Blue Whale Singing Show Tunes in New York Waters

June 1st, 2009

Well…maybe a show tune for a blue whale. I cannot be sure what the whale artistic expression is like, nor what they consider entertainment .

For the very first time in New York coastal waters, the voices of singing blue whales have been positively identified. Acoustic experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed that the voice of a singing blue whale was tracked about 70 miles off of Long Island and New York City on Jan. 10-11, 2009, as the whale swam slowly from east to west. At the same time, a second blue whale was heard singing offshore in the far distance.

Blue whales have always been very fascinating to me. When you think of all the behemoths that lived with the dinosaurs that no treadmill was going to help you get in shape to outrun, we still have the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth traversing our waters.

At up to 32.9 metres (108 feet) in length and 172 metric tonnes (190 short tons) or more in weight, the blue whale is the largest animal ever to have existed.

“These endangered blue whales are the largest animals ever to have lived on this planet, and their voices can travel across an ocean. It’s just amazing to hear one singing out there on New York’s ocean stage only tens of miles from Carnegie Hall and Broadway!” said Christopher Clark, director of Cornell’s BRP. “This opens a whole new universe of opportunities for all of us to learn more about and appreciate these species and the vitality of New York’s marine environment.”

New York State’s DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis added, “This is a very important moment in the environmental history of New York State. Blue whales were almost hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th Century, and the fact that now we’re finding them migrating not far off our shores is truly remarkable. Although whaling no longer occurs in U.S. waters, whales still face numerous threats including vessel strikes and marine debris, and this latest finding will enable DEC and its partners to develop science-based management plans to protect these magnificent creatures.”