Patrick Dykstra ’05 swims with whales. But before that, he went to NYU Law.
An award-winning videographer, wildlife chronicler, and television presenter, Dykstra has traveled to Norway, Sri Lanka, Yemen, and the Antarctic—working solo and at great personal risk—to film whales in their natural habitat. The result has been breathtaking footage that has also informed our understanding of how these difficult-to-observe sea mammals live and behave. In addition to contributing to wildlife documentary outlets that include National Geographic, Discovery, and the BBC, Dykstra also leads small, select nature expeditions around the world. His passion for conservation generally and whales in particular is in evidence in the PBS documentary, “Patrick and the Whale,” which was released earlier this year and which chronicles his close relationship and involvement with his whale subjects.
According to Dykstra, practicing law was a critical step to fulfilling his dream of wildlife exploration. In this Q&A, Dykstra shares his exceptional journey and tells how his experiences at NYU Law paved the way.
So you were admitted to NYU Law, enrolled, made Law Review, were a summer associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz and eventually went to work at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. How did you end up walking away from the highly competitive world of corporate law—for which you obviously had some aptitude—to pursue wildlife videography?
I wish it were a more interesting story—like, I was toiling away, and then I went whale watching, and when I returned to the office, I threw my laptop on the ground and left my job for a life at sea. But the reality was, back in high school, I was pretty introspective and I used to be quite a list maker, so I made this list of all the things that made me happy. Then I made another list, where I thought, “How much money would I need to make as an adult to do these things all the time?” And I came up with a number.
Then I resolved to find the highest-paying job that I could find that wasn’t totally miserable, and do it for as short a time as possible, invest along the way, get to my number, and quit. Big Law is one of the few professions where you can simply Google what the salaries are, and if you get into a good law school like NYU Law, there’s very little risk that you’re not going to get a good job.
I started investing as soon as I got my first paycheck. I worked with a friend and bought a small portfolio of rental houses in Topeka, Kansas. We probably [now] have 50 of them or so, and they’re all managed by an outside management company. I do about an hour of work a month. The management company collects the rent, pays the bills, and then there’s a monthly deposit in my checking account.
So when did the obsession with whales start?
I was interning in Washington, DC, for a summer, and they weren’t paying me very much, so I would do a lot of free stuff. One time, I was walking around the Natural History Museum, and there was this life-size replica of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. There was a plaque at the bottom that said: “Here are the biggest animals to ever inhabit the planet,” and it showed this diorama, and the blue whale was bigger than the brontosaurus and the plesiosaur, and all these long-extinct dinosaurs. Bigger than any animal to ever live on Earth. I realized you could actually go out today to the ocean and see the biggest animal to ever live. So swimming with blue whales [went] on my life goal list.
In my free time, and while I was a lawyer, I would travel around seeking blue whales. I went to the Azores, Antarctica, Baja, the Yucatan and several other places. It took eight or nine years to have success getting in the water with one. [At first, I had] a lot of bad swims and bad approaches. And this is where being a lawyer didn’t hurt, because when I started looking for where you can find blue whales, it took a lot of research. I would look at bathymetric charts and read ocean floor depths, and then look at ocean currents—basically studying where are the places in the world where we’re likely to find them. And I didn’t just have to find them, but I had to find them in clear water, where they aren’t shy, where boats are available etc.
Based on my calculations, I found this place 10 miles off the south coast of Sri Lanka that looked very promising, and, lo and behold, it turned out to maybe be one of the biggest populations of blue whales on Earth. It was sort of hidden—Sri Lanka was having one of the world’s most violent and long-running civil wars at the time. The Tamil Tigers were suicide ramming naval vessels, and the government didn’t want fast boats out there. It was scary, but cool in a way. There were no outsiders. There was no tourism. We were alone out at sea, and for years we had all these blue whales to ourselves. Years later, calls started coming in from places like the BBC and National Geographic, where they saw my videos [on the internet] and wanted to know if I could help them get whale footage.
So your legal research training paid off.
Yes, and also knowing how to parse information. A lot of finding [migratory animals] means you call somebody and they'll say, “Oh, yeah, there were at least a million fin whales off this coast here.” And then you’ll say, “Did you see them?” “Well, I didn’t see him. But my brother saw some.” “Okay. Can I talk to your brother?” “Yeah, yeah, let me get him. Okay. Well, maybe it wasn’t a million, but it was at least like 10 for sure.” So you have to interrogate.
Did you take a camera with you right from the start?
I didn’t plan on being a wildlife cameraman. I just wanted to swim with whales. Then I started bringing a camera, and I got some cool stuff. For example, I filmed the world's first footage of blue whales nursing. It’s the biggest animal to ever live on the planet, and we had never seen it nurse. We didn't know how they did it, if they did it at depth or on the surface. And so, you know, then that starts informing science.
So what were your NYU Law years like? Did you have a favorite professor?
I actually loved law school, and the reason I loved law school is because everybody was so much smarter than me. I went to public high school and a public college, and nothing against that, but at NYU Law I would have conversations and hear things that would never have come up in high school or undergrad, and I would just think “Wow, everyone here is so brilliant.”
NYU Law is also very non-competitive. You’d read these stories about students [at other law schools] hiding library books or deleting things or doing strange competitive things. There was literally zero of that at NYU Law—everybody was helpful and cool and smart. I made good friends. In fact, just last month I took my law school roommate, Justin Houghton ‘06 to swim with sperm whales in Dominica. It was fantastic.
As for professors, I thought Burt Neuborne [now Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties Emeritus] was awesome. And Stephen Gillers as well [’69, Elihu Root Professor of Law Emeritus]. Those two guys really stood out.
Did your experience here at NYU Law help you achieve the life you envisioned back in high school?
Yes, in fact. I'm not practicing law, and had no intention to do so long term, but legal training certainly has helped me. Interrogating stories, finding interesting things, dealing with complex laws and permits, obtaining government permissions and licenses—all these kinds of things which require attention to detail. You learn that as a lawyer.
Posted August 26, 2024