Sounds like they’re worried – Whales aren’t singing the way they used to. Their voices become deeper every year, and scientists are worried that this may be a sign that they’re in trouble. The same thing is happening to whales all over the world.
Whale researcher Mark McDonald first noticed this phenomenon 8 years ago. In Wired.com, Brandon Keim quotes him as saying, “We don’t have the answer. We just have a lot of recordings.”
Keim quotes researcher Hal Whitehead as saying, “The exciting possibility, I think, is that they’re all listening to each other. This is a worldwide cultural phenomenon, and that’s very cool.”
He quotes researcher John Calombokidis as saying, “It’s a fascinating finding. It’s even more remarkable, given that the songs themselves differ in different oceans. There seem to be these distinct populations, yet they’re all showing this common shift.”
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