The fascinating thing I find about “whalescience” is that there have originated some epiphanies regarding whales and by scientific men, believe it or not!

There comes a time, for example, in a cellular physiologist’s life where he/she faces the fact that he/she can tell you that a cell does this or that, what it does, but not WHY it does it, or how it knows how to do it.

It is the same with whales. Scientists have begun, in earnest, to study whales. And I agree that there is a big tendency of anthropomorphizing the whales’ activity as that is the way man does things. He compares actions and activities to himself and his feelings and attitudes with WHY a creature (other than a human) does things “similar” to man. Read the rest of this entry »

With Japanese Whalers now enroute to Antarctica, the world begins to gear up and watch a drama unfold.

Silently floating between the powers that decide their fate, whales are unarmed and defenseless.

Only in recent years has man just begun to understand these magnificent creatures and, as such, have begun to realize the natural treasure about to be destroyed.

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It turns out that the wavelength of neutrino oscillations is about the same as the wavelength of whale songs.

That fortunate cosmic coincidence has led to a collaboration between particle physicists and biophysicists. To quote the CERN press release as quoted by Charles Day

“European astroparticle physicists are developing together KM3NeT, a large undersea neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean, dedicated to tracking neutrinos from astronomical sources. The deployment of deep sea neutrino detection lines for current experiments such as Antarès in France, Nemo in Italy and Nestor in Greece has opened up the possibility of also installing monitoring devices for the permanent study of the deep sea environment: studies of ocean currents, of bioluminescence, of fauna and of seismic activity.”

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I just found a site which listens and records whale songs going on at this very minute! And you can listen to them right now, too!

The cool thing is that you can listen to whales right from your computer desktop, thanks to a new website.

The LIDO (Listening to the Deep Ocean Environment) site offers a live feed to 10 hydrophones sprinkled around European waters, and one in Canada. Several more are scheduled to come soon in Canada and in Asia.

The network’s primary aim is to record and archive long-term subsea noise so that researchers can study the effects of human activity on whales and dolphins. Read the rest of this entry »

Today I ran across a wonderful BBC video clip which actually is a simply wonderful little story in itself:

“World free-diving champion Tanya Streeter spends two weeks diving with humpback whales in the Turks and Caicos Islands as they migrate southward. In this short animal video, she examines the tail flutes that are as destinctive as a human finger print and takes a closer look at the amazing methods a mother humpback whale uses to teach her young calf how to breathe underwater. Brilliant footage from BBC sea life show ‘Diving with Whales’.”

I would like to correct it though.

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Most creatures are hunted for their food value to our own survival.

Yet researchers, more and more, realize that whales are social animals. Whales have a social structure, they care for their young and train them in many ways similar to our own. Whales also communicate and are able to traverse long distances without losing their way.

One could say salmon do this as well. But salmon are not mammals, nor do they exhibit any of the above. The only other animals that exhibit this are dolphins, and they are hunted too!

At some point in time, scientifically, man will have the breakthrough of learning and understanding the whale song and dolphin language. We know it exists and it is documented. I have had the gift of hearing them. Why? I don’t know, but I do hear them.

What do we do when we actually can communicate with them?

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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 »

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 »