page_title: Last Chance to See (TV series)
section_title: 6. "Blue whale"
hierarchical_section_title: Last Chance to See (TV series) / Episodes / 6. "Blue whale"
caption_attribution_description: The blow holes of the Blue Whale
context_page_description: Last Chance to See is a wildlife documentary first broadcast on BBC Two in the United Kingdom during September and October 2009. The series is a follow-up of the radio series, also called Last Chance to See, in which Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine set out to find endangered animals. In this updated television version, produced for the BBC, Stephen Fry and Carwardine revisit the animals originally featured to see how they're getting on almost 20 years later.
  In one episode, a male kakapo, called Sirocco, mounts and attempts to mate with Carwardine's head. Sirocco found fame after the video of his antics became an internet hit, and was later anointed as New Zealand's "spokesbird for conservation".
  A Last Chance to See special called "Return of the Rhino" was broadcast on BBC Two on 31 October 2010. The programme followed four of the last remaining northern white rhinos as they were transferred from Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic to Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a protected reserve in Kenya, in a last-ditch attempt to save the subspecies from extinction.
context_section_description: The subject of the final programme was due to be the Yangtze river dolphin; however, the species was declared extinct in 2007. Instead, he takes Fry to the Gulf of California on the eastern side of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico to search for the endangered blue whale. The area is an important breeding ground for many cetaceans, and one they are almost guaranteed to find is the grey whale. In San Ignacio Lagoon, a group approaches so close to their boat that they reach into the water and touch them. They ride mules through the peninsula's desert interior to view rock art painted by the Cochimí, a Pre-Columbian civilisation. Returning to the coast at La Paz, they visit a sea lion colony offshore to collect faeces. Analysis shows they have changed their diet from sardines to bottom-dwelling fish, evidence of overfishing. The presenters then join marine biologists on a research boat, one of whom is Miss Baja California Sur. She and Carwardine dive with a whale shark to take measurements, photos and collect a DNA sample. They spend several days at sea on board the Horizon searching for blue whales. They encounter breaching humpback whales, and learn about one predator benefiting from overfishing of sharks, the voracious Humboldt squid. However, there are no signs of blues, so Carwardine calls in a favour from a local pilot. With the help of the spotter plane, they locate the blue whales.
caption: A blue whale surfaces to take a breath
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