while leaving the east australian current, marlin and dory get lost in the blooms of plankton and krill and are caught by a blue whale. inside the whale's immense mouth, marlin tries to escape while dory talks with it in whale-speak. so, the whale carries them to sydney harbour and expels them through his blowhole. they are met by nigel, who recognizes marlin from the stories he has heard and rescues him and dory from a flock of hungry seagulls by scooping them into his beak and taking them to the dentist's man's office. by this time, darla has arrived and the dentist is prepared to give nemo to her. nemo tries to play dead in hopes of saving himself, and, at the same time, nigel arrives. marlin sees nemo and mistakes this act for the actual death of his son. after a struggle, gill helps nemo escape into a drain through a sink.