Map of the 13 HARP recording locations. Credit: The Frontiers of Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1394695
A team of oceanographers and marine biologists from NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University has identified a mysterious sound heard in the Pacific Ocean for two decades as that of Bryde’s whales.
In their study published in the journal Frontiers of marine science, The group identified the sound and worked with a team at Google to develop an AI application that could be used to track the whales’ movements.
The mysterious sound was first recorded in 2014, when its metallic clicking noise was dubbed a “biotwang.” Since then, the sound has been recorded repeatedly in multiple locations. In 2016, a team from Oregon State University found evidence that it was most likely some kind of baleen whale.
In this new study, the research team found that the previous finding was correct: the sound is made by Bryde’s whales.
The research team was able to make this connection by studying whales around the Mariana Islands, where they spotted several rarely seen whales. During their study, they dipped microphones into the water and recorded the mysterious biotwangs simultaneously with nine other Bryde’s whale sightings, confirming that they were the source.
The researchers then teamed up with a group at Google that was working on an artificial intelligence app to identify whale vocalizations. After extensive practice, the app was able to not only identify the calls of eight species of whales, including Bryde’s, but also show where they lived and swam.
The results of the application showed that in addition to living near the Mariana Islands, the whales also spent a lot of time in what is known as the Pacific Ocean Transition Zone, a boundary where warm and cold waters meet, leading to the growth of huge populations of plankton. This provides the whales with a reliable source of food. This discovery is likely to open up new avenues of research around Bryde’s whales and perhaps explain why their songs are so unique.
More information:
Ann N. Allen et al., Bryde’s whales produce Biotwang calls, which occur seasonally in long-term acoustic recordings from the central and western North Pacific, The Frontiers of Marine Science (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1394695
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