Researchers have discovered the oldest known audio recording of a whale song, made in 1949 off the coast of Bermuda. The recording belongs to a humpback whale and was found during the digitization of old archives of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA. This was reported by AP, writes UNN.
Details
The sound was accidentally recorded by scientists who were then testing sonar systems with the U.S. Office of Naval Research. They did not know what they were hearing but decided to preserve the recording.
The ocean was much quieter then
According to marine bioacoustician Peter Tyack, this recording is valuable not only for the whale's song itself but also for the background sounds of the ocean in the late 1940s.
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The recovered recordings not only allow us to track whale sounds but also show what the soundscape of the ocean was like in the late 1940s.
Scientists suggest that such archival recordings will help understand how modern noise from shipping and other human activities affects whale communication.
Accidental discovery
The audio was stored on a plastic disc of an old 1940s dictaphone. It was thanks to this medium that the recording was preserved - most magnetic tapes of that time had long deteriorated.
Humpback whales are known for their complex "songs" which they use for communication, finding mates, and navigation in the ocean. The new discovery makes it possible to compare modern whale sounds with those heard over 75 years ago.