The scientists learning to speak whale (2024)

In a world-first, scientists had a "conversation" with a whale. Now, researchers are trying to find out what they are actually saying.

A growling "throp" noise emanates from the research vessel's underwater speaker. A humpback breaks away from its group and approaches. The mammal circles the boat. It surfaces and then dives again, tail slipping noiselessly into the water, and echoes the call back.

Researchers who "conversed" with a humpback whale say their encounter could be the first step towards communication with non-human intelligence. It was in 2021, off the coast of south-east Alaska, that the team of six scientists played a recording of a humpback greeting call using an underwater speaker. They were stunned when one humpback whale they had named Twain responded in a conversational manner.

"It's like experiencing another world. You hear them come up to the surface. Then there's this big breath, you can see it, and they're all together as a group. It's just incredible," says Josie Hubbard, an animal behaviourist currently studying for her PhD at the University of California, Davis.

Hubbard was on the research vessel which was floating, all engines silenced, in Frederick Sound, Alaska, when she encountered humpback whales for the first time. "As per regulations, you have to stop a couple of hundred metres away [from the whales] and turn your engine off," says Hubbard. Rarely, she says, the whales may approach. In this instance, 38-year-old Twain did move towards the boat, and proceeded to circle the vessel for 20minutes.

Hubbard is part of a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) research team, hoping to understand the communicative complexity and intelligence of humpback whales. Up on the top deck, Hubbard was oblivious to the work of the acousticians going on beneath the surface. Below deck, Brenda McCowan was broadcasting a recorded humpback contact call – a "whup" or "throp" – through an underwater speaker. When Twain finally moved away, Hubbard ran downstairs to find a hubbub of excitement. Twain had "spoken" back, engaging in a "conversation" that lasted a full 20 minutes.

You can listen to some of that conversation in the video below.

Whales have enchanted humans for centuries. In fact, whales display a long list of behaviours similar to humans. They cooperate with one another, as well as other species. They teach each other useful skills, look after each other's young, and play.

However, unlike humans, the dominant sense in whales is not sight, but hearing. Sink 200m (660ft) below the ocean surface, and you'll travel beyond the reach of light. Sound, on the other hand, can move farther and faster in water than it does in the air.

You might also like:

Fast forward to today, and the Seti research team hopes deciphering whale communication could help us to understand aliens, should we encounter any. The group hypothesises that whale sounds contain complex, intelligent messages akin to languages used by humans or potentially extraterrestrials. However, says McCowan, our understanding of whale communication is still very much in its infancy.

On that particular day off the coast of Alaska, McCowan had already broadcast a host of different sounds, with no response. "But this one call was recorded the day before," she says, "and it was from this population of whales. After playing the contact call three times, we got this huge response. Then, to keep the animal engaged, I started trying to match the latency of her calls to our calls. So, if she waited 10 seconds, I waited 10 seconds. We ended up matching each other. We did this 36 times over a 20-minute period."

Throughout the exchange, Twain consistently matched the interval variations between each playback call. This is thought to be the first intentional human-whale interaction in humpback whale "language". And, as the recording was of Twain's family group, adds Hubbard, this could indicate some form of recognition, possibly even self-recognition.

However, studying whales is not without its challenges. McCowan emphasises Twain chose to approach the boat and was free to leave whenever she wanted – but therein lies the problem. Whales can usually be found wherever the fish are, adds Hubbard. "But we don't know where the fish are. So, you have to search to find them in order to study them." And, to get a complete picture, researchers need to replicate the data with multiple unique pods.

Next, the team plan to vary the calls they broadcast. "We're still at a very early stage," says McCowan. "A big challenge for us is classifying those signals and determining their context, so we can ascertain meaning. I think AI will help us do that."

More than 5,000 miles (8,000km) away, a group of artificial intelligence and natural language processing experts, cryptographers, linguists, marine biologists, robotic experts and underwater acousticians are also hoping to use AI – this time to decipher sperm whale conversation.

Gruber is somewhat of an anomaly. He is a microbiologist – a scientist who studies the microscopic – who has gone on to work with some of the largest creatures on the planet. He began his career looking at the interactions of bacteria and protozoa in the ocean in relation to carbon cycling and climate change. From this he moved through coral, jellyfish and sharks until his interests brought him to whales. "It's really about seeing the world from the perspective of animals," he says, or in the case of whales, "hearing the world".

Sperm whales, which have the largest brains of any animal, gather at the ocean's surface in family groups and communicate using Morse code-like sequences of clicks known as codas. The group of sperm whales that Ceti has been working with is made up of around 400 mothers, grandmothers and calves. This pod identifies its members using a 1+1+3 coda, or two evenly spaced clicks and then three clicks in quick succession.

"It's difficult for us to peer into their world, other than these very brief interactions at the surface. This is such a unique, gentle creature, and there's just so much going on," says Gruber. "Each time we look, we find deeper complexity and structure in their communication." He believes that we are reaching a point of technological advancement that means we could – "possibly" – decode whale communication.

The data collected has been processed using machine-learning algorithms to detect and classify clicks, with results due to be published in 2024. The aim, says Gruber, is to be able to reconstruct "multi-party conversations" – in other words to create a "conversation" using the sperm whales' own vocalisations.

But even if we could talk to whales, should we? Could the ability to call to whales be used to hunt them, for instance?

New technologies have aided hunters before. Take sonar, which can be used to locate and scare whales to the surface where they can be more easily shot. "We should probably do more listening, and less talking," says Samantha Blakeman, a marine data manager for the National Oceanography Centre. She warns we should be wary of anthropomorphism. "As a scientist, you try to study things without bias," she says. "You're always trying to remove yourself from the equation – but it is really difficult to do."

Baleen whales are at the top of the food chain, notes Blakeman, which means they play a really important role in the ecosystem. "They're an indicator for those of us studying the health of ocean ecosystems – because anything that happens lower down in the food chain will affect what happens at the top," Blakeman says. More than a quarter of all cetacean species are under threat, largely because of human activity.

Whales are also natural fertilisers, says Blakeman. A limiting factor for life in the ocean is a lack of iron. Phytoplankton needs light and nutrients to grow. They can usually find nitrates and phosphates – but iron tends to be missing. But whales' faeces has a high concentration of iron. "They feed in one area and excrete in another," she says, "putting the iron back into the water, which can cause a flurry of life in this new area".

Whales also play an important role in the Earth's carbon cycle. Marine plankton captures carbon through photosynthesis. This plankton is then eaten by whales. "When they die [whales] sink to the bottom of the ocean," says Blakeman. "So, that carbon is kept from the atmosphere for a very, very long time."

Gruber hopes Ceti's work will increase humans' connection to nature. "AI could allow us to understand the communication systems of many other life forms on a much deeper level. I think it would be a good thing for the world if we really listen – if we care deeply about what whales are saying."

If you liked this story,sign up for The Essential List newsletter– a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news delivered to your inbox every Friday.