I have only been on one whale watching tour in my life- it was off cape cod- it was cold and I expected it to suck...

But the whales performed in ways that were amazing, jumping in and out of the water, making big splashes, generally doing all we hoped for, they performed their natural acts a while and the the crew of the ship told us we were getting a special display- we were getting a better show than most get...

Then it got creepy- The whales got closer and closer to the boat- they had to shut down the engines... slowly it became clear that the whales were organizing a 'people watching tour'... a whale came up to the boat and laid along its side- it rolled over to look up at the people leaning over the rail... its big eye looking up at us... some waved and some just looked back... the whale was touching the boat, just laying there watching us... it rolled over to spray us with its blowhole at least once....

A wild unintelligent animal would not have done that- I felt like I was in the presence of an intelligence- an alien intelligence- but an intelligence anyway- we were being studied... after our race had killed so many of them, this whale had the curiousity to come up to us and look at us... it was totally trusting- maybe it knew we meant no harm... maybe it was just willing to take the risk in its curiosity, that eye was studying us- it was gentle and never bumped the boat, it just drifted alongside us watching us...

There were other whale watching tours out at that time and the whales actually seemed to be catering to them- but our tour was delayed quite a while because whales were studying us too closely for our boat to start its engines...

I am not one to attribute human emotions to animals, but one thing was clear- WE were an exhibit for the whales, and they were watching us- it was mutual admiration. I believe we have alien intelligence on our planet- Whales are one of them