There have been tests before on the recordings that whales make, but not at really low levels of the ocean. They make distinctive sounds in order to look for food and communicate with other males. There has never been the right equipment to explore the ocean at very low levels.
In this article is talks about Melinger and Klincks experiment using a undersea glinder. With the use of the undersea gliner recordings of low levels was accomplished. It can go down as deep at 2,000 meters. The project is funded by the Naval Research. They developed it so they could tell the difference between beaked whales and other ocean sounds. It is steered with an internal computer and pre-programmed course. When it has taken in the data for that certain course it comes to the surface and "beams" a summary of results to a satelite. The two species of whales that they have taken data on are the Cuviers and the Blainville's. It is known that whales click (the sound they make) 3 times per second, compared to a dolphin who clicks 100 times per second. When doing this they look at the rates and the frequency of the sounds. They have not done a detailed analysis yet, but are sure that they haveencountered beaked whales four of five times.
Posted by Samantha Babcock (A)
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The development for that kind of equipment is great! Were the whale songs different at the low levels of the ocean? It would be interesting to see if they changed their songs at different levels for differences in pressure, or other effects (if sound waves are affected by that!). Great research about new techniques!
ReplyDeletePosted by Christine Rega
I'm sure there are many animal behaviorists who benefitted from the development of this equipment.
ReplyDeleteWhat did researchers of whale communication use before this equipment to study the clicks of whales, or were they able to do anything at all? Are there differences between the clicks whales use near the surface and the clicks they use deeper in the ocean?
Posted by Bethany Rappleyea