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Whale vocalization

Whales use a variety of sounds for communication and sensation.[1] The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more dependent on sound than land mammals due to the limited effectiveness of other senses in water. Sight is less effective for marine mammals because of the way particulates in the ocean scatter light. Smell is also limited, as molecules diffuse more slowly in water than in air, which makes smelling less effective. However, the speed of sound is roughly four times greater in water than in the atmosphere at sea level. As sea mammals are so dependent on hearing to communicate and feed, environmentalists and cetologists are concerned that they are being harmed by the increased ambient noise in the world's oceans caused by ships, sonar and marine seismic surveys.[2]

"Whalesong" redirects here. For the student newspaper, see University of Alaska Southeast § Publications.

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".[3] It has been suggested that humpback songs communicate male fitness to female whales.[4]

History[edit]

Whaling Captain Wm. H. Kelly was the first person known to recognize whale singing for what it was, while on the brig Eliza in the Sea of Japan in 1881.[49][50]


After William E. Schevill became an Associate in Physical Oceanography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts in 1943, his first work was under US Naval auspices investigating echolocation of U-boats.[51] As he later wrote in 1962: "During World War II many people on both sides listened to underwater sounds for military reasons. Not only the wanted sounds (those made by enemy ships), but a bewildering variety of others were heard. Most of these were ascribed to animals living in the sea, usually as 'fish noises' ... Some were ascribed to whales, in part correctly, but without identification of the kind of whale; most military listeners were not biologists, and in any case the traditional naval sonar room is woefully deficient in windows."[52] Schevill produced the first recordings of underwater whale sounds and extrapolated their purpose from these recordings. His groundbreaking work produced over fifty papers on whale phonation and thus provided the framework for “literally hundreds of scientific studies produced by other workers from the 1960s until the present day."[51] However, it is worthy of note that his wife Barbara Lawrence, Curator of Mammals at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), often co-wrote these documents with him.[53]


William E. Schevill's study of whales also at one point harked back to the U.S. Naval operations that first set him down this path. As noted upon his death by the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, "Bill helped defuse a tense moment between the USA and Soviet Union during the Cold War. The US military suspected that low frequency blips were being used by the Soviets to locate American submarines, whereas Bill showed these were produced by fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) hunting prey."[53]

(SWR 118) was originally released in 1970 by CRM Records from recordings made by Roger Payne, Frank Watlington, and others. The LP was later re-released by Capitol Records, published in a flexible format in the National Geographic Society magazine, Volume 155, Number 1, in January 1979, re-released by Living Music/Windham Hill/BMG Records on CD in 1992, and remastered on CD by BGO-Beat Goes On in 2001.

Songs of the Humpback Whale

Deep Voices: The Second Whale Record (Capitol/EMI Records 0777 7 11598 1 0) was released on LP in 1977 from additional recordings made by , and re-released on CD in 1995 by Living Music/Windham Hill/BMG Records. It includes recordings of humpbacks, blues, and rights.

Roger Payne

Northern Whales (MGE 19) was released by from recordings made by Pierre Ouellet, John Ford, and others affiliated with Interspecies Music and Communication Research. It includes recordings of belugas, narwhals, orca, and bearded seals.

Music Gallery Editions

Sounds of the Earth: Humpback Whales (Oreade Music) was released on CD in 1999.

Rapture of the Deep: Humpback Whale Singing (Compass Recordings) was released on CD in 2001.

was released in 2009.

Songlines: Songs of the East Australian Humpback whales.

52-hertz whale

Bioacoustics

Biomusic

Underwater acoustics

Vocal learning