As a child, Shaffer was inspired by NASA’s Voyager I and II, where the sound of a humpback whale was echoed into the cosmos. A decade later, Shaffer sculpted Gentle Giant, featuring a mother humpback whale swimming alongside her calf, as one of his earliest significant works. This piece reminds us of the narratives of those beneath the waves while universally speaking to the relationship between parent and child. Recent scientific studies on these marine mammals have unveiled a language far more intricate than previously understood. As researchers delve deeper into this auditory world, we learn that the whales engage in what can be perceived as a communal storytelling, a reflection of their experiences and emotions traveling through the vastness of the sea.