Humpback Whales Are Blowing ‘Bubble Rings’ at Boats. Are They Trying to Communicate?

The humpback whales blow from the “bubble rings” to the boats. Do they try to communicate?

By Melissa Hobson Edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier

Strong whales are known for their in -depth use of bubbles – powerful and aggressive gusts which prove their prowess during the nuptial parade to the “curtains” of bubble nets which they produce to bring prey to a show that often attracts tourists from the whole world.

Now a new study published in Marine mammals science explore rare instances whenNovaeangliae megaps) Create dramatic nuts in the shape of nuts that look like a ring of rolling underwater smoke.

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Researchers from the University of California, Davis, and their colleagues from other institutions, including Seti Institute, which is known to focus on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (STI) but which is also interested in non -human intelligence on earth – has sought examples of general behavior of lumps when they discovered a Striking video “Blows 19 bubble structures – including 11 rings.

“We were just doing Gobsmack – like” What’s going on? ” “, Said Fred Sharpe, biologist of whales at UC Davis. “For a team that wishes to help astrobiologists to analyze unusual signals from deep space, it is just very good in our paradigm … It’s so weird.”

Sharpe and his colleagues quickly found more examples on social networks and other researchers. The co-author of the study, Jodi Frediani, a wildlife photographer who is also in UC Davis, even noticed a revealing circle on a photograph that a friend showed during a presentation on the humpback whales. With this phenomenon in her mind, she says: “I went,” Gee, there is a bubble ring! “”

For the study, the team recorded 12 events through the North and South Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans in which 11 individual bumps were seen blowing from bubble rings. The researchers described 39 rings in total. “It is not much in the world of whales but quite – and in several oceans,” explains Frediani.

“This is a really fun article,” said the biologist at the University of Syracuse, Susan E. Parks, who is studying food in bubbles in bumps and was not involved in the new study. “It reads as a story of detective that tries to gather information on something that is not widely studied and that rarely happens.” Parks has not observed any bubble ring herself-as well as she knows, she says: “I may have already seen them and I have never really thought of them.”

Despite the compilation of many examples of the rings, Sharpe still does not know what to think of their objective. “I guess this is what it will feel when we get in touch with extraterrestrials,” he said.

Researchers speculate that behavior could be fun. A whale would blow a bubble ring, then swim through it or “made a spy hop through the middle,” says Frediani – when he made such a spy jump, the whale threw the head vertically above the surface, through the bubble ring. Or maybe animals’ behavior could resist curiosity towards humans: from the 12 recorded events, nine involved whales that approached human observers more closely before blowing rings.

“We need help with all the help of the human brain trust to decipher. It’s almost like [the whales’] Blowhole is a mouth, and the symbols that come out are bubbles, as opposed to sounds. »—Fred Sharpe University of California, Davis

Could the whales try to communicate with us? Sharpe does not exclude this as a possibility. He postulates that the presence of humans seems to trigger bubble blowing and that the bumps improve with practice. “It is perhaps a signal of species-Atypic that is made for people,” he says, “whales tending humans … using their own language, their own form of communication.”

Parks thinks that it is plausible that animals appear on humans, but she adds that it is too early to say it with such a small sample size. “They would like much more [observations] Before you can say with certainty, ”she says. Because most observations have been made by people, it could distort the data, she notes, although there are “two observations of planes, so we know [the whales] produce them [bubble rings] When people are not present too.

Now that more and more researchers are able to search for these bubble rings, known as Parks, reported observations can increase considerably. With more data, Sharpe and his colleagues hope to understand what is the goal of these swirling air donuts – and if the rings could contain information. “We need the help of all the help of the confidence of the human brain to decipher this,” says Sharpe. “It’s almost like [the whales’] Blowhole is a mouth, and the symbols that come out are bubbles, as opposed to sounds. »»

Sharpe hopes that the images of the study will help people will feel connected with whales and make them want to protect animals from human threats such as ships, tangle, noise and chemical pollution, loss of habitat and disruption of the food network. He says he also wants to find a way to make the whales “know that they were heard”. For him, try to decipher potential messages and find a way to answer puts the team “in the same place as you are trying to communicate with extraterrestrials – and you have received a message.”