A team of scientists from the SETI Institute, the University of California, Davis (United States) and the Alaska Whale Foundation has carried out an experiment in open waters that could be the first demonstrated case of sound communication between humans and whales. The results of this research, published preliminarily in the journal PeerJ, indicate that the authors have managed to decipher some of the sounds used by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae, also called humpback whale) and make them serve to send them messages, which are apparently understood. by cetaceans.
One of the experiments that are now being made known consisted of issuing a contact message from a boat, based on selected fragments of a recording of sounds from these whales. In response to the contact call, a humpback whale known as Twain approached and circled the team’s boat, while responding in a conversational style to the whale’s “hello signal” for about 20 minutes. In the exchange, Twain responded to each playback call and sampled responses to interval variations between each signal, the study’s authors note.
The description and analysis of the encounter are described in the scientific article titled “Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool to detect and explore non-human intelligence: ‘Conversing’ with an Alaskan humpback whale.
“We believe this is the first communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the “humpback language,” said the scientific paper’s lead author, Brenda McCowan, a professor at the University of California, Davis.
“Humpback whales are extremely intelligent, have complex social systems, make tools (bubble nets for fishing), and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls,” says study co-author Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation.
The Whale-SETI team has been studying the communication systems of humpback whales in an effort to develop communication filters that could be used in the future to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. “Due to current limitations of technology, an important assumption in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and therefore targeting human recipients. This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,” says Professor Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute, co-author of the paper.
Similar to studying Antarctica as a substitute for Mars, the Whale-SETI team is studying non-human, terrestrial, intelligent communication systems to develop filters to apply to any received extraterrestrial signals. The mathematics of information theory will be used to quantify communicative complexity, for example, the rule structure embedded in a received message.
Other team members and co-authors of the paper are Dr. Josie Hubbard, Lisa Walker and Jodi Frediani, with specialties in animal intelligence, humpback whale song analysis, and humpback whale photography and behavior, respectively. The authors are working on a second article on the communicative behavior of this species through rings of bubbles in the water.
The research now presented has had the supervision of NOAA, following the relevant protocols and authorization of the National Marine Fisheries Research Department of the United States.
Founded in 1984, the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead the search for signs of intelligent life beyond humans; “to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and share that knowledge with the world.” “Our research spans the physical and biological sciences and takes advantage of data analysis, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies,” indicates the SETI Institute itself on its website.
