52 Hertz whale

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A spectrogram of the 52 hertz whale song
The signal of the 52 Hertz whale recorded in the northeastern Pacific. It has been sped up by a factor of 10 so that it is more audible to humans at 520 Hz.

The 52-hertz whale is an individual whale that is the only one to sing at a frequency of 52 hertz that is characteristic of it . As a result, it cannot communicate with other whales and moves independently of them. It is therefore also called the "loneliest whale in the world". The species of the whale is unknown; Because of its migrations it is believed to be related to blue whales and fin whales , which sing on much lower frequencies.

particularities

The sound signature is that of a whale, but on an unusual frequency. At 52 Hertz, it is only slightly higher than the lowest note of a tuba . The sequence of sounds is not that of a blue whale or fin whale - it is shorter and more frequent and at a higher frequency. Blue whales usually sing at 15–20 Hz, fin whales at 20 Hz.

The migrations of the 52 Hertz whale are independent of the movement and presence of other whales. The routes are similar to those of blue whales, but with regard to their chronological sequence, those of fin whales. For years the animal was recorded in the Pacific from August to December, while apparently out of range of the hydrophones in January and February . It migrated to the Aleutian Islands and the Kodiak Archipelago and came south to the coast of California, traveling between 30 and 70 kilometers daily. The recorded distance fluctuated seasonally between 708 km and 11,062 km in the 2002/2003 season.

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have not yet been able to identify the animal. They speculate that it is a handicapped animal or a hybrid between a blue whale and another species.

The animal's voice has dropped a bit since 1992, suggesting that it has grown. The fact that it has been watched for so long and has continued to grow indicates good health. Nevertheless, the whale remains an isolated case, as only one animal per season was located with such a voice.

history

The whale was discovered by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution . His callsign was recorded first in 1989, and then again in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, after the end of the Cold War , the US Navy released some recordings and specifications of its SOSUS anti-submarine hydrophone arrays from secrecy and made recorded data available to scientists. From 1992 to 2004, the 52-Hertz whale song was regularly detected using this noise monitoring system. The whale was also detected in 2015. His voice is now closer to 46 Hz.

Literature and music

  • WA Watkins, MA Hence, GM Reppucci, JE George, DL Martin, NA DiMarzio, DP Gannon: Seasonality and distribution of whale calls in the North Pacific (PDF; 952 kB). In: Oceanography 13, 2000, pp. 62-67.
  • WA Watkins, MA Hence, JE George, D. Rodriguez: Twelve years of tracking 52-Hz whale calls from a unique source in the North Pacific . In: Deep-Sea Research 51, 2004, pp. 1889-1901.
  • In 2015, the fourth mini-album by the Korean boy band BTS (방탄 소년단) released a song called Whalien 52 , written by Leader RM together with Suga and J-Hope. It is about another whale who experiences similar loneliness and alienation from other whales and swims across the ocean, like the 52-Hertz whale. The title Whalien 52 is a fusion of the English words for whale (whale) and stranger (alien) and clarifies the demarcation from other whales.
  • In 2018, Martin Baltscheit , author and illustrator, published an illustrated picture book about the whale "52 Hertz" under the title 'The world's lonely whale'. Martin Baltscheit's story is the basis of a whale symphony for orchestra, children's choir and speaker, which the composer Bojan Vuletić wrote on behalf of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and in which Martin Baltscheit also appears as a speaker. The work will be premiered by the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker under the direction of Andreas Fellner in June 2018 in front of over 1,500 children in the Tonhalle Düsseldorf .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bryan Nelson: 52 Hertz: The Loneliest Whale in the World . Discovery.com. May 20, 2012. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved on September 17, 2012.
  2. ↑ Emily Willingham: 52-Hertz song of world's loneliest whale . EarthSky. March 31, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ Ben Anderson: 'World's loneliest whale' pays visit to Alaska . Alaska Dispatch. January 5, 2011. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
  4. ^ A b c d Andrew C. Revkin: Song of the Sea, a Cappella and Unanswered . In: New York Times , December 21, 2004. Retrieved September 17, 2012. 
  5. ^ John Copley: Lonely whale's song remains a mystery . New Scientist. December 10, 2004. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  6. ↑ a b Watkins, William A .; George, Joseph E .; Hence, Mary Ann; Mullin, Kristina; Martin, Darel L .; Haga, Scott H .; DiMarzio, Nancy A. February 2000. " Whale call data for the North Pacific: November 1995 through July 1999 occurrence of calling whales and source locations from SOSUS and other acoustic systems ( Memento of November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )". Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Technical report. WHOI-00-02.
  7. ↑ a b c d Lonny Lippsett: A Lone Voice Crying in the Watery Wilderness . In: Oceanus . Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. April 5, 2005. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  8. ↑ The loneliest whale in the world? . In: Washington Post , January 26, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017. 
  9. ↑ The loneliest whale in the world . Carlsen Publishing House. Accessed May 31, 2018.