[Jandek] lone whale

[Brobish]

I read the following and I could not help but to think
of Jandek!


Lonely whale's song remains a mystery
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition by Jon
Copley 

A lone whale with a voice unlike any other has been
wandering 
the Pacific for the past 12 years.

Marine biologist Mary Ann Daher of Woods Hole
Oceanographic 
Institution in Massachusetts, US, and her colleagues
used 
signals recorded by the US navy’s submarine-tracking
hydrophones 
to trace the movements of whales in the north Pacific.


The partially declassified records show that a lone
whale 
singing at around 52 hertz has cruised through the
ocean every 
autumn and winter since 1992. Its calls do not match
those of 
any known species, although they are clearly those of
a baleen 
whale, a group that includes blue, fin and humpback
whales.

Blue whales typically call at frequencies between 15
and 20 
hertz. They use some higher frequencies, but not 52
hertz, 
Daher says. Fin whales make pulsed sounds at around 20
hertz, 
while humpbacks sing at much higher frequencies. The
tracks 
of the lone whale do not match the migration patterns
of any 
other species, either.

Over the years the calls have deepened slightly,
perhaps 
because the whale has aged, but its voice is still
recognizable. 
Daher doubts that the whale belongs to a new species,
although 
no similar call has been found anywhere else, despite 
careful monitoring. 

Journal reference: Deep-Sea Research (vol 51, p 1889)

http://www.reuniteluna.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=938&sid=


		
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