Whales – Thoughts on their Communication – Monday 9th October 2023

Whales – Thoughts on their Communication – Monday 9th October 2023

The whales that sometimes sit with their tails out of the water, at length – I had a thought about that. Firstly, that position gives you the best view of activity below and secondly, if making whale sounds/calls can be heard by predator or prey, and you need to be quiet, your large tail can be seen a long way off by other whales in your family. I think as a group seeking food they likely search apart in a given area, so that might be a method of quietly letting the family know where you are, as well as keeping watch while the others look for food. And with your tail out of water and body in that position, from beneath the surface you wouldn’t look like a whale. If it’s mostly the male doing this activity, then the above might explain it. They seem to live very warily and especially so when they have youngsters.

Whale species would all have different ways of saying the same things. Like us, we too have different ways of saying the same things, but we all know what somebody means if they indicate they are thirsty, hungry etc. without using words.

Being under water, to my mind, dictates the use of eye gaze when relaying certain  communications. Certain sounds probably mean Orca, another for shark and some of their sounds could equate to the same as when we hum or whistle for example. The mother whale would make a sound that means the youngster is tired and the father whale would react accordingly.

They all (whales) would have a set sound that indicates us, ie. the presence of people, boat etc. Orca would likely nudge or eye each other to say; let’s go over and take a look at the boat and people. As a group, they would likely all have the same thought, just as we would.

If we recorded whales and played it back to them, they wouldn’t necessarily understand or respond in the way we might expect. Not from a lack of intelligence, but from not having any reference to a recording device. Their initial focus wouldn’t be what they are hearing, but how and why. If a whale doesn’t need to know our language, then it wouldn’t necessarily grasp why we would want to understand theirs. From that, we could assume that the whale isn’t very clever, when in fact what it may know about the ocean and it’s marine life would astound us. The whale has seen our boats, buildings on the shores, they know we too have children, some will have seen our dogs, but they can only know what they know and have seen. Like us. And of course those of us with disabilities won’t know of certain things too, for instance if we are blind, deaf, developmentally delayed and others, these groups generally have allowances made. When we talk to a blind person, we can’t say; did you see that beautiful car? In spite of this loss and the gap in communications, we of course know they are intelligent.

For a whale, that gap is extensive. They live in an ocean, being constantly aware of their environment, holding their breath. No vet, searching for vast and necessary quantities of food daily, dealing with predators and nets and all while being parents. They couldn’t not be intelligent, achieving and surviving every day. And such gentle, warm, loving beings.

The really expressive communication for them is likely their touch and the eye gaze, to my mind.

Fiona MacLeod (C)