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If you're in Maui during the 
height of humpback whale season, 
and you just go for a swim in

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the ocean, typically you 
will hear the chorusing 
in the background of 
humpback whale song.

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Humpback whale males 
are the ones who sing.

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The humpback whale song is kind 
of other-worldly because it 
combines these elements of low

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frequency sounds together with 
these really high notes and 
all kinds of things sort of

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in between.

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And that's part of the 
reason what makes the 
song so interesting 
and unique because you

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really get the sense that 
the whales are trying to 
kind of show off the range.

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It's quite beautiful and 
melodic and other than human 
language, it's been touted as

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one of the most complex 
vocalizations in 
the animal kingdom.

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Surfacing.

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Each year, approximately half 
of the North Pacific humpback 
whale population migrates

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roughly 3,000 miles from its 
feeding grounds in Southeastern 
Alaska to its breeding

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grounds in Hawai.

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The majority of the 
whales will be here 
between January and March.

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When they're in the breeding 
grounds, other than newborn 
calves that are feeding on their

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mother's milk, the whales 
are largely fasting.

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So the amount of time that 
they can spend here is going 
to be dictated by their energy

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stores that they've 
built up over the summer.

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While in the breeding 
grounds the male whales 
perform their haunting song.

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All the whales in Hawai sing 
approximately the same song.

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Based on genetics, now there 
is believed to be 14 distinct 
population segments of humpback

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whales around the world.

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There are very large differences 
between the song that is 
produced, let's say here in the

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North Pacific and what we have 
in the South Pacific, because 
those are entirely different

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populations and those whales do 
not interact with each other.

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There's three or four 
other whales singing

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When the breeding season 
starts, the whales are singing 
the same song that they ended

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with at the previous season.

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The song evolves in certain 
ways over the course 
of a breeding season.

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There may be innovators in the 
singing community in Hawai.

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It may be that there are whales 
from other breeding areas 
that go up to similar feeding

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grounds and they've come down 
to the Hawai breeding grounds 
and are bringing some changes

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in the song that the 
other males are adopting.

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And that combination 
leads to the song kind of 
evolving over the course of

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a season.

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So at the end of the season 
when you record a song, there 
is some slight differences that

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are very noticeable from 
the beginning of the season.

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If you record song over several 
years, you may hear that 
those small changes lead to

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large scale changes.

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There's still so much we don't 
understand even just some 
very basic questions as to

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what the function 
of their song is.

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And there's just been a 
lot of debate about that.

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How do scientists study 
humpback whale song?

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And what might it tell 
them about the fitness 
of an individual whale?

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Major funding for this 
program was provided by 
the Batchelor Foundation,

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encouraging people to 
preserve and protect

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America's underwater resources.

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And by The William J. & 
Tina Rosenberg Foundation,

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The Do Unto Others Trust 
and by the following.

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Whales have long held a 
place in Hawaiian culture.

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We all paid tribute 
to the whale.

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And one of the chants 
was aumakua, which is 
the guardian angel.

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So it talks about the whale 
being a guardian angel

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of a family.

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It says that the whale 
exists everywhere in heaven.

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It has a lot of knowledge and 
a lot of experience and is very 
strong and it takes care of us.

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While historically 
toothed whales have always 
played an important role 
in Hawaiian culture,

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today humpback whales are 
clearly the most recognized 
whale species in Hawai.

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Tourists come from far 
and wide to observe 
these majestic creatures.

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They generate tens of 
millions of dollars 
in a tourist interest.

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The islands clear waters 
are also a great place 
for researchers to study

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the baleen whales.

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We have several projects that 
we're currently engaged in.

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And one of them is trying 
to get a better handle 
on how song may function.

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Scientists Adam Pack and Marc 
Lammers have been researching 
humpback whales for decades,

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often collaborating 
on different studies.

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To research whale song, the 
team works on the leeward side 
of Maui, inside the Hawaiian

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Islands Humpback Whale 
National Marine Sanctuary.

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In the United States 
humpback whales are 
given special protections 
under the Marine Mammal

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Protection Act.

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Federal Regulations mandate 
that people have to stay a 
hundred yards away from whales.

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We have specialized federal 
permits that allow us to 
do our research, which 
includes approaching

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closer than 
a hundred yards.

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Okay, we've got an 
animal at 12 o'clock.

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Is he still singing? Yeah.

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Animal 12 o'clock? How far away?

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150 yards.

