In 2019 Terry (aka “the amphibiographer”) got a camera that can shoot 4K video. But in 2019 our 2008 computer was not fast enough to play the clips. This meant that we couldn’t actually review video or audio of the whales that Terry recorded. Further down the line we couldn’t coordinate it with my hydrophone recordings. So in 2021 we finally bought a 2019 computer that could actually play the recordings we’d made. While listening to audio files of singing whales that I had recorded in October 2019 I heard grunts, growls, belches and squeaks that didn’t sound like a song. Are these these whales practising whale solfège? are they enjoying a good meal? or are they talking? What a find! I hope you enjoy the underwater conversation as much as we did.
Category: interspecies communication
April 2020 – Humpback Body Language
We humans love the animals who live with us. And they love us too. Over milennia we have learned how to communicate with each other by reading each others body language. Because we are all binary models ie: 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 brain hemispheres, 2 ears etc. a lot of our musculo-skeletal responses to stimuli are similar. We “raise our hackles” and snarl when angry, we whimper and cower when afraid. Humans have learned to read tails and our animal friends can read human eye and hand movements. We recognize each others’ voices and faces and scents. Wild animals who live close to humans have also learned to read us. Racoons, birds who nest and feed near us, squirrels, mice and rats – even house spiders I am trying to avoid while vacuuming are aware of my movements and what they are signaling.
Fish can be extremely curious. Divers love to play with friendly octopuses, seals, manta rays and dolphins. Divers keep returning for more encounters, sometimes with gifts of food or toys.
But what about whales? They are mammals like us with symetrical brains and limbs BUT -and that’s a BIG but – their scale is Super Sized. The medium through which whales perceive the universe is water so their senses are tuned to that environment and not as acute in air. Humans need special aparatus and training to spend any time in a whale’s world other than at the surface of the ocean. Our eyes and ears are not evolved for the liquid environment so we need to surround them with air in order to focus light and sound. So how can we become familiar with whale body language if we only see the 10% of their body that breaks the surface and can’t correlate their vocalizations with their actions?
Biologist and researcher Denise Hertzing has spent over 3 decades studying wild spotted and bottlenose dolphins in one bay in the Bahamas. The water is warm and clear which makes it possible for Denise and her team to actually interact with the dolphins in their world. Because she can be in the same environment as the dolphins she has learned their body language. She understands the meaning of many of their calls and can relate some of their behaviour with their vocalizations. Her team has even adapted dolphin body language to the human body. The Team can approximate some of the gestures and expressions dolphins use. Instead of rubbing fins with friends as dolphins do the humans rub elbows. Denise knows the pod as individuals and has become very friendly with a few of the females. They know she is in charge of her team and will show their disaproval directly to Denise if one of her team doesn’t follow dolphin protocol. The dolphins choose whether they want to interact with the humans, coming and going as they please. Denise is one of the few biologists who openly studies interspecies communication and the possibility of humans and cetaceans learning each others’ languages.
But what about whales? What does it mean when a whale slaps their tail on the water? In beaver language a tail slap signals a startled reaction or pissed off response and generally means “take off, eh?” In humpback whales Terry and I have observed that a tail slap can mean anything from “Hey, give me your attention” if soft and gentle to a warning or reprimand if hard and explosive. We’ve seen tail slaps when humpback whales are playing with sea lions and also when the whales seem to be feeding so maybe they use tail lobs to stun and disorient fish.
I am curious to know whether many body language gestures have similar meanings and/or intentions throughout the cetacean family tree – a question I will ask the research folks and the whale watching guides who have the most opportunities to observe wild cetaceans in the water.
October 2018 – Humpbacks “Lounge” Feeding
After 2 weeks of administration, video editing, catching up on blogs and sending out a Newsletter we finally get back on the water. It is calm and sunny after a particularly wet September. We anchor in one of our favourite places and check for any reports of humpbacks in the area. “Someone saw a humpback breaching off Rebecca Spit” Terry reports “I’ll take that as a sign to go north” I reply.
