Secrets of the Whales – S1E2 – Humpback Songs

Introduction

“Humpback songs” is the second episode of the “Secrets of the Whales” documentary by National Geographic. This articles captures a sneak peak of the 2nd episode which talks about Humpback whales verbal & non-verbal communication, songs & tunes and their relentless journey to Antarctica for a mass reunion. This can be watched freely if you have a Disney+ subscription. The executive producer of this series is James Cameron who has been shooting Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 in New Zealand. It would be interesting to see what parts of this documentary is coming in “Avatar 2 – The way of water”.

Giving birth

Humpback whales travel quiet a long distance. This episode starts talking about a mother who had traveled 4000 miles from Antarctica to Equator to deliver her baby. After the delivering the baby, mother humpbacks do not eat until they get back to Antarctica and her calf only drinks her milk, an incredible 150 gallons a day. The calf’s’ first solid meal will be at Antarctica until then they need to travel relentlessly, stick together and learn to communicate. Humpback whales breathe air like human do so they need to come to the surface of the water for fresh air. Mom continues to fast and takes break only to rest and nurse. After 5000 miles of journey they reach Antarctica and young calf is much stronger and would gain about 9 tons of weight by drinking mother’s milk for six months.

Bubble net technique for hunting

Initial part of the episode starts at Sitka, Alaska, during a summer time, where a group of humpback whales use bubble net technique to catch herd of herring fishes. Their communication, coordination and orchestration of sounds during the hunt is fascinating. This group of whales does not belong to a family but every year they regroup at the same place and enjoy feasting together indicating that they are highly social animals.

Communication techniques

The focus of this episode about humpback whales is about their language and how they communicate.

The world’s humpbacks fall into three groups. The Atlantic and Pacific populations stick to Northern Hemisphere following a communication style and the Southern Ocean humpbacks have a very different communication style. They communicate both non-verbally and verbally.

To understand bit more the episode moves to Western Australia where the world’s largest migration of humpback whales were observed around 30,000 of them were swimming past Perth down towards Antarctica. They communicate to other whales non-verbally using breaching (big leaps out of water following by a splash) and fin slapping. Verbally they trumpet and make tunes that are rhythmic and other whales learn and repeat the tune. This same tune is passed along by whales from one another and it reaches to a whale that is 3000 miles apart.

Sound amplification using corals

Then the episode moves on to Cook Island where Brian Skerry tries to see whether humpback whales use the corals to boost their sound. To his surprise he spots a male humpback whale which has its head pointed down toward the coral bed and making tunes. The coral bed amplifies and broadcast his song. This song is same song that whale in Western Australia sang which was 5000 miles away from this place.

Antarctica reunion

Then the episode moves to Antarctica where Almost 100,000 whales migrate from different parts of southern continent: Australia, Africa, South America. During this journey male do not sing songs, mother & calf whispers with sound that is 40 decibels lower than an adult human conversation to converse energy for this long journey. Humpback repeats this cycle of reunion every year. They chatter, young calf play and Antarctica has a special feast for all of them. James Cameron describes this reunion is similar like Thanksgiving dinner.

Antarctica’s special treat – Krill

As summer begins, endless sunshine melts the glaciers containing nutrients and the water turns milky which helps the algae to grow on the bottom of ice floes. Krill, a shrimp like creature only feeds on algae swims beneath Antarctic ice. It is about 2 inches in size very small for a whale. But the volume matters. If we combine all Krills as one entity and weigh it as a single mass, it will weight 90M tons more than the entire human population on Earth. A mother humpback will eat 5000 pounds of Krill a day for about 4 months before it travels back to Equator to give birth and fast for about 8 months until she returns back Antarctica for the special Krill treat. She also makes sounds to communicate to other whales on where to find Krills.

Mom rests on the surface for an hour or more in between meals. Sometimes her calf joins her too. After they wake up she calls other whales who are interested to eat more. They go as team and make the perfect P-shaped bubble net feeding technique similar to the whales found in Alaska.

Young calf should learn how to perfect P-shaped bubbles in the clockwise direction as they will not be eating for next 8 months. It only takes few week for them to master.

Encounter with Orca

Humpback and Orca are mortal enemies. Orcas will attack young and weak humpback whales that wander away from its mother. Orca with calf will be cautious and does not take a chance. Mom humpback whales she realizes that her calf is away for a while will call him or her by slapping her fins & tail on the water. Orca pods if they join together would be dangerous for young humpback whales.