“Although we know blue whales occur and are singing in these waters, we do not know if they are travelling through or feeding in these waters. It was quite wacky listening to low blue whale moans with a rooster crowing in the background,” Panicker reminisced.Īnalysis of recordings from late 2018 to early 2020 revealed that blue whales were present in Lakshadweep waters during April and May, just before the southwest monsoon season. I sped up the songs several times to bring them within my hearing. “The song is made up of three notes and ranges between 30 and 100Hz. She speculates that there were at least two blue whales singing at a time. Panicker described the acoustic experience with the giants as “one of the most thrilling parts” of her study - the first to document blue whale songs in Indian waters in the Lakshadweep archipelago in the Arabian Sea. One hot 2019 afternoon in Lakshadweep, as marine mammal scientist Divya Panicker sat engrossed in listening to recordings retrieved from underwater sound recorders, she came across low blue-whale moans amid the cacophony of a rooster crow. Figuring out how long the whales spend in Indian waters can help conservationists develop better plans to conserve them in this climate-vulnerable region.Experts say whales singing is a likely signal that the area is their breeding ground at certain times of the year.Their presence off the Lakshadweep demonstrates that the waters here are rich and productive.
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