Hearing underwater sounds is normally reserved for the man sitting behind the sonar panel on every ocean going vessel.And they are not actually “hearing” the sounds but “seeing” them.
However, Humpback whales are quite attuned to hearing underwater. In fact, it is how they communicate.
Scientist have recently studied the Humpback whales acoustic communication and found that different pods have different languages.
At least when it comes to different oceanic regions.
Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, Columbia University and Australia published a study that shows whales in the Indian Ocean are using different vocalizations to communicate, according to Newswise.
The study contradicts the common scientific thought that Humback whales use the same “songs” to speak to each other, at least when they are in the same ocean. Normally, Humpback whale pods use the same “themes” when singing to each other when they live in the same region.
The song differences reveal that the pods probably hardly ever interact in the Indian Ocean.
The research team made recordings of the whales in two separate locations near Madagascar and three locations near Western Australia in 2006. Recording 19 individual whales, the team recorded more than 20 hours of songs which were analyzed using visual and audio techniques.
Researchers admit that more analysis is needed.
Generally, the singers of family groups are the male whales as they travel from breeding grounds to feeding grounds as the mammals migrate. Composed of ascending and descending wails, moans and shrieks, the whales repeat their songs in cycles which can last as long as 30 minutes.
The entire study, as well as other important biological research, can be found at the The Society for Marine Mammalogy website.
Coming from Hamburg, Germany, the Sportbay Team already knows it is difficult for humans from different regions to effectively communicate and now we have to learn separate whale languages.
The work day never ends here at Sportbay.