blue whales aren’t singing like they used to, and scientists have no idea why

[The Straight Story]

Blue Whale Song Mystery Baffles Scientists



All around the world, blue whales aren’t singing like they used to, and scientists have no idea why.

The largest animals on Earth are singing in ever-deeper voices every year. Among the suggested explanations are ocean noise pollution, changing population dynamics and new mating strategies. But none of them is entirely convincing.

“We don’t have the answer. We just have a lot of recordings,” said Mark McDonald, president of Whale Acoustics, a company that specializes in the sonic monitoring of cetaceans.

McDonald and his collaborators first noticed the change eight years ago, when they kept needing to recalibrate the automated song detectors used to track blue whales off the California coast. The detectors are triggered by songs that match a particular waveform. Every year, McDonald had to set them lower.

Since then, he and Scripps Institution of Oceanography researchers Sarah Melnick and John Hildebrand have gathered thousands of blue whale recordings made since the 1960s, spanning populations from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific to the East Indian Ocean. Their analysis, published in October in Endangered Species Research, shows that the songs’ tonal frequency is falling every year by a few fractions of a hertz.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/12/blue-whale-song-mystery/

[redwitch]

1. They're depressed like the rest of us. nt

[Kajsa]

4. Seriously,

that's a very good answer.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Jesus. I was just going to post

"Endemic depression"

and I saw you had beat me to it.

[movonne]

8. Yes...we are not singing either ...except the corporate birds...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

9. In that case they'd just sing country or blues whale songs. n/t

[baldguy]

23. Because we're pissing in their pool.

Literally.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. Pssst, guys, did you ever think maybe they just. . . . .

. . . . didn't want you listening in on their private conversations?


THEY'RE WHISPERING, DUDES!!!!!








Tansy Gold, who talks to animals a lot

[Teaser]

3. This could simply be whale "slang"

a new variation of a song catching on. It does happen. It may have nothing to do with us.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. Maybe the Ents are just getting angry. n/t

[valerief]

7. Musical styles change for humans. Maybe they've gone from easy listening to hip hop. nt

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Right off hand, noise pollution seems the likeliest

Evolution could be selecting for a song that doesn't get masked by whatever other noise there is.

Even more random thought: Maybe lower carries farther and they are fewer and farther between these days.

[SallyMander]

13. Time scale is too short for it to be evolution

in a species with such a loooong generation time. It would have to be a behavioral shift rather than natural selection.

From, your friendly neighborhood evolutionary biologist :D

[FiveGoodMen]

19. Good point

[zbdent]

11. maybe they're BWINOs ...

"Blue" whales in name only ...

they might have been voting against their own best interests ... and are all for global warming and "free market" whaling and deregulation of the whaling industry ...

[laughingliberal]

12. Perhaps they took up whiskey and cigarettes nt

[AlinPA]

14. Interesting. Just last night NatGeo channel had a story about "after humans" and what would happen

to the planet with no human life after 200 years and longer. It showed things rusting away (Eiffel Tower, Staute of Liberty, etc) but one of the pieces showed blue whales communicating to mate again, they had been confused by ships' motors, etc making noise that interrupted their mating calls. Sounded reasonable to me.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. recession?

[optimator]

16. these "Scientists" are dumb asses

its like saying they can't figure out why Afghans aren't dancing in the streets.

[Teaser]

17. are you really that obtuse?

or are you playacting?

Because it looks like you don't have a damn idea as to how science is done.

[SallyMander]

18. Thanks, from one of the aforementioned dumb-ass scientists

:hi:

[MineralMan]

21. Let me guess. You flunked your science classes in school,

right. Why the Blue Whales are changing the pitch of their songs is an interesting question for people who are interested in Blue Whales. Your lack of interest is uninteresting.

[Synicus Maximus]

20. they are getting ready to leave the planet and they say thanks for

all the fish

[DemBones DemBones]

22. Blue whales got the blues.

Or maybe too much testosterone?

[TK421]

24. Must be the economy