PORTLAND, Maine.—Man has explored space in depth, but we know little about the secrets that the sea hides here on Earth. However, an old audio of the song of a whale could reveal some to us.
The recording, which according to investigators is the oldest of that type that is known, would not only help understand how whales communicate, but other things.
Old audio of a humpback whale singing
The song belongs to a humpback whalea marine giant appreciated by whale watchers for its docile nature and its spectacular leaps out of the water.
It was recorded by scientists in March 1949 in Bermuda, indicated researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Equally significant is the sound of the ocean that surrounds it, explained Peter Tyack, a marine bioacoustician and researcher emeritus at Woods Hole.
“The ocean of the late 1940s was much quieter than today, which provides a different backdrop than what scientists are used to hearing in whale songs,” he explained.
Secrets of the sea that an old audio would reveal
The recovered recordings not only allow us to follow the whale sounds, but they also tell us What was the soundscape of the ocean like? in the late 1940s, Tyack said. “Otherwise, that is very difficult to rebuild.”
A preserved recording from the 1940s It may also help scientists better understand how new human-generated sounds, such as increased noise from shipping, affect the way whales communicate, Tyack added.
Research published by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicates that whales can vary their calling behavior depending on the noises in your environment.
The recording precedes the discovery of whale song by scientist Roger Payne by almost 20 years.
How was the sound of a whale song captured?
Ashley Jester, director of research data and library services at Woods Hole, said scientists at the institution who were then on a research vessel were testing sonar systems and conducting research. acoustic experiments along with the United States Office of Naval Research when they picked up the sound.
The scientistsor they knew what they were listening tobut they still decided to record and save the sounds, Jester said.
“And they were curious. So they left this recorder running, and they even took the time to make recordings where, by the way, They didn’t make any noise from their boatsjust to hear everything they could. And they kept those recordings,” Jester said.
Woods Hole scientists discovered the singing while digitizing old audio recordings last year.
The recording was on a well-preserved disk created by a Gray Audographa type of dictation machine used in the 1940s. Jester located the disk.
On plastic disc, the old recording
Although the underwater recording equipment used to capture sound would be considered rudimentary by today’s standards, it was cutting-edge at the time, Jester said.
The fact that the sound is recorded in a plastic disc It’s significant because most recordings from the time were on tape, which had long since deteriorated, he explained.
The whales’ ability to produce sounds It is crucial to their survival and key to the way they socialize and communicate. The sounds come in the form of clicks, whistles and calls, according to NOAA scientists who study them.
Sounds that whales make for various purposes
The sounds also allow the whales find food, orient yourself, locate yourself each other and understand their environment in the vast ocean, scientists say.
Several species emit repetitive sounds that resemble songs. Humpback whales, which can weigh more than 24,947 kilograms, are the ocean’s most celebrated singers, capable of complex vocalizations that can sound ethereal or even melancholic.
The discovery of a long-lost whale song from a quieter ocean could be a starting point for better understanding the sounds these animals make today, said Hansen Johnson, a research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.
Johnson, who was not involved in the research, added: “And, you know, this It’s just beautiful to listen to. and it has really inspired a lot of people to be curious about the ocean and care about ocean life in general. “It’s pretty special.”
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