Researchers at the University of New South Wales have detected a new population of pygmy blue whales swimming around in the Indian ocean.
, analyzed almost 20 years of audio recordings from underwater bomb detectors to distinguish and locate the pod. Previously, scientists believed only five populations of blue whales inhabited these waters: one Antarctic and four pygmy.only males belt out a warble.
“Acoustics are the easiest way to study whale populations because visual observations are super costly,” Emannuelle Leroy, a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of New South Wales and lead author of the study says. To see a whale, you need a ship, she says. But to hear a tune, you only need to listen.. The organization, which was established in 1997, places undersea microphones in offshore waters to monitor for nuclear testing.
“Humpback whales also change their song. They have a new hit every year to attract females, but the blue whale songs are super simple compared to that,” Leroy says. “They have this single song or vocalization that is composed in two to four parts, so it’s forming a pattern that is quite simple. And that is repeated again and again and again with a regular interval during hours.”
After comparing the Chagos tune to other pygmy blue whale recordings and other whale species, Leroy says she firmly believes the signature melody belongs to a new population of pygmy blue whales.