Pi wakes up to a loud blast. He looks over the edge of the boat and sees a large eye. It's a whale.
Pi then discusses whales and the hunting of whales, dolphins, albatrosses, shearwaters, and the masked booby.
None of these birds, he says, ever announced land, though this chapter functions more or less as a fiesta of literary references: Moby-Dick, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," and the story of Noah.