Did you know that each blue whale population shares a unique song? Its low notes are different from all others. Thanks to this, the researchers found something in the western Indian Ocean. And it is that a unique song reveals a new population of whales.
The article is from Endangered Species Research. Researchers describe a new blue whale song. It can be heard from the coast of the Arabian Sea in Oman to the Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean.
One, two, three, music
Dr. Salvatore Cerchio led the analysis of whale images from three locations in the western Indian Ocean. Cerchio first recorded the novelty song in 2017. He recognized it as a blue whale song that had never been described. Another team collected acoustic recordings off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea. They discovered it was the same.
“It was pretty remarkable,” said Cerchio. ‘A wallied that has never been reported and recognize it as a blue whale. To think there was a population that no one knew until 2017 leaves you speechless, “he added.
“Before our recording off Oman, there was no acoustic data from the Arabian Sea. The identity of this blue whale population was initially just a guess, ”said Andrew Willson of Five Oceans Environmental Services LLC. Led the provision of recording drives. “With the expansion of the marine industry in the region, there is a great threat to large whales.”
Blue whales were almost extinct worldwide in the 20th century. The Arabian Sea was the target of illegal whaling in the 1960s, an activity that nearly wiped out small populations.
A unique song reveals a population of whales and not only that: it also brings us their survival music.