We make an early start on a perfect day for video – sunny, clear and calm. No wind yet so we are motoring towards Mitlenach Island when we spot them. “Look, 2 humpbacks feeding in the shadows” Terry, the whale spotter supreme, is pointing to the shore of Twin Islands. As we observe the whales moving SW we catch sight of another blow, then 2 more blows moving North – 5 humpback whales! We kill the engine to float around and better observe what everyone is doing. A whale watching boat without passengers motors in. The skipper sees the whales and slows down. He follows them at a respectful distance. When 2 whales circle back we decide to stay where we are.
I call the captain of the Eagle Eye Adventures inflatable on VHF radio and introduce Terry and I and the Welcoming Whales project. Reuben, the young captain, is heading to Lund today. We share stories and information we’ve observed about the cetaceans in our area. I have often wondered whether whale watching (and other) boats would interfere with transient Biggs orcas while they are hunting. But Reuben tells us “Transients sometimes make a kill – usually a seal – right beside my boat. Sometimes a seal will even try to hide underneath my boat” It seems from Ruben’s report and from others I’ve heard since that when Biggs orcas are in full pursuit of their prey, boats don’t bother them.
I ask Reuben if he will take us closer to where the 2 whales are shallow feeding at the surface. “Sure” he says. We hop into his inflatable with our cameras. The inflatable skims smoothly and quietly to about 200m from the whales. Ruben has a range finder to indicate how far away his boat is from any marine mammal. It is standard whale watching gear. He has never seen this kind of lunge feeding. “This is incredible! They’re just lying on their sides with their mouths open!” I exclaim “They’re hoovering herring!” “They’re not LUNGE feeding they’re LOUNGE feeding Terry quips. Then he is intent on capturing video of the phenomenon. We float quietly for about 15 minutes until Ruben says he has to go.
“That was amazing!” Terry and I are both thrilled. It is 6pm and we should be getting back to the anchorage but we don’t want to leave. Suddenly the surface of the sea begins roiling and rippling. Silver flashes underwater and leaps into the air – herring! They’re jumping everywhere! But listen! The sound of heavy rain showers in our ears. The skin of the water shimmers. Tiny shrimp pop up like popcorn all around the ship. Gulls are skimming the water and grabbing shrimp from the surface. And here come the whales! A couple of sea lions are feeding with the humpbacks. They look sinuously intertwined. It’s a free-for-all on herring and krill.
In the midst of all this 2 women in kayaks paddle out to the Parrot ship. “Are they minke whales?” asks one “What are they doing?” “What are they eating?” “Are people allowed to fish herring?” Terry and I answer the rapid fired questions as fast as we can all the while filming the feeding action.
Martha and Jean paddle closer to the whales and we hold our breaths “Don’t get too close” we call to them. “We won’t” they answer. But the whales are heading their
way. They begin back paddling furiously – away from the whales and back to Blue Parrot. “Whew!” When their excitement abates we ask if there is a good place to anchor near here as it is past sunset. Martha invites us to tie up to her mooring buoy about 100m towards shore from the Parrot ship. Her generous offer means that we don’t have to leave the scene at all!
Two excited women paddle back to shore as we resume filming. The whales are still feeding in the purplepeach painted sea-sky as we anchor for the night.
2018 Sea of Whales
2018 SEA of WHALES – INTRO
This year was finally the year we’d been working towards. After years of setbacks, injuries etc. we finally got to meet and hang out with Grey whales in Baja, Mexico and Humpback whales in the Salish Sea. They were very different experiences but the following are a couple of stories with observations about human interactions with our large aquatic relations.
Terry (the Amphibiographer) and I were off of Powell River in our 27ft sailboat. There was no wind so we were motoring back towards the harbour at about 4 knots. Suddenly we saw what looked to be the butt end of a large deadhead floating in the water about 100m ahead. Hitting one of these can spell disaster for a boat and I was on the tiller.
“Do you think it moved?” I asked Terry who was at the
bow peering through binoculars to get a better look.
“It’s an elephant seal!” he exclaimed, “See the nose?”
“An elephant seal?” As the head turned I saw that unmistakable trunk-like shnozz come into view. I slowed down instantly and angled sharply to port (left). But our friend didn’t seem to be too fussed. After surveying the view he slowly submerged and disappeared.