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Okay.

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In order to be able to collect 
our data, we have to locate 
where the singer is, and the

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physics of underwater 
sound make it challenging 
because underwater 
sound travels four and

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a half times faster 
than in air, which makes 
the wavelengths longer.

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So if we just stick our heads 
in the water, we're not going 
to be able to tell you where

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the sound is coming from.

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So what we do is, we use 
a directional hydrophone 
system, which has 
effectively two receivers

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that are spaced at four 
and a half times the 
spacing between our ears.

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And that allows us to 
kind of use those kinds 
of amplitude differences 
that we would normally

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use in air to effectively 
resolve which direction 
the song is coming from.

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Okay, right again.

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And that allows us to then 
to then move closer to him.

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We're interested in the 
characteristics of a 
humpback whale song itself.

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The song is complex, it's 
hierarchically organized.

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What you see here is the full 
cycle of the song and each one 
of these little bright dots

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right here is representative 
of basically a song unit.

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So, for example, here we have 
a certain type of unit that's 
repeated, and one phrase begins

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and ends about right here.

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Another one begins and 
ends approximately here.

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Then another one right 
over here, and then 
another one over here.

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And then the final 
one is right there.

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So you can see really the 
structure of how the units 
contribute to different types of

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phrases and how different 
phrases are organized 
into the themes that 
make up the entire song.

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After each song cycle, which 
on average lasts between ten to 
18 minutes, the whale surfaces

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to breathe, before 
re-submerging to start 
the song all over again.

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Once the animal dives back 
down, the team joins him in the 
water to collect their data.

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The animals tend to sing kind 
of canted about anywhere from 
about 45 to 60 degrees down.

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Most often they're alone, 
sometimes they're singing 
while in association 
with other whales.

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The humpback whale song is 
just in itself very beautiful.

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But when you get in the water 
with them and you're right 
next to a singer and you feel

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the tips of your fins and your 
lungs vibrating as a result, it 
definitely leaves a very strong

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impression on you.

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And it's humbling, really.

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To document the behavior 
of the whale, Adam records 
video while in the water.

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He also uses the video to 
measure the size of the 
animal using a technique 
called videogrammetry,

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which he developed 
with his colleagues.

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For that technique you need 
to know the distance from 
the camera to the whale.

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And so I am continuously 
videotaping that whale 
and I wait for the 
singer to straighten

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out.

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Then I have a high 
frequency handheld sonar 
device, higher than the 
whales can hear, basically

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it's like a fish finder.

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When activated, this sonar 
device makes a clicking sound 
while measuring the distance

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between the camera 
and the whale.

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This measurement displays on 
a small LCD screen which Adam 
records with his video camera.

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So when I'm back at 
our laboratory at UH 
Hilo and I'm watching 
video of this, I'll hear

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a click sound and I know that's 
the moment I have to capture 
that frame on my computer.

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And then I'll basically measure 
the distance on the computer 
screen, from the tip of the

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rostrum to the tip of the tail.

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And then there's an 
easy algorithm that we 
use to calculate the 
length of the whale.

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While Adam captures video, Marc 
records the whale's song so 
its acoustic characteristics

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can be analyzed later.

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I will position myself towards 
the head of the animal and 
start making my recordings,

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and I also have a handheld dive 
sonar that I use to measure 
the distance that I'm at from

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the singing whale.

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And those measurements are then 
used for us to then be able 
to calculate the source level

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- so the amplitude that 
the whale is singing.

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We'll capture as much of the 
song as we can and ideally if 
we can, we'll capture multiple

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sequences of the song.

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What we're interested 
in is whether that song 
of a particular singer 
carries information about

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that singer's fitness.

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If we consider that all the 
whales are effectively trying to 
produce the same song, some are

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going to be inherently better 
at it presumably than others.

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And that's exactly what we're 
trying to quantify, is just that 
range and that variability that

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exists among the whales.

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Are some whales truly better 
at producing song at both 
low and high frequencies?

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Are other whales maybe a little 
bit more limited in terms of 
the range that they can produce?

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Are things like the loudness 
of the song, right, the 
amplitude of that song, is that

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related to larger body size?

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Would that represent 
a singer with high 
levels of testosterone?

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We're interested in testosterone 
levels because we know that 
when whales enter a reproductive

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stage, those levels go 
up quite dramatically.

