Whale Communication

Songs, Clicks, and Echoes Across the Ocean

Why Do Whales Communicate?

  • Navigation — coordinating movement across vast distances
  • Mating — attracting partners with complex songs
  • Social bonding — maintaining group cohesion
  • Feeding — coordinating hunting strategies
  • Mother-calf contact — staying connected in murky water

Two Kinds of Whales, Two Kinds of Sound

Baleen Whales Toothed Whales
Humpbacks, blues, fins Sperm whales, orcas, belugas
Low-frequency songs & calls Clicks, whistles, and buzzes
No echolocation Echolocation for hunting
Sound produced in larynx Sound produced in nasal passages

Humpback Whale Songs

  • Only males sing — songs last 10–20 minutes, repeated for hours
  • All males in a population sing the same song
  • The song evolves over the season — and changes spread across oceans
  • Songs can travel thousands of miles through deep ocean channels
  • Scientists still debate: is it for mating, territory, or something else?

The SOFAR Channel

  • A layer of ocean (~1,000 m deep) where sound travels extraordinarily far
  • Low-frequency whale calls can propagate across entire ocean basins
  • Blue whale calls at 188 dB have been detected thousands of kilometers away
  • Before industrial shipping noise, whales may have communicated across oceans

Sperm Whale Clicks

  • The loudest animal sound on Earth — up to 230 dB
  • Used for echolocation to hunt squid in pitch-black depths
  • Also produce patterned "codas" — rhythmic click sequences
  • Different clans use different coda dialects
  • Researchers believe codas encode identity and social belonging

Orca Dialects

  • Each orca pod has a unique dialect — a set of distinct calls
  • Dialects are learned, passed from mother to calf
  • Pods that share calls are grouped into clans
  • Dialects help orcas identify family and avoid inbreeding
  • Some researchers call this culture

Beluga Whales: Canaries of the Sea

  • Nicknamed for their rich vocal repertoire
  • Produce clicks, whistles, chirps, and squeals
  • Can mimic human speech patterns and other sounds
  • Highly social — use sound to coordinate in Arctic ice
  • One of the few whales with a flexible neck for directional sound

The Problem of Ocean Noise

  • Shipping, sonar, and drilling create a wall of noise
  • Whale communication range has shrunk by 90% since pre-industrial times
  • Navy sonar linked to mass strandings of beaked whales
  • Chronic noise causes stress, behavioral changes, and displacement
  • Some whales are shifting frequency or calling louder to compensate

What We're Still Learning

  • Can whale songs carry grammar or syntax?
  • Project CETI is using AI to decode sperm whale codas
  • Are whale communication systems a form of language?
  • How do whales adapt their calls to a noisier ocean?
  • What can whale communication teach us about the origins of language?

Thank You

The ocean is full of voices — we're just learning to listen.