ML137973

Media notes

Subject 1: (Interview). Subtitle: Louis Herman. Timecode In: 00:00:05. Timecode out: 01:06:03. Subject 2: (Environmental Recording). Subtitle: Boat ambi. Timecode In: 00:22:54. Timecode out: 00:29:36. Subject 3: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Timecode In: 00:27:33. Timecode out: 00:28:00. Notes: Time of Day: 1105; Recorded from boat. Behaviors: blow. Subject 4: (Sound Effects). Subtitle: Boat start, Boat take off at sea. Timecode In: 00:47:22. Timecode out: 00:48:53. Subject 5: (Sound Effects). Subtitle: Boat slow down, Boat stop. Timecode In: 00:51:45. Timecode out: 00:52:27. Subject 6: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Timecode In: 00:54:00. Timecode out: 00:55:17. Notes: Time of Day: 1130; Recorded from boat. Behaviors: grunts. Subject 7: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Timecode In: 01:03:06. Timecode out: 01:03:55. Notes: Time of Day: 1140; Recorded from boat. Behaviors: blow. Habitat: Marine, Ocean. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Decoded MS stereo; Sennheiser mics. NPR/NGS RADIO EXPEDITIONS DAT 4 LH = Lou Herman AC = Alex Chadwick Ms Recording, on Nuke cont. recording of Dr. Herman boat motor, water @1:00 lh talking into recorder, describing mom, calf, escort putting ident. on video he had just shot 3:40 whales in bground -ac can you tell me what you're hearing -lh hearing a lot of chorusing or multiple singers and some are fairly close and other s are more disperse ... indiv singers tend to sep themselves they tend to sep by as much as 6 kilometers or if its further it might move in closer so each whale sort of preserves a singing space around itself urn poss it's to avoid masking one's own sounds by the sounds of another (4:44) 4:53 lh there's a very repetitive sound in here sort of like (4:57, 59) hear sound in background sounds not very common to me**** 5:33 ac can you tell how many animals you're hearing 5:47 lh can't tell how many 6:10 lh well we know there are multiple singers here that we are listening to the singers tend to be alone sep by several km but here in Maui we haven't measured the distance between singers as we have on the big island...the singers we know are males, typically a singer will be underwater perhaps 60--100 ft depth stationary canted down to a 50 deg angle pectoral fins spread out 7:09 lh these songs have been analyzed and they appear to have a fairly well defined structure to them. they are repetitive not in the short run but in the long run as the animal cycles through various themes which in turn are made up of phrases which are in turn made up of smaller units of sound individual units of sounbd may be as short as 1-2 sec. or as long as 4-5 seconds ... 8:13 lh all sounds are from males ...so far no one has identified any return by the females ...the analogies one would like to draw BIRD 8:58 lh whale songs at least seems to function as to keep other singers at a distance ...but it doesn't serve very much at all as an attractant to females ... playback whale recordings ...alaska recordings 11:23 lh only about 2~ of whales targeted with the song approached, but about 20~ approached the sound from alaska and their approach was charc by a sudden turn from as much as km or two away and then charging to a vessel at great speeds, looking at mic deployed and then swimming off ... sometimes see whales together when singing but very rare ... 12:46 lh in 1985 when we first discovered the attractiveness of this sound happened to be the same year entered san fran bay and began to swim up the sacramento river for many weeks and resisting all efforts to turn it back stream...after about three weeks org conference call ... lure him out instead of draw him out ...after about 2-3 hours .. . tape of sounds 15:16 lh went way up the river about fifty miles up the river...calibrate turned on soun... (Notes truncated)

Additional species

• Humpback Whale Megaptera novaeangliae