Two Bowhead Whales Sync Diving 60 Miles Apart From Each Other Stun Researchers

Communication between beings in the animal kingdom is an area that experts have yet to fully understand. Scientists have speculated over the years, that mammals like whales can communicate across hundreds of miles, Smithsonian Magazine reported. But they have never had solid proof to back up their claims.

This changed when a multidisciplinary research team noted synchronized diving patterns in a pair of Bowhead whales at Qeqertarsuaq Tunua, a large bay on Greenland’s west coast. Researchers believe that the similar diving patterns displayed by both whales are evidence of acoustic herd theory, first put forward by biologist Roger Payne and oceanographer Douglas Webb. The findings have been published in Physical Review Research. 

Acoustic Herd Theory

In the past, experts had noted that toothed cetaceans such as killer whales and dolphins moved together in groups, but this pattern was followed in large mammals like baleen whales, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

These beings in the water moved separately, but Payne believed that they were connected in some manner. In his opinion, low-frequency sounds were used by such large whales to exchange messages between each other, across long distances. He and Webb postulated that low-frequency sounds produced by fin whales could travel around 430 miles in certain areas of the ocean. This later went on to be known as acoustic herd theory.  

Susan Parks, a behavioral ecologist at Syracuse University in New York, stated that there have been many attempts to validate this theory, but none have ever come to fruition, until the research at Qeqertarsuaq Tunua.

Diving Pattern

In 2010, researchers noted that two bowhead whales in Qeqertarsuaq Tunua were displaying similar diving patterns at a distance of 60 miles from each other, Smithsonian Magazine reported. By the looks of it, the diving patterns appeared to be synchronized.

This observation, made experts believe that they finally had proof to validate the 53-year-old assertion put forward by Payne and Webb. This is the first time researchers have been able to capture this 'communication.'

In the past, experts have been successful in recording calls made by whales, but have never been able to prove that those calls were 'heard' by the other mammals across long distances. 

Synchronization For Days

Evgeny Podolskiy, an environmental scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan and lead author of the research, claimed that the objective of the examination was to gain data on the "pretty chaotic and unpredictable," diving pattern displayed by bowhead whales, Smithsonian Magazine reported.

In the process, they noted how two bowhead whales, for seven days straight, displayed synchronized bouts of diving. They were 60 miles away from each other, which as per the team's calculations was the maximum acoustic range for whales in that area. "This is very, very peculiar underwater behavior," Podolskiy says. "It was very exciting."

Expert Opinions

The team is not rejecting the possibility that the synchronization could be a mere coincidence, Smithsonian Magazine reported. The team's bet though is on communication, because of the number of days this synchronization continued.

Christopher Clark, a bioacoustics researcher at Cornell University in New York, believes that such a scenario is indeed possible, but thinks that more research is required. He stated that low-frequency sounds travel slowly in the water, which makes it very difficult for humans to catch them. Therefore more analysis with better tools is required, to make a proper assertion regarding communication between the two whales.