Whales look very much like fish but they are not fish. Our temporal home is in this world. In scriptural symbolism, the sea is often a type of the mass of humanity. But although we live in the world we are totally different from those around us. We have a different walk - or wiggle.
Fish propel themselves through the water by a side to side motion of their tails.
Whales move through the ocean by an up and down motion of their tails. The most important difference of all is how we obtain our life. We whales live among a throng of beings that seem happy to get their sustenance from the world in which they live. We whales get our life from above. Though we live in the world we get our very breath from above.