Sing Low, Sweet Blue Whales

Since the 1960′s, the male Blue Whale song has been getting lower and lower in frequency, and today the Blue Whale pitch is about 30% lower than it was about three decades ago. Hearing this news story intro on NPR, my first thought was, “What perilous situation — global warming? aggressive human hunting? food source depletion? — is causing the whales to ‘sing low, sweet chariot’?”

It turns out that a San Diego oceanographer (John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) believes that this steady decrease in pitch is related to the banning of Blue Whale hunting in 1966 — at which point in history the Blue Whale population was dangerously low. His theory is that the population decrease led male Blue Whales to sing at higher and higher pitches so that they could be heard more readily by females (who might be farther away, and certainly were fewer in number). Since the 1966 ban, Blue Whale population numbers have been rising, and Hildebrand asserts that without the strain of population scarcity, the Blue Whale song is returning to its natural register.

I find this a fascinating theory! The thought that a sharp shift  in out-of-balance human predatory behavior could have such a dramatic effect on a whale’s existence in such a short period of time (30% in 30+ years!), is exhilarating. What other massive change is possible with immediate change in human habit?

Fascinating as it is, this theory is still, after all, just a theory. Other possibilities certainly exist for the tonal shift (including ones like global warming, food source depletion, and so on). Not being an oceanographer, I can’t comment of the validity of this (or any) theory. However, the feeling that “we can make a difference” has settled itself into my cells and won’t be easily dislodged. Even if it turns out that Hildebrand is incorrect — and the deepening of the Blue Whale song is peril-induced, after all — I consider myself now aligned with the  idea that magnificent change is absolutely possible. That alignment is a blessing for which I am grateful.

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For full source article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123420217&ft=1&f=1001