Whales are known for the sounds they make, from the songs of humpback whales to the clicks and whistles of killer whales and other toothed cetaceans. Bryde’s whale They also produce an even more mysterious sound called a “biotwang.” This whoosh, which uses both low and high frequency sounds, has a somewhat electronic or mechanical sound to it, unlike the more melodic songs made by some baleen whales.
Now the strange vocalizations have been recorded and are part of a new repository that will help other scientists study the vocalizations of eight whale species. The study was published in the journal Neurology on September 18th. The forefront of marine science.
[Related: We finally know how baleen whales make noise.]
What is Biotwang?
Bryde’s whale –Pronounced BrudasThey live in the central and western North Pacific Ocean. They are less well known than other baleen whales, such as humpback whales and right whales.
“Bryde’s whales are different from other baleen whales in that they feed year-round and migrate between low and mid-latitudes, likely moving through the ocean in search of food,” said study co-author and NOAA research oceanographer. Anne Allen tell Popular Science.
Their complex movement patterns in the ocean make them hard to spot for scientists. I recorded some of these sounds in 2014. We use autonomous acoustic recordings taken in the Mariana Islands near Guam.
Biotwang is produced by Bryde’s whales in the Pacific Ocean. This image of a Bryde’s whale was spotted during a NOAA cetacean survey in the Mariana Islands in 2015. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries/Andrea R. Bendlin (NMFS MMPA-ESA Permit #15240)
“This whale song has only been consistently found in the Northwest Pacific, which means it may be unique to a population that only lives in this region,” Allen said. “And that’s important because whale songs carry so far underwater that it’s possible to observe whales year-round even when humans aren’t there, but to do that we need to know which species is making the sound.”
Even harder than the whales themselves is narrowing down what the biotwang is used for: The team heard it from individual migrating whales, small mixed groups, and mothers with their calves.
“It’s possible that they’re using Biotwang as a form of communication, a sort of Marco Polo of the sea,” Allen said, “but we need more information before we can say for sure.”
Sound, bouncing, and loads of data
The NOAA team had long-term audio recordings of parts of the Pacific Ocean. Dating back to 2005 They then identified a Bryde’s whale as the source of the unusual sound. Collaborating with a team of Google researchers Data scientists use BioTwang recordings to Multi-species cetacean AI model Analyzing the vast amount of sounds heard beneath the Pacific Ocean. Deciphering underwater sounds is difficult because there is so much noise from ships, plants, animals, and the movement of the ocean itself.
“Biotwang has a low-frequency component followed by a high-frequency component,” said study co-author and Google data scientist. Lauren Harrell tell Popular Science“I think this sound is similar to the original ‘ping’ sound of the Starship Enterprise. Star Trek.”
As well as distinguishing Bryde’s whales from other noises based on biotowang, the model can also be used to more accurately predict humpback whale migrations and identify some of the sounds made by minke whales. Commonly known as “Mink Boeing”. These sounds were first detected by submarines off the coast of California and Hawaii in the 1950s. It is described as a “metal-like ring.”
[Related: We can protect whales from ship strikes by translating their songs.]
“Minke whale songs have a similar history to biotwang, as scientists later discovered that these mysterious sounds come from a specific whale species,” Harrell says. “It was only by going back through all these samples that we were able to label our models as minke whales and find minke whale songs.”
of Model The technology that Dr Harrell and his colleagues have been working on allows researchers to decode the calls of up to eight whale species from a single recording, which they can use to track when and where whales are singing around the world to help improve conservation efforts.
“If we had models that could at least efficiently process these long-term data sets and identify and classify where some of these species may be present, and then classify that by time and frequency, that would really unlock our ability to study these species,” Harrell says.
