Once upon a time in a magnificent ocean filled with brightly coloured corals, a great diversity of fish and other lovely ocean creatures there lived a wondrous whale. The whale was very large and also very loving.
The whale was very happy living in the deep blue ocean with all the many friends he had. Near the surface where the water of the ocean was very clear, the whale could see all of the other ocean creatures very well, but deep down where the water was dark and murky he couldn’t always be sure.
Fortunately, the whale had a handy tool he could use called echolocation. The whale would simply send out calls into the ocean and then he would listen carefully to the echoes of those calls that came back to him. This is how the whale was able to find food for himself and to know which other ocean creatures, corals and other objects were around him.
Many of the ocean creatures didn’t quite understand how the whale’s special gift worked and so the whale tried to explain it to them.
“When the sound I make reaches another fish or plant for instance, some of this sound is sent back to me. So by listening to these echoes from my surroundings I am able to sense where other ocean creatures and plant life are,” the whale explained.
One of the smaller fish found all of this very confusing and wanted to go up to the large whale and ask him about it. At first he was a bit worried about asking more questions since the whale had explained it all many times before. But then he decided to be brave and do it anyway.
“Aren’t you afraid to send out sounds?” the fish asked the whale. “Don’t you worry about what will come back to you?”
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