lone male humpback whale singing in Dominican Republic

http://www.filmbaby.com/films/4995 has "Where the Whales Sing", my one hour documentary on the humpbacks. Here is an unedited short clip from a longer clip of a lone male humpback whale singing in Jan 2008. He is clearly unperturbed by our presence. The sounds he makes are recorded by the on-camera mic. You can hear the different sounds he makes, the door creaking, the fog horn, the sequence of chirrups which range from three to five at a time. I have been on boats right above singing males and the songs are so loud that it sounded as if there were loud speakers on the boat connected to a hydrophone. In the Caribbean and the islands of Hawaii it is possible to dive under water and hear the ambient sound of hundreds of whales singing. The deeper you dive, the louder the sound becomes. I was fortunate to spend a day with Dr Jim Darling in Maui this Feb and saw clearly how a male whale attracted other male whales and then stopped singing. They seemed friendly and cooperative rather than antagonistic to each other, as if they were buddies. They then swam at about 4 knots just beneath the surface for about ten minutes before they suddenly speeded up. A few minutes later they had found a female with a calf and a large male, the primary escort. The three males lunged at the primary escort trying to get close to the female. Their backs, dorsal fins and tubercles on their heads were bloodied in the process. The female cleverly swam towards another female with a calf and primary escort and lost the whole lot of them at which point she gave a mighty breach. Several minutes later her primary escort reappeared, alone.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• humpback
• whales
• breaching
• dolphins
• bermuda
• ocean
• stevenson
• silver
• banks
• dominican
• republic
• hawaii
• maui

[litleflirt23]

the short sounds sound like a velociraptor from jurassic park! haha

[carriellbee]

He's talking to you.

[iliekunicornsxx]

He should be on American Idol.

[MrSven79]

these are the best humans of the world

[legodeath2600]

it sounds like a donkey

[bribri9514]

It's a moo cow! :D

[warrior152]

Everybody quiet im a scientist, and if im correct hes trying to spit game at a female humpback a couple hundred feet away

[xerxerxex]

he's probably saying "Dude no camera's! NO camera's!"

[alexhamster1134]

how deep was the water there you were swimming without oxygen tanks...

[xhezeleyesx]

@jeanjean3112 Awww <3

[TheVansskater101]

arent they supposed to be super loud underwater?