I used to research cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) – beings which have fascinated me, and stood out as different since childhood. I read every book I could find about them, had a poster of a breaching orca over my desk. Later in life, multiple times I came eye to eye with them – very special and close encounters, off the shores of Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Tonga.
After many years of life on, or by the ocean I distanced myself from academia for more than one reason – too narrow a lens through which to truly see such incredible beings; too much politics and mega-industries involved in funding and directing research; extreme competitiveness among researchers over scarce resources instead of teamwork…
Other pathways that followed brought me to a more land-based life – cetacea remained in my heart and part of my being – but we didn’t meet in the same ways as before. Until … about 4 months ago I began to feel an incredibly strong pull towards the ocean and a re-found deep connectedness particularly with whales. I travelled to NW-Scotland and seem to be involved with a process of deep return ever since. Whales and other marine mammals are in my field so strongly.
It’s not physical encounters even though I saw seals and 3 dolphins since coming here. What struck me the most was their lack of abundance, their absence in these waters. Deep grief followed. They used to be in every bay, and now there are so few. But something incredible happened.
After seeing a rock in a small cove that starkly resembled the head of a gray whale it occurred to me that these leviathans too used to live all across the North Atlantic until their extinction in this ocean in the 18th century. Sadness once more. I sat with it, in silence. Then suddenly I had the sense that they are still here, and researched online: 4 sightings in the last 15 years, 2 off the Atlantic coast of the USA and 2 in the Mediterranean Sea. OMG.
It immediately became clear to me that these gray whales had not come from the Pacific due to melting ice as suggested by scientific and media narratives, but instead uncharted lands must exist in the Atlantic around which they still live. Gray whales use shallow waters along shore lines esp. when they have young. It’s for protection. New-borns are often pushed into water no more than a few centimeters deep – out of reach of orcas and sharks. I have seen it with my own eyes along the coast of Vancouver Island.
Old charts which today are difficult to find and access used to look very differently from the maps we have now. Many landmasses disappeared in mysterious ways – some sank into the ocean, others simply left the maps.
This realisation filled my whole being with so much joy, I can’t describe it in words. There was a knowing without doubt, and the sense that a deeper re-connection with these beings is coming for me personally, and for all beings on this planet.
Written by Carina Ramm
A poem for you
Written in Ullapool, Scotland, October 20, 2025.
Love song to the (Atlantic) gray whale
Reconnecting with the past
Opens an ocean ever so vast.
Beings who are part of me,
To whose songs I play my symphony
Re-emerge in timelessness
Along the seams of our merging realms.
While tied to the land
You were tied to the sea
In each others hearts
But too distant to meet.
I first refound you in the rock
Of a sacred cove,
And it came as a shock –
The memory that you once swam in these waters
Which are now so empty
Of meaning and laughter.
Then whisper into my ear
Emerging from an inner sphere
That you my friend are still here.
My heart is jumping
In elation.
Where have you been,
Well of creation?
Uncharted lands,
Long forgotten
Must be your home –
A sanctuary begotten
Eons ago.
A sacred temple
Flooded with light
Ready to rise
In the changing tide.
Today I love you
Ever more.
I am greeting you
On my brightest shore.
May our suns wander together,
Never lost,
Through the stormy weather.
18 thoughts on “Love song to the gray whale”
So beautiful Carina, thank you. I love your knowing that these incredible beings are still here.
Thank you!
dear Carina, thank you for sharing some of your amazing adventure, keep inspiring! sending you a hug to keep you warm!
Thank you Sonya!
So good to know that the Atlantic grey whales are still here! What a joy. Looking forward to experiencing their presence more deeply.
Me too. Thank you Christian!
they are hearing your song!
🧡
Hello Carina, What a glorious life you live! Thank you for all you’re doing and writing!
Yes what a special being’s in the oceans.
Thanks Linda! Yes, things are going well. Lot’s of intensity, but in the happiest of ways.
I enjoy so much what you are writing , Carina.
It gives so much spaceness and hope for the whole planet. The wales are so much in all our hearts.
I recognise what you are writing about places that are now not not seen by a lot of people but really exits on the planet. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for the lovely comment An! 🐋
A beautiful poem in joy and celebration of your experience, Carina… Thank you for sharing ‘Love song to the (Atlantic) gray whale’ … I look forward to reading more about your deeper re-connection to the cetacea beings.💖xx
Thank you Leanda!
What a beautiful sharing Carina! Your story with whales and how you came back to this connection once more is truly touching! The poem moves me deeply as well… Stirring up my own childhood memories of intimate encounters with nature and animals… Thank you! Much love xxx
Thank you so much Bella for the sweet feedback! Much love to you too.
Dear Carina, I was amazed to read your story with the whales when I had just come across a map of earth showing part of the earth not found in our maps. Wow! what a confirmation for me! I enjoy your poems very much too, thank you!
Wow, this is incredible indeed! Thank you so much Nieves.