Sperm whales change 'vowel' clicks when boats are nearby, study finds

generalJul 22, 202616327

Researchers from Project Ceti recorded that sperm whales off Dominica alter the vowel-like qualities and tempo of their clicks when ships are nearby. Over four years the team tagged 15 whales with audio devices deployed by drone and logged more than 1,000 codas, verifying vessel presence with geolocation data. One individual, Atwood, normally produced a 1-1-3 five-click coda but shortened the intervals and sped the same rhythm when background ship noise was present. The whales did not increase call volume; instead they shifted coda types and more frequently produced the “aaaa” vowel-like sound while shipping noise was detected. The findings, published in Ecological Informatics and described by linguistics lead Gašper Beguš, were strong enough that the researchers say they can predict vessel presence from vocalizations alone. Project Ceti founder David Gruber said the work raises the question of whether whales are referring to ships or whether the noise is altering their voices, a distinction that could influence policy and legal protections for marine noise.

David Ho

@davidho.bsky.social

Sperm whales change their vocalizations when ships are nearby. Are they talking about the ships?

1596h ago

bskwitter.bsky.social4

Eventually it will be clear that these distinctive codas to whale communications are individual expressions of their word for "asshole." BIG SHIP COMING TOO CLOSE TO OUR POD NOW, THAT ASSHOLE.

pnwpirate.bsky.social1

Adaptation of frequency to be heard more clearly?

Lf.Egalitarian1

With too many humans their default setting is to assume that any language/dialect/communication that they don’t share, or at least understand, is just a Lower Form of Life making noise.

Quoting this

Michael Bench-Capon21

That or undetached ship parts, surely

Violet Smith12

sperm whales 🤝 bl fans

Politics of Cars6

"can you believe these jerks won't use headphones?"

Lf.Egalitarian4

We humans aren’t “good neighbors” why wouldn’t they have something to say when we intrude with our danger, noise, and pollution? I wonder if they distinguish between #SeaShepherd and the factory ships. I wonder if they have legends about the time before ships.

The Guardian

@theguardian.com

Sperm whales change ‘vowel’ sounds when boats are nearby, scientists discover

1055h ago

Thomas4

So it’s like my Quebecer neighbors switching to french every time I’m within earshot.

Jane Hobson3

Monty Python Sketch incoming. whales chatting in affected RP accent - drops it and shouts "Bowat!" in Geordie accent (as in "when the boat comes in").

Quoting this

Commodore Joseph7

Hmmmm, they adopt a fake accent when the tourists are nearby 🤣

Jonathan Calder4

I'm not clear how pretending to be French helps them.

Emma™

@cockremover.bsky.social

apparently sperm whales collectively eat almost as much seafood as humans do, which if true, would be so fucking crazy considering how much we fish

36Yesterday

Emma™10

just casually eating ~100 million tonnes of giant squid and all that. wild.

A. Marmot 🌱2

thinking of that together with how we've replaced the majority of land biomass with chickens and cows is insane. We are ravenous

Buck Beocca2

I have yet to see a human eat their body weight in microscopic krill.

aric1

Wait till you hear about Rod Stewart!

Zazecki1

I mean its definitely one of the reasons us overfishing is a problem, because we've added an entire extra predation impact to every ecosystem. Ya know whats fucky tho is how little we see squids relative to how many is theoretically necessary to sustain sperms whales

Project CETI

@projectceti.bsky.social

When ships are nearby, sperm whales change their calls. Read in National Geographic: www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

112h ago

Quoting this

Dr. Jack Brown47

The largest brain in the history of planet Earth – the brain of a cachalot whale (aka sperm whale) is 5 to 6 times more massive than a human brain.

Gasper Begus

@begus.bsky.social

"In the latest research, in addition to the changing coda tempo, the team identified differences in the prevalence of these two vowel-like sounds in noisy conditions, with sperm whales using the “aaaa” coda more frequently."

21h ago

wvcaver.bsky.social

@wvcaver.bsky.social

“Researchers have discovered three previously unknown genotypes of Helicobacter bacteria in pygmy sperm whales, raising questions about the impact of bacterial infections on marine wildlife...all whales with the bacteria showed signs of gastrointestinal disease.”

3Yesterday

Violet Smith

@violetsmith.bsky.social

I too change my vocalisations and talk incessantly about ships. Sperm whales, I respect you. Hit me up for an AO3 invite code.

54h ago

Ligand Chef

@butadiene.bsky.social

people are talking about the new sperm whale language research and get all exited. how? all i feel is horrible. humanity hunted them industrially for 400 years. there are whales alive today who probably remember their families getting slaughtered by exploding harpoons. i want to cry.

1Yesterday

Fiery Lights

@fierylights.bsky.social

* Pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) are some of the least understood mammals in the ocean. MAYBE BECAUSE WE DIDN’T KNOW THEY EXISTED!

2Yesterday

Sarah Werner

@wynkenhimself.bsky.social

🐋 sperm whale communication: even more complex than we’d realized! (Though would they have heard the Pequod or other non-motorized whalers?)

15h ago

Climate, Ecology, War & More - Dr Glen Barry BigEarthData.ai

@bigearthdata.ai

When ships are nearby, sperm whales change their calls ->National Geographic | More on "Sperm whales adapt to ship noise" at BigEarthData.ai | #Wildlife #Whale

12h ago

Dr Seasoned Rice, Goddess Most Divinely Made

@seasonedrice.bsky.social

Her secret training facility getting sperm whales to destroy undersea cables

1Yesterday

Orz

@nofilter247.bsky.social

Scientists just found out sperm whales change how they click when boats are near. We're literally annoying the whales

2h ago

bedrocknews.bsky.social

@bedrocknews.bsky.social

Sperm whales have something like vowels and ship noise is rewriting their grammar. Near ships they don't get louder (the story we've told for a decade). They change what they say: faster clicks, a shift toward one vowel-like sound. Scientists can now hear it coming. bedrocknews.com/article/envi...

3h ago

Kasper Frederik Christiansen

@kasperfc.bsky.social

That's actually both cool and smart! Sperm whales just keeps amazing! 🤩

5h ago

1 source

theguardian.comSperm whales change ‘vowel’ sounds when boats are nearby, scientists discover