Pi spends calm days on the tarpaulin, wrapped in a blanket and passing time while a steady breeze and occasional spray wet the lifeboat. Richard Parker stays hidden under the tarpaulin to avoid the motion and getting wet.

Pi is jolted awake by sudden blasts of foul-smelling water. Looking over the side, Pi realizes a whale is beside the boat, its huge eye staring directly at Pi before shifting attention to Richard Parker when the tiger emerges and hisses.

The whale lingers briefly, then sinks straight down and disappears without striking the lifeboat. Over time, Pi sees more whales spouting and surfacing at a distance, and their presence lifts Pi’s spirits as Pi imagines them sympathizing and trying to help, while condemning whale hunting as a crime.

Dolphins also visit, including one group that stays an entire day and night, racing and playing under the hull. Pi attempts to catch a dolphin but cannot get one near enough to the gaff, and Pi gives up to simply watch them.

Pi sees several seabirds and repeatedly mistakes them as signs of nearby land, only to be disappointed. After failed attempts to hook a short-tailed shearwater, Pi successfully lures a masked booby that lands within reach; Pi feeds it a morsel, then kills and skins it for food, eating most edible parts and tossing the remains to Richard Parker.

Feathers drift from Richard Parker’s den for days afterward, and fish swallow those that land in the water. Pi concludes that none of the birds ever truly announced land.