While in Moorea watching whales Tracy and I were fortunate to spend several hours listening to humpback whale song. I experienced whale song many times in Hawaii although that was 20+ years ago so the experience was no longer fresh in my mind. Tracy had heard whalesong as well but only through the hull of our research boat. Humpback whale singers are always male and usually alone. Since our efforts in those days were focused on groups of humpbacks, gathering data about their socialization, we did not spend much time looking for or observing singers. But we did encounter them throughout the season and if the timing made sense we would do our best to ID the singer and record the song. Other researchers were devoted to studying whale song and would use dedicated hydrophones, but our efforts relied mostly on the hydrophones on our video cameras.
I have Pierre Serreli to thank for finding ideal conditions for us to observe a singer in Moorea. Pierre is a talented, passionate and experienced captain and guide on Moorea. I really like his philosophy about whale watching and the well-being of the whales, and I’ll be joining him again next year. Each day we went away from other boats to find “our own water”. The downside to this is that we might miss seeing whales that others were already with, but we were comfortable with that since we had an entire week devoted and modest goals. The upside is that if we did find whales we would be alone. When recording sound underwater being far from other boats is a huge benefit: since sound carries so well underwater, any other boats in the area will add noise to the whalesong.
While we were not really looking for him, it was not hard to find our singer since he remained in one area all week. We encountered him on three different days. The first day the audio I recorded was just ok but I realized that with a simple change the audio would improve greatly. When we found the singer again the next day we decided to simply float in the water near him, listen patiently and try to obtain as clear a recording as possible using our new approach. Captain Temana moved the boat away so that we had no noise other than a little splashing of waves. This singer was as good as I have ever experienced. He was loud, clear, moved little during his song and would pay Tracy, Pierre and me a visit to check us out each time he surfaced. I felt his song as much as heard it: my fins vibrated, I felt a drumming sensation in my chest and the hair on my arms stood on end. His song transitioned to a staccato sound in the minute before he would surface, a recognizable pattern that enabled us to know when the song was cycling over again and he was about to come up for a breath.
Dr. Dan R. Salden, the founder and driving force of the Hawaii Whale Research Foundation for 30+ years, was fondly known as “Doctor Dan” among the Lahaina whale research community. He was a friend, mentor and someone from whom I learned a great deal. He invited me to join his team and contribute to his research by obtaining video and images of competitive groups of whales in order to identify the focal animals (female, primary escort, principal challenging escort(s), peripheral whales) and thus assign roles to the fluke IDs we obtained with topside cameras. Dan’s invitation profoundly changed the course of my life. During the 10 years I worked with him I witnessed many incredible social situations among humpbacks, things few people get to see even from a boat not to mention at close range in the water. I was challenged physically to put myself in the best position to record what was happening. I was challenged mentally to figure out who was whom among the whales with often fleeting views in fast-moving situations. I have never felt more alive than when in the presence of a large humpback competitive group and I have Dan Salden to thank for that. Dan passed away in 2012.
Fast forward to 2024. Meeting our singer in Moorea and having the opportunity to listen intently to his song was moving and brought back memories of my time on the water with friends studying whales near Lahaina with Dan in his element driving the boat or photographing flukes. It seemed natural to name our singer “Doctor Dan” in honor of my old friend and mentor. Below is a 38-minute selection of recordings we made of “Doctor Dan” in September 2024, near Moorea, French Polynesia. One of it’s most intriguing aspects is that the song can be clearly heard echoing off the island, something I don’t remember hearing in Maui but I imagine is common and simply depends on the bathymetry of the area. Try listening to the passages starting at about 2:00 or 24:25. If you are bona fide researcher and would like copies of the original sound files, please contact me by email and I can send them to you . The recording is also available on Soundcloud: Song of the Humpback Whale in Moorea, French Polynesia, September 2024
"Docter Dan", a solitary male South Pacific humpback whale underwater, surfacing to breath between episodes of singing, Moorea, French Polynesia.
Image ID: 40665
Species: Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae
Location: Moorea, French Polynesia, France
