Rojas Victoria Gadsden as Anne Abrams Mark Graham as Arthur Spencer Judy Pratt as Sally Ruth Cochran Mary Tanner as Rachel Fairbanks Film Crew Listing: D'Arcy Marsh, Director and Cinematographer Barbara Hanania, Assistant Cinematographer Roger Haydock, Gaffer Eric Taylor, Sound Episodes Each episode consists of two fifteen-minute segments: the fictional story of the voyage of the Mimi, then an expedition that reveals the science behind the storyline explored in the episode. The first segment of each episode follows a serialized tale of scientists taking a census of humpback whales off the coast of Massachusetts. Captain Clement Tyler Granville, the owner of the sailboat Mimi is hired by scientist Anne Abrams and her colleague Ramon Rojas to make the census. Anne's Graduate Research Assistant is Sally Ruth Cochran. In addition, the two scientists each invite a high school student (Arthur Spencer and Rachel Fairbanks) to take part in the study. Finally, Captain Granville's identically named grandson comes visiting for the summer in order to give his mother a break during her pregnancy. Each second segment is a standalone exploration of one of the scientific principles touched on in the serialized tale. In these segments, an actor (Ben Affleck, Mark Graham, or Mary Tanner) portraying a young person comes out of character and interviews a real, in many cases well-known, scientist about his or her work. These scientists include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, geologist Kim Kastens, zoologist Katharine Payne, Greg Watson of the New Alchemy Institute, and physicist Ted Taylor. In addition, Judy Pratt, a deaf student at Gallaudet University, and Peter Marston, a scientist at M.I.T., come out of character in interviews with Mary Tanner and Ben Affleck at their respective workplaces. The real Mimi Beginnings The Mimi was a French-built sailboat that is in length, originally built in 1934 to function as a deep-hulled cargo barge. She was built in northwest France in the region of Brittany, on the coast of the Mer d'Iroise (the Iroise Sea). Mimi is a type of vessel known as a "Gabare d'Iroise," where "Gabare" translates as "cargo barge" and "Iroise" refers to the region in which she was constructed. Mimi was initially used as a cargo ship in the rough waters of the North Sea, and was thus built to withstand serious maritime conditions. Because Mimi was a "gabare," she was also built with a shallow draft. This combination of strength and ability to operate