Do you want to learn
how to speak to a whale?
Can you do what
this whale is about to do?
Watch it use its
massive muscles to throw itself
out of the water.
Humpback whales often
twist and leap,
while also slapping their fins
and tails against the water.
and for a long time,
nobody knew its purpose.
There are a few reasons why
breaching made no sense to us.
Whales weigh a lot,
from 1,000 kg (2,205 lb)
to 140,000 kg (308,647 lb)
and they often breach
while they migrate,
which also happens to be
when they're fasting.
Imagine throwing your
heavy body out of the water
during a fast,
as you travel long distances,
while your energy levels are low.
Australian marine biologists
spent 200 hours observing
76 groups of humpback whales
migrating to the Antarctic.
Their findings were published
in the journal
of Marine Mammal Science.
Here's a hint,
it has to do with language.
So, want to learn
some whale words?
I know I do.
Marine biologists observed
that whales did more jumping
out of the water
when the group split at least
4 km (2.5 mi) apart
from each other.
And they did more
tail and fin slapping
as groups were splitting up
or coming together.
This suggests that
breaching plays a major role
in both close range
and long distance
communication.
By slapping their fins and tails
and slamming their bodies
against the water,
the resulting noises
act like a drumbeat.
Whales don't just
communicate through breaching,
they also vocalize.
When a whale has
something to say,
they let out high frequency cries
and clicks,
and they blow
underwater bubbles.
Biologists have found that
whales have unique calls
for general groups,
family members
and even individuals.
They speak to each other
about navigation,
food, safety
and for social reasons.
So, presumably
a whale has enough
vocabulary to say,
"Fin, I told you to go pee
before we left.
Can you hold it for
another five minutes?
Sheesh."
Researchers have even detected
regional accents.
For example,
Caribbean whales reportedly
emit different sounds
than Pacific whales.
Caribbean whales make
unique click patterns
characterized as
one plus one plus three,
while Pacific whales use
various different patterns.
The reason whales use breaching
over shrieks, clicks and bubbles
is that breaching is louder.
Sometimes they communicate
over hundreds of
kilometers of ocean,
trying to be heard over humans,
with our motors,
explosions
and other man-made noise.
Humans strike again.
In fact,
National Geographic reports
that blue whales
who can make the loudest
sounds known to nature,
have had their range
of hearing shrink from
thanks to all the extraneous
man-made noise.
Scientist are working
with computer programmers
to try and decode the clicks
that whales make.
Until they do,
we won't be able to
communicate directly with them
in whale language,
nor will we fully understand
what they're communicating
to each other.
Until we know for sure,
we can assume that what
whales are mostly saying
to each other is,
“Huh?”
“What was that?”
and
“Humans are too loud!”
“Curses!”
In the meantime,
you can practice whistling,
clicking,
slapping the water
and blowing bubbles.
By the time science catches up,
you might know
some whale words.
Throwing their huge bodies
out of the water,
that's how whales talk.