HUMPBACKS - from fire to ice

HAWAII RESEARCH

The Hawaii Whale Research Foundation
The Hawaii Whale Research Foundation is a scientific organisation conducting field research on humpback whale social affiliation, behavior and communication. They have the belief that if the needs of these animals are more fully understood we may better offer recommendations that may protect and preserve them. Five winter months of data collection and photo-documentation in Hawaii are augmented by year-round analysis, frequent scientific publications, public service seminars and educational presentations.

The founder Dr Dan Salden and his team of researchers dedicate their time during the winter breeding season of the whales, to work in their research vessel out from Lahaina on the western side of the Island of Maui.

The fluke identification is the key to their research. Humpback flukes are like a human fingerprint and no two are exactly alike. Sometimes as a result of an injury or simply genetic variety. Each tail fluke has a different shape, markings and they range from flukes that are all black and flukes that have a great deal of white in them and the identification is based on the scratches or marks that appear in the fluke as well as patches of colouration. Dr Salden analyzes the photographs taken in the field much the same way humans analyze human fingerprints to identify who humans are. I huge data base of whale fluke Ids has been compiled by many researchers over the years and the task is, to bring them all together into a central data base for the benefit of the whales.

Dr Salden and his team head out each season to photograph and observe the congregating humpbacks. Large gatherings of whales are seen engaging in highly energetic mating behaviours. In the breeding areas females are usually never found with other females. Males roam in large groups, competing with each other to become the favoured mate. Salden is most interested in how the whales interact and what is the essential social dynamics. Whales are all highly acoustic, social animals and it’s underwater that the acoustics really become dynamic. Humpback whales spend most of their time below the ocean’s surface so it’s crucial for the researchers to join them underwater. What they capture with their cameras, reveals behaviours not seen on the surface.

ALASKA RESEARCH

Intersea Foundation
Strange whale sounds echo through the nutrient rich waters of south east Alaska, but are different to the melodic songs heard in Hawaii. Again it is the curious sounds that are essential to the whales survival. The whales here are distinguished by a variety of remarkable feeding behaviours that include the production of loud, bellowing feeding calls. They also display group co-ordination, to herd the schools of Pacific Herring.

The mystery of the Humpbacks complex social vocalizations is the focus of another researcher who has devoted her life unraveling their secrets. Each season Cynthia D-Vincent makes her own migration to the stunning Frederick Sound to seek out whales. Since 1974 she has studied marine mammals, as the director of the Intersea Foundation. Cynthia D’Vincent was one of the first to recognize and record the co-operative nature of the feeding behaviour.

Alaska Whale Foundation
One of Cynthia’s colleagues, Dr Fred Sharp has advanced her original discoveries through the efforts of the Alaska Whale Foundation. In south east Alaska the feeding event takes place on the surface, the whales actually go up and engulf the prey at the surface, but there’s still a whole lot going on underneath the water that is not understood. Some of the estimates show that there’s probably about a thousand whales across a summer time moving through the study area up in South East Alaska, but there’s only a relatively small number of individuals that engage in cooperative groups, chasing herring, using these sophisticated foraging techniques all summer long.

Dr Sharpe has recognised that the Humpback whales in these feeding groups use tools. By definition the use of a tool is when you manipulate an object it in a way to achieve a goal. The object cannot be part of your own anatomy. It has to be a separate object like a stick or a rock or a screw driver. The whales are using air as a tool. They’re taking air at the surface and diving down and using it in a very goal directed fashion. They blow huge rings of bubbles and create a massive bubble net around their prey. It’s a free moving independent object that the whales have become very sophisticated at using and technically it’s a form of tool use.

The group cooperation to form bubbles nets, make loud feeding calls, waving pectoral fins in a co-ordinated team effort is an extraordinary behaviour that the Humpback whales of south east Alaska have learnt.

SETI a Surprising Twist
Dr Sean Hanser is associated with the SETI Institute, which conducts the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Our current knowledge of life’s origin on Earth indicates that given a suitable environment and sufficient time, life may develop on other planets. It may be possible to detect a civilization across interstellar space, and may actually offer our best opportunity for discovering other intelligent life in the near future. Currently the Center for SETI Research develops signal-processing technology and uses it to search for signals from advanced civilizations in our galaxy.

A new and exciting field of science has been created, known as “astrobiology”. The Center for the Study of Life in the Universe brings together leading researchers from around the world in this burgeoning field. The team focuses on a wide set of disciplines ranging from observing and modeling the beginnings of life in the depths of outer space, to studies of Earth, where they attempt to learn more about how life began and how its many diverse forms have survived and evolved.

Dr Sean Hanser is studying Humpback Whales and collaborating with SETI researchers to explore the evolution of intelligence. Devised as a means to inform SETI research, the theoretical, Drake Equation addresses broad areas of scientific research, and each SETI project relates to one or more factors in the Equation. Dr Sean Hanser utilises some revolutionary techniques to attempt to unravel the complex sounds humpback whales produce. He is optimistic that the capabilities of humpback communication will be unlocked.

When two groups of humpback whales come together, it calls for a change in the social structure of the newly formed group. Which whale is going to be the leader now, who will be the bubble blower and what whale will take on other group rolls? That is when you hear all the squealing, screams and sounds of outrage.

To learn more about the cooperative feeding Hanser is interested in the aspect of behaviour that has to do with their communication, and he thinks the communication can shed a lot of light on the feeding process. He records the whale sounds and using a computer tries to interpret the digital information. He has found that a lot of feed calls tend to be around 500 Hz. That’s a fairly low sound but it seems to be consistent with the whales he studies. Most of the sounds produced by Humpback whales during feeding events are between 390 and 550 Hz. The research indicates that individuals can be identified by those differences that are occurring in the calls when analysised.

Usually the larger the animal, the deeper the sound they make and one of the interesting benefits particularly of deep sound is that they travel for tremendous distances. It is speculated that more intimate communication among individuals that are in close range may occur at higher frequencies and that low frequency communication is necessary over greater distances.

Hanser can use Humpback whales as a tool to characterize those portions of Drakes Equation and the probability that intelligent life will develop sufficient capabilities to communicate and then to communicate outside its own region. Humans are a great example but we know about humans and the researchers would like to have something to compare with humans.

Hanser’s project is interested in looking at other species believed to be sophisticated, and compare them with ourselves and other species. In turn they will develop some underlying principals to intelligence, and also what characterizes intelligence. Humpback whales would be a good example of something on this planet, other than humans, that are intelligent and sophisticated and a species which can be studied and compared to other species to try and understand the nature of intelligence in the universe.

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