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Is the quality of the song 
related to their testosterone 
levels, which could then help

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them broadcast to their 
competitors and to their 
potential mates their 
willingness and their

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ability to compete vigorously.

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To measure the testosterone 
levels, the experts 
need to collect a small 
blubber sample after

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they've completed their 
in-water data collection.

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Adam will shoot a biopsy dart, 
which collects a very small 
sample of blubber and skin using

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a hollow tipped arrow that just 
bounces right off the whale and 
then we go and collect that.

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At the end of each day, Adam 
works up the biopsy samples 
in a sterile work environment.

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So here we have a small amount 
of blubber, there's the skin.

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And so, we're going to 
send it up to our colleague 
up at the University 
of Alaska Fairbanks and

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they have a laboratory up 
there where they can do our 
steroid hormone analysis for us.

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While Marc and Adam still need 
to collect more data to draw 
definitive conclusions about

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the correlations between 
a singer's hormone 
levels and its size and 
acoustic characteristics,

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they're already able to tease 
out some preliminary findings.

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Larger whales may be able to 
produce somewhat louder songs.

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And we know that the larger 
whale is the more likely to win 
in a competition for a mate.

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A number of hypotheses have 
been proposed over the years 
to understand the purpose of

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the humpback's song.

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From helping sort of stimulating 
females to come into estrus 
to providing some sort of

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a homing beacon for 
migrating whales.

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None of them are necessarily 
mutually exclusive.

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From what we can 
tell it is a display.

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When we see singers being 
joined by other whales it 
almost always is by other males.

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We don't see females 
actively approaching singers.

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And so if other males are the 
ones that are really coming 
in and paying close attention

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to the song of the singer, it 
suggests that there's something 
in the quality of the song

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that they're homing in on and 
trying to sort of perceive.

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It could benefit other males who 
may encounter the singer again, 
so they have some information,

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so as not to engage this 
male in physical competition 
and perhaps get injured.

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While Adam and Marc are 
busy collecting their 
data, other members of 
the research team make

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observations and take 
photographs of the 
animals' tail flukes 
and other distinguishing

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body parts.

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These images will be used 
later for photo identification.

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And the fluke ID that we 
gather is important because our 
historical archive of humpback

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whale individual identification 
photographs dates back to 1976.

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It's one of the largest archives 
in the world of humpback whales.

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It contains some 23,000 images, 
or what we call observations 
of, over 7,000 individual

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whales.

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So it's a rich database.

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Unique markings on the whales' 
tail flukes make it possible to 
distinguish between individuals.

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One of the whales that we came 
across yesterday was a singer 
and I was curious whether we

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had seen this whale before.

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So you can see that this is a 
whale that we call a 75% white, 
meaning three quarters of

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the ventral surface of 
the tail fluke is white.

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And there is some markings 
like this scar, this scar.

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And so what I did was, I took 
this photograph here, I'll 
just move it to the side.

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And then I started going 
through our catalog.

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And we found a match.

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So you can see that this 
scar here, for example, 
is represented here.

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This big line here, starting 
out thick and getting 
thin, is represented here.

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This little white scar is here.

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This is from March 10th, 
2019, the new photograph.

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And this is February 
20th, 2006, so that 
represents a 14 year span.

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And if we continue to go back 
in the catalog, we can begin 
to start tracing the full life

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history of this whale as it's 
been seen in Hawai, which 
is incredible to trace that

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life history.

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And it makes you fall in 
love with these animals.

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And as a scientist, it makes 
me want to learn more about 
them, so that I could then teach

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about them to others.

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So they care about them.

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There's our animal 
ahead of us, 12 o'clock

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50 yards.

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Unlike other whale species, 
humpbacks do not stay together 
in permanent pods, but instead

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associate in various 
temporary social groupings.

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They'll be together from 
anywhere from a few hours 
to maybe to a couple of days

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or so at a time.

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When you're in the breeding 
grounds one of the most common 
pod types that you'll see

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are mothers with newborn calves.

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Often you'll see a pair of 
whales and most often that 
pair is composed of a male and

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a female.

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Females without calves 
are very coveted.

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They're prized by males.

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The competitive pod is where 
you have a female that has 
multiple males that are trying

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to effectively gain 
exclusive access to her.

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The whale that at that 
point has access to her, 
we call the primary escort.

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And then you have multiple 
whales, usually in the 
periphery, who are the 
so-called secondary

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escorts.

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And some of them will 
become active challengers 
to the principal escort.

