1. Mandate and Basis of Transcription

A manual audio transcription was commissioned for the 5 video files listed by name below. These must be viewed in their original form under section 5. The files have been numbered for unique identification. The cryptographic hash values (SHA-256) serve to verify the integrity.

1. IMG_0288.mov SHA-256: 9e3e270d2c814ab94c7c8b1e9b151720f47905544c5d4f8e52ec0751f40a09c5

2. IMG_0289.mov SHA-256: 3abbf723ccd2ab025654a42f82877e15db6cbefa52f96e2cf58ce510287b4e44

3. IMG_0290.mov SHA-256: 9b0ce3caf267cfe5dcb5bcdd72ec3548210a50bc2f356e6b71af1fc9f0ecd253

4. IMG_0291.mov SHA-256: 56f8527ecc7dde801c1b14e3f7fb6125f5d9cc8ca33315534aa932a4b9fcba9d

5. IMG_0292.mov SHA-256: cbc70cb1daca55991426be5218e355a444e7bdaa6a064705ecf2aa741f36d06a

The creator of the five video files is Jeffrey Foster, who was involved in the whale rescue project and recorded the videos on the morning of 2 May 2026 between 07:20 and 08:55.

2. Methodology

Each of the provided video files was opened using the audio editing software Audacity (version 3.7.5), which automatically extracted the audio tracks. Following this, progressive sections of the audio files were listened to on a continuous loop, and the times and content of spoken utterances were identified and noted down. Difficult-to-understand and unintelligible passages were experimentally processed using various additional plugins and varying settings to improve speech clarity. Audio output was provided via headphones (model AKG K271 MKII) connected via line-out.

3. Results

3.1 Preliminary Notes on the Transcription

The clarity of most of the spoken utterances is severely compromised by numerous noises (machinery noise, sea and wind noise, whale sounds, etc.). Some speech contributions also overlap with one another. Furthermore, most speakers are located at a greater distance from the recording microphone. Timestamps indicate the start of an utterance. Due to the overlap of background noise and speech, the start of utterances can only be determined roughly, so the existing timestamps are only intended for general guidance.

To aid distinction, speakers who can be differentiated with greater confidence in a conversational situation are assigned different numbers. The numbering starts afresh at the beginning of each video file. The designation Speaker 1 in Video 1 and Speaker 1 in Video 2 therefore does not establish any link between the two speakers. Speaker identification, even within a single recording, is generally subject to uncertainty, meaning that a speaker designated as Speaker 1 who speaks at the beginning of a recording and Speaker 5 who speaks in a later scene could in fact be the same speaker.

Due to the described impairments, the present transcript represents an attempt to capture the spoken utterances and cannot claim to be definitively complete or correct.

Indicators used in the transcript and their meanings:

3.2 Transcripts

3.2.1 Transcript of the file IMG_0288.mov

3.2.2 Transcript of the file IMG_0289.mov

3.2.3 Transcript of the file IMG_0290.mov

3.2.4 Transcript of the file IMG_0291.mov

3.2.5 Transcript of the file IMG_0292.mov

4. Note / Remark

The work was carried out by a company specializing in the forensic analysis of media data with many years of experience and documented in an expert opinion admissible in court.

A total of EUR 833.00 was spent on the audio transcription of the five video files.

Regarding the chronological order of Videos 4 and 5: The chronological order shown by the file data appears contradictory when looking at the recordings. Video 4 shows the recording time as 02/05/2026, 08:49:22, Video 5 as 02/05/2026, 08:51:28. In Video 5, the whale's locomotor system still appears restricted and its swimming movement unstable, whereas in Video 4 it moves in a more dynamic and stable manner. The recordings visually convey the impression of a possibly reversed order. This contradiction cannot be explained at present. However, the order was deliberately not changed independently; the times output by the respective video files remain authoritative for the allocation.

5. Video files