Humpback Karaoke

High wind gusts, up to 25-35mph, and small craft advisories keep my little kayak off the water yesterday and today. I'm content to listen to live internet broadcast of the whale song, click on www.whalesong.net. The hydrophone is set in my neighborhood waters off Cove Park in Kihei.

Whales have many sounds; social sounds, which cannot be heard by humans, a feeding siren, which I heard from the Alaska whales (I described it as a trumpet), and the whale song. Whales do not have vocal cords, the sound is made by pushing air within the respiratory tract or thorax.

The whale song is believed to be sung only by males, only in breeding waters and waters while in transit from their feeding grounds. Because males sing only during mating season, it is believed they sing to impress females, to rid other males, or as sonar for location of others.

The song is a string of different sounds in different pitches, humming, snoring, groaning, sighing and chirping. Themes of songs develop over the years. Males in the beginning of this breeding season are continuing the song from the end of last breeding season. The current top hit song will now develop and change through these coming months, to be picked up where they left off next season.

While singing, males are motionless, with their head down, usually at 45' to 130' depth. It is said the song can travel in unobstructed, noiseless waters for up to 100 miles. No wonder I can hear a whale song underwater, and not a single whale is in sight nearby! Wow, they can be singing to me from beyond the Islands of Lanai and Oahu!

In water, sound travels 5 times faster. Researchers working together in Hawaii, Mexico and Japan observed a change in the Hawaiian song, and within days, the Japanese and Mexican song changed the same, to match the Hawaiian change. Amazing!!!!

Whalesong.net brings the song to your home. To hear the song in the water, get away from the shore and the sound of the waves. Dive under water, keeping your head at 1' or more depth and clear your ears. Stay down and quiet your body and be amazed! I like to hang motionless with my lower legs "kneeling"on the surface, my head straight down, like a male singer.

When I take my 5 and 9 year old nephews and 6 ("Almost 7" she would say) year old niece into the water to hear the sound, they have trouble diving down and staying down. But they still come up all excited saying they heard the whales singing! They believe they hear the song as much as I believe in the healing energy of the vibration of the sound waves.