There are two types of whales: baleen and toothed. Baleen whales are the magical creatures that create “songs” under water. The series of high pitched squeals, shrieks, groan and moans can last anywhere up to twenty minutes and be as low as 20 Hz and high as 10,000 Hz.
Male whales (bulls) tend to use song as a means of finding a mate (a female whale is called a cow). But, theses sounds have been recorded and analyzed and findings see that the songs can also be a means to warn other whales of nearby predators or publicize food sources.
Scripps Institute sent out an interesting news release about a study explaining that the sounds of the male blue whales is decreasing as the species is increasing. Their sounds are fewer since the proximity to a mate is lessened.
This increase in the blue whale species is good news and I hope that this continues dispute the debate among the whaling and non-whaling member countries of the International Whaling Commission.
Here is a clip of some musical humpback whales put together by the Oceania Project, a non-profit is Australia that is dedicated to caring for whales, dolphins and the oceans.
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