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He may do all these displays, 
right, to show his strengths.

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And so these include things 
like blocking behavior by the 
male closest to the female,

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a head lunge, or blowing a trail 
of bubbles from the blowhole, 
to more vigorous contest

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competition in which the male 
will go chase a secondary escort 
or will go and will strike it

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hard with its body or its 
tail flukes, sometimes 
causing injury, blood.

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And these are all efforts 
by the male to effectively 
kind of discourage 
other males from coming

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00:19:19,066 --> 00:19:23,233
in and trying to dislodge him 
from his position with a female.

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So these displays, whether 
they be these sort of physical 
displays that we observe or the

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song, maybe ways that 
competitors use to sort 
of gauge each other and 
to determine whether

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it's really worth it to 
go in and try to take that 
other whale on physically.

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Keep your eyes 
open, now, though.

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00:19:44,833 --> 00:19:47,566
Okay, I've got starboard beam.

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00:19:47,566 --> 00:19:49,733
Port beam.

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00:19:49,733 --> 00:19:54,733
To further study the various 
pod types and behaviors, the 
experts also place acoustic

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00:19:55,933 --> 00:19:59,033
suction cup tags on whales.

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00:19:59,033 --> 00:20:00,966
We have to get quite 
close to the whale.

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00:20:00,966 --> 00:20:02,433
This is good speed. 
This is good speed.

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00:20:02,433 --> 00:20:04,366
Let's see if he takes 
a couple of breaths.

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00:20:04,366 --> 00:20:07,166
And we have to reach 
out with a long pole

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00:20:07,166 --> 00:20:10,533
to actually physically 
attach the tag to the whale.

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00:20:10,533 --> 00:20:15,533
The whole tagging process, 
it is both exhilarating and, 
and also a fairly stressful.

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A whale right here 
and a whale up ahead.

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00:20:18,133 --> 00:20:21,266
Second whale is closer 
at the surface, stand by.

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00:20:21,266 --> 00:20:23,833
Wait, he's turning, turning.

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00:20:25,700 --> 00:20:30,033
So once the tag is successfully 
on, as you can imagine, the 
first thing that happens

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is, there's a big cheer.

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00:20:31,733 --> 00:20:35,566
Yes. Good job!

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00:20:35,566 --> 00:20:38,566
The next step is to 
follow the whale with the

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00:20:38,566 --> 00:20:42,166
tag and keep up with the tag, 
because it's an expensive tag

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00:20:42,166 --> 00:20:44,233
and we don't want to lose it.

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00:20:44,233 --> 00:20:48,033
We typically only get a glimpse 
of the whales while they're 
at the surface, so we can only

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00:20:50,033 --> 00:20:52,166
really see behaviorally what 
they're doing when they're 
within our visual view.

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00:20:52,166 --> 00:20:57,100
But the tag has specialized 
sensors that actually measure 
the motion of the whale.

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00:20:57,100 --> 00:21:01,766
So we can look at the diving 
pattern, but also how the whale 
is moving through the water.

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It has what are called tri-axial 
accelerometers, which measure 
the whale's movement in three

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00:21:06,566 --> 00:21:08,866
dimensions.

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00:21:08,866 --> 00:21:11,133
And then along with all 
of that are the acoustics.

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What are the sounds 
that are produced?

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00:21:14,100 --> 00:21:18,333
What's their nature, what's 
their frequency, how loud are 
they and when are they produced?

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00:21:18,333 --> 00:21:22,266
Are they produced as a whale 
is moving rapidly through the 
water, are they produced while

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00:21:22,266 --> 00:21:26,300
the whale is diving or are they 
more frequent when the whale 
is resting or coming to the

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00:21:26,300 --> 00:21:27,300
surface?

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00:21:29,266 --> 00:21:32,333
It appears that there's a 
wide variety of social sounds 
that these animals produce.

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00:21:33,066 --> 00:21:35,800
That's fascinating.

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00:21:37,833 --> 00:21:40,800
The scientists closely 
follow a tagged whale 
using a VHF transmitter 
that can pick up sound

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00:21:42,266 --> 00:21:47,033
signals from the tag when 
the whale is at the surface.

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00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:49,333
We pick up some beeps.

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00:21:49,333 --> 00:21:52,433
Once it goes back down, 
then it goes silent again.

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00:21:52,433 --> 00:21:56,966
And at that point we effectively 
kind of lose all control 
over what happens next.