We were past him by this time so we looked back just in time to see a humpback whale breach about 300m behind us. I executed a 180 degree turn hoping we would get to witness some playful exuberant humpback acrobatics. Whale breached a few more times but stopped when we were within 150 metres. I slipped the motor into neutral so Whale would know exactly where our boat was and Terry swung below to retrieve the video camera. Then we waited. And waited.
About 10 minutes later “PCHOOOOO!” A blow about 50m from our boat! An arc of dark whaleback surfaced and began to circle around us. I killed the motor since obviously Whale knew we were there. Was Whale curious? I decided to try to communicate with Whale. The closest I can get to mimicking whale language is to play my didjeridoo. My partner can synthesize a mean didjeridoo with his resonant baritone voice. So the two of us began a duet, a whale serenade.
Whale didn’t talk back to us – or maybe Whale did but we couldn’t hear it above the water. But Whale did move closer to the boat – still circling slowly. We drifted together like this for a while – no pyrotechnics, just meditative mellow breathing, didjeridooing and hanging out together. It was magical!
Then Whale took a breath and submerged into a sleek shallow dive from 25m behind our boat, under the length of it to emerge about 7m off the bow! Since Whale was one and a half times the length of our boat this took a few seconds. We were so surprised we jumped, clattered and banged our recording gear as we rushed to video our friend, who then leisurely swam off leaving us breathless.
I have since learned that whales avoid banging and thumping coming from the hull of a boat so that might have chased our friend away. I have also learned, from time spent among the grey whales in Baja, Mexico, that if whales want to interact with you, they will come to you. There is never any need to chase them. A boat that is floating in the water with enthusiastic people onboard can be a source of entertainment for our large friends. It can be a toy to play with, an ecstatic audience for athletic performances, willing volunteers for their teasing tricks like surprise blow hole showers, and even useful for a good back scratch.
The whales who came to visit us in our little boats had complete control of the interactions. From as young as 6 weeks their physical skill and coordination in the water was amazing. They teased us, made us squeal with delight and only stayed with us as long as they wanted. See ‘Baja Grey Whales’ Blog
When a whale rolls on her/his side to make eye contact with you – conscious being to conscious being – you know you have met a relation.
2018-August – Humpback Whales Visit Us
My Mom was fascinated by the stories Terry and I told her about whales. She loved to hear about their curiousity and intellegence; how the grey whales enjoyed teasing the tourists in Baja and how the humpbacks here seemed be attracted to the sounds of the didjeridoo. Mom, Chayashi, died in May of this year from dementia. But even in advanced stages of dementia there were lucid moments during which hearing about whales would put a smile on her face. With all of the Mom care this year and the ongoing tasks that need to be done after a loved one dies we didn’t get out on the water until August.
We made the most of our abbreviated time out in SV Blue Parrot. Our complicated methodology was to sail or motor to the general area where we’d seen humpbacks feeding or traveling and hang around waiting for whales. Whenever we shut off the engine I would drop my hydrophone (underwater microphone) over the side of Blue Parrot to listen to the sounds underwater through headphones. Sound travels 5 times faster in water than in air so I could hear the bugle-like inbreath of distant humpbacks through my hydrophone before the sound traveled to me above the water. Very cool.
This video shows what happened when 2 curious Humpbacks whales decided to visit us twice in the same afternoon. We were drifting with our engine off at least 200 metres away from them while they were feeding. It was their clear choice to visit us.
The Amphibiographer’s Secrets to Enjoying Awesome Whale Encounters: It’s vital to respect these wondrous beings, not to chase, annoy, or disturb them while they are feeding or sleeping at the surface. Slow down in known whale feeding areas and be aware so you don’t run over one. If you see a blow slow down, there may be more around. If they approach you, stop moving, shut off your engine and enjoy the encounter until they leave you.
Whales have an enormous hearing capacity which is very useful over their huge migration range to stay in contact with each other. In their northern or southern feeding grounds they travel through water that is full of plankton and very murky. They depend on sound to communicate and to find their way underwater.
