A major paper by Project CETI (the Cetacean Translation Initiative) outlines how sperm whales produce clicking sounds by squeezing air through their respiratory systems. Aside from using the zipper-like noise to converse with each other, it also serves as a form of echolocation to locate prey.
Despite dwelling in deep oceanic waters and many measuring larger than a school bus, sperm whales have more in common with us than you might expect.
The highly social and intelligent creatures communicate through a series of morse-code-like clicks, called codas. Now, after more than a decade of tracking their vocalizations in the east Caribbean, scientists have unravelled what they call the sperm whale "phonetic alphabet" a major step toward translating the language of a different species.
"They're fundamentally different from us. They live in the darkest parts of the ocean that even our best submarines have a hard time getting to on a regular basis," Shane Gero, lead biologist for the project and a scientist in residence at Carleton University, told the Star. "And yet there are some things about being highly social, large-brained mammals that are parallel to us."
The peer-reviewed study is the latest major paper from Project CETI (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), spearheaded by Gero and members of MIT's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Published Tuesday in journal Nature Communications, the study sheds new light on the complexities of whale speech.
How sperm whales communicate
This story is from the May 11, 2024 edition of Toronto Star.
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This story is from the May 11, 2024 edition of Toronto Star.
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