By Margaret Maccoll
Our migrating whales love a new song. Once they hear a new song from whales they bump into along their migration routes it is quickly adopted and sung by all the male whales in the pod.
“They crave novelty. They want something new, but they follow each other,“ University of Queensland whale researcher Professor Michael Noad said.
About 3km off shore from Peregian Beach University of Queensland humpback whale researchers led by Professor Noad and Dr Rebecca Dunlop are using hydrophones (underwater microphones) as they record and try to analyse the meaning behind the whale songs, as part of long term studies on whale behaviour and communication.
“We know whales produce these long elaborate songs during the breeding season,“ Professor Noad said.
“We still don’t know how they work, what it’s all about. Is it sung to attract the females or to keep other males away? Is it attracting or aggressive?
“The songs are complex and elaborate and change each year.“
What the researchers do know is that only males sing, some sing louder than others, they don’t sing in unison or chorus and while they will sing beside a female they stop singing when swimming beside a male.
Professor Noad said this year they would be taking blubber samples to measure testosterone levels of whales and with the aid of drone images will be able to match the recorded song to the individual whale, showing its dimensions.
In other recent research the scientists wanted to determine the effects on migrating humpback whales of shooting seismic air guns into the water at a distance of 2km from them. The air guns are used by industry to search for oil and gas reserves and currently have a 2km exclusion zone from whales. Professor Noad said the whales were not too adversely affected, but the study did not take into account the impact on other marine species.
For more than 20 years whale researchers have realised the advantage of Peregian Beach as a humpback whale research base with Emu Mountain a good vantage
point and the whales passing close to the beach.
