Scientists Have Recorded A Rare Right Whale Singing For the First Time. It Does Have the Range

(ANCHORAGE, Alaska) — It’s not America’s Top 40, but it’s a cutting edge song.
Federal marine biologists for the first time have recorded singing by one of the rarest whales on the planet, the North Pacific right whale. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers used moored acoustic recorders to capture repeated patterns of calls made by male North Pacific right whales. Only about 30 of the animals remain. Whalers nearly wiped out the slow-moving whales, which remain buoyant after they are killed.
It’s the first time right whale songs in any population have been documented, said NOAA Fisheries marine biologist Jessica Crance on Wednesday from Seattle. She spoke to Southern right whale and North Atlantic right whale experts to confirm that singing had not previously been documented. Researchers detected four distinct songs over eight years at five locations in the Bering Sea off Alaska’s southwest coast, Crance said.

Humpback, bowhead and other whales are known for their songs. During a field survey in 2010, NOAA Fisheries researchers first noted weird sound patterns they could not identify. “We thought it might be a right whale, but we didn’t get visual confirmation,” Crance said.
The researchers reviewed long-term data from acoustic recorders and noted repeating sound patterns. Seven years of frustration followed, Crance said, as they could never positively confirm that the sounds were coming from the sc...

Source: TIME: Science - June 21, 2019 Category: Science Authors: DAN JOLING / AP Tags: Uncategorized Alaska onetime Science Whales Source Type: news