Can We Decipher a Whale’s First Sounds?
The scientist David Gruber explains the mission of Project CETI, and what his team has learned about how whales communicate.
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00:00 We're so used to the humpback whale sounds.
00:13 Sperm whales are like techno music.
00:16 They sound like Morse code.
00:24 They're making these clicks, creaks, clangs, chirps that are known as codas to find their
00:29 way in the dark.
00:30 Now with SETI, we're going deeper and deeper to look at how much information is in these
00:35 clicks.
00:39 I'm David Gruber.
00:40 I'm a professor at the City University of New York, Baruch College, and the president
00:44 and founder of Project SETI.
00:46 Project SETI is the Cetacean Translation Initiative.
00:50 It's a non-profit organization on a mission to listen to and translate the communication
00:56 of sperm whales.
00:57 We're always constantly thinking, "How could this project have minimal impact on the whales?"
01:01 And a lot of the times, the tool we want just doesn't exist.
01:04 Rob Wood's lab at Harvard is designing these suction cup on-whale tacks.
01:10 They have three microphones on each one.
01:12 We know exactly what whale they're on.
01:14 They stay on for anywhere from a few hours to three days.
01:18 Now we've been exploring the idea of using a drone to fly and pop one right on the back.
01:26 Since we can hear what's going on under the water, now we can see them from the surface,
01:30 we can see how their body posture might be related to their communication.
01:36 We're just looking for everything.
01:41 We'd had, since early in the morning, been taking this two-drone at 45-degree angle.
01:46 We heard very few clicks.
01:48 You know, we knew that there was something unusual happening just by their behavior,
01:53 and we kind of knew to sit back and just watch.
01:56 And then we saw this first sign of blood in the water.
02:00 First thought was, "Oh no, there's some attack."
02:03 And then, you know, there was this moment when this tiny little head pops up, and we
02:08 all were like, "Okay, we're watching a sperm whale being born."
02:12 And then come this group of pilot whales and this group of Fraser dolphins.
02:37 They come rolling in, and there's just this massive gathering of cetaceans during this
02:44 birth event, and we stayed with these whales all day.
02:47 My entire career is punctuated by these few moments of, "I can't believe I'm seeing this,"
02:57 you know, and "This is Moby Dick."
03:01 This is an animal that's been vilified as a killer, that we've harvested to light candles
03:09 from their oil, from their brain.
03:12 And here is one of the most extreme caregiving examples ever witnessed in a mammal unfolding
03:19 before our eyes.
03:22 We don't have specific ideas of what will happen.
03:26 We are essentially this baby whale, just like it takes a baby time to learn a language,
03:32 it's going to take us time, and it's going to take the context.
03:34 You know, we'll speak one word, and then two words.
03:38 For one, it's a project of joy, because we're listening to an animal, and we're trying to
03:43 interpret.
03:45 And at the same time, sperm whales are still with us, and they're magic.
03:54 (gentle music)
03:57 (electronic beeping)