Rare whale song recorded for the first time

The North Pacific right whales are the rarest large whale species, and have become extremely endangered due to prolific hunting of them.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimate that the number of individuals remaining are in the low 100s.

For the first time in history, marine biologists have recorded these spectacular animals singing. Researchers at NOAA used ‘moored acoustic recorders’ to capture calls made by male North Pacific right whales, according to The Guardian.

Jessica Crance, a marine biologist from NOAA, said, ‘During a summer field survey in 2010, we started hearing a weird pattern of sounds. We thought it might be a right whale, but we didn’t get visual confirmation.

‘So we started going back through our long-term data from moored acoustic recorders and saw these repeating patterns of gunshot calls. I thought these patterns look like song. We found them again and again, over multiple years and locations, and they have remained remarkably consistent over eight years.’

She continued, ‘We heard these same songs during a summer survey in 2017, and were able to localise the songs to male right whales. We can now definitively say these are right whales, which is so exciting because this hasn’t been heard yet in any other right whale population.’

According to the statement, North Pacific right whales are known to make gunshot calls, up-calls, screams and warbles. However, the sounds had never before been heard as part of a repeating pattern.