{"id":79024,"date":"2021-09-21T16:16:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T20:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=79024"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:35:48","slug":"research-whales-best-doc-emmys","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/research-whales-best-doc-emmys\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Professor’s Research on Whales Helps Land Best Doc Award at Emmys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Carleton Professor's Research on Whales Helps Land Best Doc Award at Emmys\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

It was a late-night text that let biologist and Carleton Scientist-in-Residence Shane Gero<\/a> know that his work had garnered Hollywood accolades. Secrets of the Whales<\/em><\/a> took home this year\u2019s Emmy<\/a> in mid-September for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, and much of the show\u2019s subject matter comes from Gero\u2019s research on the intricacies of whale culture and social structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shane
Scientist-in-Residence Shane Gero<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\n
\n

\u201cBiologists aren\u2019t typically involved in the Emmys,\u201d says Gero, \u201cbut I\u2019m really proud that my research helped to launch this incredible storytelling that shared the lives of these amazing animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Gero has been researching whales<\/a> for almost two decades and has a particular interest in exploring the culture and social structures inherent in whale families. About four years ago, a photographer with National Geographic<\/em> wanted to capture Gero\u2019s novel work with families of sperm whales off the coast of Dominica, in the eastern Caribbean Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gero was keen to shine a wider spotlight on these aquatic creatures and managed to convince the writer and photographer to focus on the bigger challenge of safeguarding species that have cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cWe wanted to shift the perception about whales, to see them as complex creatures with differences owing not just to genetics but also to their cultures,\u201d says Gero.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe story needed to be about an understanding of these animals\u2019 cultures to drive the conservation of these unique species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Shane<\/figure>\n\n\n

Framing the scientific narrative<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Not only was the National Geographic Society interested in telling a broader story, so was Disney+, and from there Gero\u2019s involvement in the project snowballed. Secrets of the Whales<\/em> took three years to produce and involved filming Orcas, humpbacks, belugas, narwhals and sperm whales in dozens of locations around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cEarly on in the process, it was about helping the production company paint a picture of what the narrative should be,\u201d says Gero.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe public knows what culture means from a human perspective but explaining whale culture is more of a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Secrets<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gero provided scientific consultation on the series and also interpreted the whales\u2019 behaviour, which is captured in breathtaking footage and scripts that would eventually be voiced by actor Sigourney Weaver, who narrates the series (her narration was also nominated for an Emmy). Gero credits the series producers with being open to telling the real story of the whale families and what it means in terms of how we protect them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe story is so personal to the work that I do, and it was important that the production didn\u2019t just focus on the showy parts of whale life,\u201d he says. \u201cThe series really grew from the biologists\u2019 side and that\u2019s why it\u2019s so special.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gero has been involved in other TV productions in the past, including the BBC\u2019s Blue Planet II<\/em>, CBC\u2019s The Nature of Things<\/em> and Chasing Ocean Giants<\/em> on Discovery. Getting important messages out under the umbrella of TV isn\u2019t something his graduate education prepared him for, but it\u2019s a challenge he appreciates.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt has been good training as a scientist to figure out how to craft the storytelling coming out of my research to be ingested by all sorts of different audiences,\u201d says Gero.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had the mindset that if science isn\u2019t communicated to a wider audience, then what is it for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Gero won\u2019t take delivery of an Emmy statue himself\u2014those go to the series producers\u2014he is happy to share the honour with the real stars of the show: the whales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been such a great honour to have spent so much time in the company of the whale families,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ve been surprisingly generous in allowing us to understand and learn from their lives and have been amazing \u2018spokespeople\u2019 for ocean conservation. I definitely feel the burden of their trust in me to speak on their behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Whale\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a late-night text that let biologist and Carleton Scientist-in-Residence Shane Gero know that his work had garnered Hollywood accolades. Secrets of the Whales took home this year\u2019s Emmy in mid-September for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, and much of the show\u2019s subject matter comes from Gero\u2019s research on the intricacies of whale culture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":79032,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-79024","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98243,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79024\/revisions\/98243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=79024"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=79024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}