Humans hear sound frequencies from 20Herz to 20,000Herz. But long distance whale communications can be lower than 10Herz and travel thousands of kilometers. When orca, dolphins or porpoises are echolocating they produce a barrage of very loud staccato blips or clicks at frequencies higher than 100,000herz . Some research suggests that baleen whales like humpbacks may echolocate using low frequency sonar but they do not have the very high frequency capability of porpoises or dolphins or even the toothed whales. There doesn’t seem to be definitive research that nails down the range of frequencies humpback whales can hear. Happily we humans can thrill to their intricate songs because Humpbacks sing predominantly in the hearing range of humans.
Here is a fascinating and playful introduction to hearing ranges in familiar animals.
https://www.myihp.co.uk/animal-hearing-ranges/
I would love to know whether the humpbacks that Terry and I were serenading in this video sang back to us underwater. I will need a spectrograph that maps audio frequencies to interface with my hydrophone in order to discover whether they are vocalizing outside our human audible range. Stay tuned to find out!
2018-August – Whales Listen to Didgeridoo
Playing music for whales isn’t a new concept. It probably goes back as far as the first humans and whales. Musicians and interspecies communicators like Jim Nollman were playing music for whales and recording it in the 1970s. The songs of the humpback whales are legend all over the world. Research has shown that humpbacks are especially attracted to sounds in the 400hz – 700hz range. This is medium – high range for a human soprano voice. “That’s doable” we surmised. So we decided to try playing a little whale music ourselves. Jude brought her didgeridoo onboard(actually it’s a PVC pipe with a beeswax mouthpiece), and Terry planned to experiment with chanting/singing .
Flashing white pectoral fins and splashing tails in the distance attracted our attention so we swung off our course towards the two humpbacks making a fuss. They dove while we were a couple of hundred metres away then popped up near us and a couple of other boats. It was an opportunity too good to miss. We started making some sounds to see what the whales would do. It was all ‘play the moment’, experimental, on the fly, while videoing and controlling the sailboat at the same time, so please forgive any weird sounds and unprofessional performance. Terry makes no pretence to being a musician; he was just trying to keep the whales interested enough to stay with us a while. And they did stay for almost 5 minutes. It seems our music put them to sleep! Or at least they appeared to be resting and listening. What do you think?
(Sorry for the wobbly video, using telephoto on a rolling boat in even little waves makes for unsteady footage).
Near Harwood Island, Tla’amin Territory, Powell River, British Columbia, Canada. August, 2018
2018 Feb – More Lovin’ Baby Whales
Today is a special day. The sky is blue, the water calm, and we are out with 7 guests in a panga captained by Julian my favourite lanchero. Bonus: Shari has come along this trip to guide so Terry and I can concentrate on video and sound recording.
A mama and baby are approaching the panga “Over here” “Come over here” cry the excited guests. “Come in, yes Come right in” croons Terry in his best baby cooing baritone. Baby has been resting on Mom’s snout. He seems a little hesitant at first but then he slowly swims closer to the boat and sticks his snout into Terry’s palm. “Hello! Hello!” croons Terry, juggling the underwater video camera in one hand and an affectionate baby whale in the other. Shari is ecstatic. After 30 years her voice still carries the wild excitement and adoration she feels around her Grey whale friends. Shari and Terry overload the small POV camera microphone with their joyous exclamations. But who can fault them for that. “Ouzer, ouzer, ouzer!” What a Lovin’ Baby Whale!
2018 February – Cuddly Baja Baby Whales
In spite of logistical problems at Whale Camp all is forgotten out on the water when a whale swims over to your panga to shower your group with whale breath, make eye contact or just loll around the boat. When a Mom and baby show up the humans get a little giddy with excitement. We oooo and aahhh and coo and sing/talk to this adorable 4metre (12ft) infant. And if Mom allows and Baby wants to be petted, nuzzling a rubbery velvet snout into your hand a human feels blissed and blessed by all that is good in the universe.
Today was one of those blessed days. Curious whales, playful adolescents, benign Moms and cuddly babies visited our panga. They amused themselves (and us) by pushing the panga around with their snouts, finessing agile manouvers underneath it, showering fountains of water and allowing us to touch and pet them.
This baby loved to be petted and kept returning for more, enchanting the smitten humans with her cuddly nature and winning gaze.