The Whale Song
Whale Communication:
Humpback whales are well known for their songs
The Whale song is the sound made by whales to communicate.
Within the scientific world, the word “song” is used to describe the pattern of regular and predictable sounds made by some species of whales, notably the Humpback Whale. This is included with or in comparison with music, and male humpback whales have been described as “inveterate composers” of songs that are “‘strikingly similar’ to human musical traditions”.
But to really keep it simple, what scientists hear is a whale talking.
The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans (whales) to another. Marine mammals, such as whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more dependent on sound for communication and sensation than are land mammals, because other senses are of limited effectiveness in water. Sight is less effective for marine mammals because of the way water absorbs light. Smell also is limited, as molecules diffuse more slowly in water than in air, which makes smelling less effective. In addition, the speed of sound is roughly four times greater in water than in the atmosphere at sea level. Because sea mammals are so dependent on hearing to communicate and feed, environmentalists and cetologists (people who study whales) are concerned that whales are being harmed by the increased ambient noise in the world’s oceans caused by ships, sonar and marine seismic surveys.
But what are whales talking about?
The above description is as far as scientific research can really take us. The point is, science can observe, but to understand a language, they must have a point of reference. For example, archeologists originally saw heiroglyphics, however without a point of reference, such as the Rosetta Stone, they were unable to decipher a lost language.
In the case of the whales, or dolphins for that matter, their language is not ‘lost’ but just not deciphered.
What I have personally discovered is that the whale song is like a ballad.
One could even relate it as a ‘long-winded odyssey’, which is continually added to or made new. Whale songs tell of their travels, how they travel (it is a training process to be remembered by their young)and a bit of their lineage, although remembering ancestral lines is really of no major importance. What is important is passing on survival-oriented information and what whales must deal with in the present.
In my first encounter with humpback whales, I was presented with a song. In all honesty, the song was profound in that it presented to me an awareness of life and of the past, very much tied to their survival of the present. It then questioned their doubtful future.
I believe whales have consciousness because they are aware of what they have become, choices they made along the way and their now unpredictable future of their species. It is for that reason that I wrote my story and give this whale song to you:
We are the wanderers.
In the dawning of our time
We made our choice.
Our story is old
Our story is long yet simple.
From the surface of solids we came
To give ourselves a chance
To live our own destiny,
Taking our nourishment
From the blue waters
Only the smallest
and simplest of all life
For we cherish life in all things
Seen and unseen.
We are the wanderers.
Our children learn our songs
To each new life
Their own song begins
Always ending on more
Than what has been sung,
Passed from father to son
To wife and daughter
We tell our tale of a simple life
We tell a tale
Of the choice to be simple.
We are the wanderers
We know the changing tides
The wondrous color of the ocean
when it bears our life seeds.
It was the sea that saved us
When the great darkness came
When the surface of solids
Moved and separated
Ending the dreams
of those who lived on that surface.
It is the sea that made us free.
We are the wanderers.
The time draws near, though
When those that dwell
on the surface of solids
May change our destiny
Our life of simplicity
And love of life
May end for reasons
Naught understood
Or honestly justified
We are the wanderers.
The oldest of most creatures
Of ages past.
Who will choose simplicity
And walk our path into eternity
Who will hear our songs
And understand?
Who then will sing our songs?
If whales are driven to extinction, we may lose the keys to our own past and our possible future
The whale song, whale communication can be lost forever, except for what scientists have recorded. These are simple stories. When finally collaborated, their songs can help verify our past. Their understanding of life can give us insights to a possible Golden Age, where man can be, once again in communication not just with his own species but others. Their songs may even help us understand our oceans better and how we can preserve all species of life better.
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