Head of a Humpback Whale

Scientists say that they haven’t really cracked what whales are saying. But they have no doubts that whales are communicating ‘something’.

The truth is, the biggest problem we as humans face today has always been language.

Even in the human species, we still have problems understanding each other. Take the example of the Japanese language. The original language, Kanji, was created in a stylized image/character having many meanings. And depending from the province one came, different characters could mean the same thing or have different concepts entirely. It is still not uncommon to still see two Japanese, or Chinese for that matter, pull out a dictionary of words and point to the definition to clarify or make a point. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever ‘talked’ to a whale?

Most of you haven’t, I am afraid to say. Some of you probably haven’t ever thought about it or actually ever needed to.

Why do I ask this question? Well, for one, it puts an idea forward to you that a whale could possibly talk. Just an idea, mind you, but an idea with a possibility.

But what if you could talk to a whale? What if in a brief moment of time, you became acutely aware of an intelligence – an intelligence that is ‘self-aware’ and one that has its own purpose for living?

Tom White is a professor of ethics at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a long-time advocate for whale and dolphin preservation:

” When humans consider whales and dolphins, he says, they must realize that “there is a who there, not a what. This isn’t an object, this is a being; this is a person, not property”. Read the rest of this entry »

Scientists for many, many years have wondered about the question about whales songs. Behaviorists feel that whale songs are learned whale behavior and nothing else. Yet in recent years, marine researchers have recognized and tracked specific whales, noting that each year, whale songs do change over time. A whale’s basic song stays the same, but there are noticeable changes in the pitch sound and melody in the whale’s song.

I have had several profound encounters with whales. Prior to having actual contact with them, I was always fascinated with their songs. It was if there was a communication being spoken, but what was it?

It’s funny, you know. We have Hollywood movies built around creating languages. Special linguists develop alien languages and these language specialists are paid huge amounts of money to create new languages which seem to communicate (these fake languages are even subtitled in English!). And yet in hearing a REAL new language on this planet, one that has been around for thousands of years, we can’t always decipher what is being said. Why is that?

How many years did it take us to decipher the Babylonian language, much less Egyptian? It was only with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone that man was then able to discover his roots. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been known for many years that researchers and scientists have heard whales talking. Or at least scientists and researchers think whales might be talking.

The problem is that they haven’t figured out what exactly whales say.

But I would like to ask you a question.

Most of you have pets. Do you talk to them? Do you instinctively know what they have to say or feel? Now, mind you, it might not be a full language (such as a dissertation on why they prefer one brand of dog food over the other), but do you actually communicate with your pets?

Having said that, probably 95% of you out there are avid pet lovers. You would never think of starving your close friends, your companions. But living with them on a day-to-day basis, you have reality of their daily lives. Sometimes they even feel human in their response to you. Read the rest of this entry »