"Mate, do you know there's a whale just following you?" The question comes from the pilot of a drone hovering off Bondi BeachOne of Australia's most iconic beaches, located in eastern Sydney. in Australia. What he can see is a kayak dwarfed by the whale which is swimming up beside it.

As the pair approach the shallows, the whale turns aside as if to warn the human of the danger of becoming stranded. 

"Holy dooly!" exclaims the pilot.

The incident has sparked a debate about whales' intelligence. Some people believe they behave very similarly to us.

One theory is that our intelligence developed as a way of coping with big, complicated social groups. The theory goes that this is also true of whales, dolphins and porpoises. They make up a group of mammals who live in the sea called cetaceans.   

Brian Skerry is a journalist who spent three years studying whales. He was amazed by what he found.

He says that whales who live in one place behave differently to those who live in another. This is one way they are like humans.

They also form clansClose-knit groups of families. who have different languages and like different types of food. They even hold singing competitions.

Some whale species give their calves names and say hello to each other when they meet. "They show love, empathy and grief," says Skerry. "Family is immensely important to them."

Skerry was also astonished to see beluga whales playing a game with each other. One would take a small rock in its mouth, carry it for a while, and then drop it. Then another member of the family would come along and pick it up.

He believes humans can learn from this: "The moments we spend with our loved ones are often the most treasured and meaningful... Just as belugas do, in between the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives, it's essential for us to make time for other things - things that bring joy."

Yes: Whales remind us of the most important things in life, such as having a good relationship with your family - and also our responsibility to free the ocean from pollution and plastic waste.

No: Every species has evolved differently so that it can thrive in its own particular environment. Life in our modern technological society could not be more different from a whale's life in the sea.

Or... Dolphins and porpoises would be better teachers. They also have cetacean intelligence, but because they are much smaller than whales people can swim and develop a relationship with them.