Extending forum membership to whales

[JaysonAych]

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/20/184723/82

For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and aging. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind.

It has received no answer. Nor will it ever.

You can listen to the lonely whale at the NOAA. Its call is at 52 hertz, which is roughly that of a low note on a Tuba.

The New Scientist informs us that blue whales call out at 15-20 hertz. Fin whales at 20 hertz. Humpbacks sing at much higher frequencies.

All of these whales are types of baleen whale. These large whales do not make noises to echo-locate, but instead for purposes of courtship and kinship, maintaining pod formation. The noises are also of very low frequency—infrasonic—which also means the vocalizations travel for very long distances on the order of hundred of kilometers.

The strange 52 hertz deep sea noise is not only from a whale, but, based on the noise's characteristics, is most definitely from a kind of baleen whale, says Mary Ann Daher, who recently cowrote a research paper on the subject in the journal Deep Sea Research:

The calls were noticed first in 1989, and have been detected and tracked since 1992. No other calls with similar characteristics have been identified in the acoustic data from any hydrophone system in the North Pacific basin. Only one series of these 52-Hz calls has been recorded at a time, with no call overlap, suggesting that a single whale produced the calls. The calls were recorded from August to February with most in December and January. The species producing these calls is unknown. The tracks of the 52-Hz whale were different each year, and varied in length from 708 to 11,062 km with travel speeds ranging from 0.7 to 3.8 km/h. Tracks included (A) meandering over short ranges, (B) predominantly west-to-east movement, and (C) mostly north-to-south travel. These tracks consistently appeared to be unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species (blue, fin and humpback) monitored year-round with the same hydrophones.

The research that discovered the strange whale is the brainchild of William Watkins of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a pioneer in studying marine mammals via acoustics. Unfortunately, he passed away recently in September 2004, but his work continues at the WHOI.

Enter the US Navy and their SOSUS program, whose purpose during the Cold War was the identification of submarines via deep sea microphones, or hydrophones, sunken to the ocean floor. Declassified recordings from the program have been a blessing for studying whales and other deep sea animals who make acoustic calls. At the same time, the US Navy recently got in trouble when its SURTASS LFA program to saturate the deep with infrasonic sound for active rather than passive detection of enemy subs threatened to deafen and kill marine animals, especially mammals.

The mystery of the solitary whale has captured the imagination. Hypotheses as to its identity include the possibility that the whale is deaf, that it is a hybrid of two species, or that it is sick or malformed (although unlikely, since it has survived for more than 12 years).

Or perhaps, if you want to get weird, you can note for fun that this story matches the plot of a Star Trek Movie. But Leonard Nimoy did not pen this story; it is for real.

Whatever the identity of this strange unidentified alien whale, it is, for now, the very definition of poetic, existential loneliness, in both time and space. The whale is somewhere wandering the Northeast Pacific, right now, in a rudderless, aimless track. And right now the lonely beast could be calling out for others of its kind, and finding none, for over 12 years and counting.

[Aristotle]

it's probably the russians in a sub fucking with everybody.

[thewalrus]

Wow that's so incredibly sad. Fucking humans.

[Omni]

Poor bastard. I know that whale's pain.... the opposite sex in my species never answers me either.

[LonelyWhale]

Woe is me.

[TheLightedPath]

We better not start getting lots of fat chicks joining cause of this stunt jayson.

[Bluntman]

Woe is me.

Cool, we can make some make up out of you.

[Bluntman]

We better not start getting lots of fat chicks joining cause of this stunt jayson.

Hippo may find us now.

[thewalrus]

We better not start getting lots of fat chicks joining cause of this stunt jayson.

Whales are quite streamlined. Not at all "fat". Plus you're pretty large yourself.

[xtine]

Since when is AF picky about who joins?

[Bluntman]

Since when is AF picky about who joins?

You were an acception. Storm did all the chasing off. He was like the soup nazi of AF.

[Pennzoil GT-R]

Wow that's so incredibly sad. Fucking humans.

how the fuck do you know humans have anything do with it?

[thewalrus]

Wow that's so incredibly sad. Fucking humans.

how the fuck do you know humans have anything do with it?

I don't recall making a causal connection.

[Pennzoil GT-R]

Wow that's so incredibly sad. Fucking humans.

how the fuck do you know humans have anything do with it?

I don't recall making a causal connection.

oh ok you were just jumping on the bandwagon blaming humans for everything then

[thewalrus]

Wow that's so incredibly sad. Fucking humans.

how the fuck do you know humans have anything do with it?

I don't recall making a causal connection.

oh ok you were just jumping on the bandwagon blaming humans for everything then

I just said I didn't make a causal connection.

[Pennzoil GT-R]

dont start that technicality shit with me we all know what you meant

[thewalrus]

dont start that technicality shit with me we all know what you meant

Clearly you don't know what I meant.

[fish]

fuck thats kinda sad


and aris its not the russian its fucking the north koreans things prolly swim right into new york harbour and BOOM!

[Tailhappy]

Wow. Thanks guys.

[JaysonAych]

We better not start getting lots of fat chicks joining cause of this stunt jayson.

Didn't think of that

[JaysonAych]

Woe is me.

[Honor]

im surpirised this thread has made it this far without a joke about tailshitty's wife

[Olds]

i was just about to, honor man. just about to...

[The_Edge]

dont start that technicality shit with me we all know what you meant

Clearly you don't know what I meant.

pennz


AAANNNND this is why pennz dropped out of law school ladies and gentlemen.

[Aristotle]

[dunnas]

Fucking Mexicans.


It's ok Rod, i'm just making an observation. Nothing to do with you.

[The_Edge]

Fucking Mexicans.


It's ok Rod, i'm just making an observation. Nothing to do with you.

Fucking homosexuals. It's ok dunners, nothing to do with you coming to the aid of pennz like a preparation H wipe gently soothing an anal bead

[big_jesus]

Since when is AF picky about who joins?

acception

[Bluntman]

Since when is AF picky about who joins?

acception

Acception of persons
(Eccl.) favoritism; partiality.
- Wyclif.

[big_jesus]

sauce?

[Bluntman]

sauce?

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