a free willy. Um, and shouldn't, but I think that however it is that we can communicate to our children, to other people. the importance, like how we're all very implicated in, these global issues and in, in, in conservation. [MUX END]

Marina Henke: I'm hearing her say that and I'm realizing I genuinely feel like I shouldn't say I like charismatic megafauna, you know, I'm like, I'm like, I shouldn't, it's not that's a dirty thing to, to say that those are the ones we care about. We should care about the ones that aren't cute and aren't pretty and aren't elusive and shy. And in that way, they make me kind of go, oh, my hands are on my heart. Um, and like that actually in this story is, is the superpower. It gets to be the superpower of maybe saving this animal.

Nate Hegyi: And I think the shame is the fact that like a tern or a turtle or a special desert flower probably isn't going to get that same kind of attention. And I can understand the frustration in that. But at the same time, like we love Whales and Whales rebounded because of that love.

Marina Henke: Yeah. I mean, you want it to be a yes and right. And I think so often the reality is that what's happened is it's yes, we save the whales and no, we don't save the, you know, endangered sea snails..

Nate Hegyi: So maybe the moral of the story is like, yes, dolphins and yes, porpoises and also, yes, crested terns and sea snails and little desert flowers. [MUX DR. FRANKENSTEIN - OTE]

All right. That's the end of our show. This episode was written and produced by me, your host, Nate Hegyi. It was edited by Taylor Quimby. The rest of the team includes Justine Paradis, Marina Henke, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt. Nhpr's director of On demand audio is Rebecca Lavoie. Taylor Quimby is our executive producer.

Rux Guidi did an entire podcast about the vaquita. You can check it out in our show notes. And Michele Dutro and Barb Lake, they got some incredible drone footage Of those orcas, not the porpoises that we saw. You can check that out on our patreon.

Music in this episode came from Revel Day, OTE, Wanderer’s Trove, Dian Shuai, Lennon Hutton, Duke Herrington, Baja Banks, LeDelorean, and Da Sein.

Outside in is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.

Nate Hegyi: [TAPE] Do you call a group of porpoises a pod or is it okay? So they're all.

Barb Lake: Yeah, mostly for all cetaceans. I think it's a pod.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah. I wish we had like, cool.

Michelle Dutro: You know, group names between different whale species. We should start. We should just.

Barb Lake: Come up with one and just go with it.

Nate Hegyi: Yeah. What would what would it be?

Barb Lake: It has to be something like, like, like a secret of porpoise.

Michelle Dutro: Yeah. A whisper, a whisper.

Barb Lake: Ooh.

Nate Hegyi: I love that. A whisper of porpoises.