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00:21:56,966 --> 00:22:00,700
And that's the part that can 
get a little bit stressful 
because the whale can then go

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00:22:00,700 --> 00:22:02,966
wherever he or 
she decides to go.

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00:22:02,966 --> 00:22:05,666
It can go into rough waters 
where we can't follow it.

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00:22:05,666 --> 00:22:10,533
If the tag stays on for 
extended periods, for example, 
overnight, we can't continue

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00:22:10,533 --> 00:22:12,133
to follow the whale.

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00:22:12,133 --> 00:22:16,133
More often than not 
though, the tag will 
stay on for a few hours.

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00:22:16,133 --> 00:22:21,133
Tag came off. Do you 
see it? I don't see it.

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00:22:22,766 --> 00:22:27,166
It's right here. Right here at 
5 o'clock. We went right by it.

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00:22:27,166 --> 00:22:31,833
Once the tag falls off, it's 
designed so that it will sort 
of bob up and down in the water

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00:22:33,866 --> 00:22:36,833
and expose the antenna and then 
we get continuous beeps and that 
is a cue that tells us, okay,

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00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:39,966
the tag's fallen off the whale.

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00:22:39,966 --> 00:22:42,000
Now we have to go 
into recovery mode.

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00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,933
And of course that's the 
gem right there, right?

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00:22:45,933 --> 00:22:50,166
And we go back to the laboratory 
and then we download that data.

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00:22:50,166 --> 00:22:51,633
It's coming right here.

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00:22:51,633 --> 00:22:52,966
There's another one in 
front of us 12 o'clock.

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00:22:52,966 --> 00:22:56,600
Okay, let's try 
to pace this guy.

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00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,533
We may want to go for the 
second whale right here.

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00:22:58,533 --> 00:22:59,233
Stand by.

296
00:22:59,233 --> 00:23:00,633
Let him commit.

297
00:23:00,633 --> 00:23:01,833
Stand by.

298
00:23:01,833 --> 00:23:03,833
Okay, here we go.

299
00:23:05,666 --> 00:23:08,733
We got her, tag on.

300
00:23:08,733 --> 00:23:10,800
Tag on, good job.

301
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:15,800
More tags will need to 
be deployed on different 
animals found in a 
variety of pod settings

302
00:23:17,833 --> 00:23:21,266
to answer some of the deeper 
questions, but the experts can 
already glean some information

303
00:23:22,133 --> 00:23:24,633
from the whales' tagged so far.

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00:23:24,633 --> 00:23:29,233
One of the sort of data streams 
that we can look at from 
the tag is the animals' dive

305
00:23:29,233 --> 00:23:31,300
profile.

306
00:23:31,300 --> 00:23:35,233
The tag went on here at the 
beginning of the file and the 
whale did some dives down to

307
00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:38,433
about 70 or 80 meters or so.

308
00:23:38,433 --> 00:23:42,600
At the time, this whale 
was still affiliated 
with another whale.

309
00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:47,600
And then the two whales 
separated and our whale with 
the tag started to sing.

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00:23:49,033 --> 00:23:52,666
He did that multiple cycles, 
for a few hours at a time.

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00:23:52,666 --> 00:23:57,666
And then later in the afternoon, 
he stopped singing and he 
started to affiliate with some

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00:23:57,666 --> 00:23:59,800
other whales.

313
00:23:59,800 --> 00:24:03,166
And you can now see that the 
dive profile becomes much 
more erratic and you can see

314
00:24:03,166 --> 00:24:06,366
evidence of the animal 
interacting with other whales.

315
00:24:06,366 --> 00:24:10,333
Then at some point in the night 
he went back to singing again.

316
00:24:10,333 --> 00:24:15,333
So this kind of gives us a 
glimpse of at least a portion 
of the animal's day and how much

317
00:24:17,166 --> 00:24:21,666
time this whale, at least, 
spent singing versus 
interacting with other whales.

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00:24:23,666 --> 00:24:28,600
And it's this kind of 
information that, to 
us, is very interesting 
and useful because as

319
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:33,666
we collect more and more of 
these data, we can start to 
build kind of a picture of how

320
00:24:35,633 --> 00:24:39,366
these animals are spending their 
time, how much of their time 
do they have to spend resting

321
00:24:40,766 --> 00:24:44,566
versus actively engaged in 
competition with other whales.

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00:24:47,933 --> 00:24:51,433
Many mysteries remain.

323
00:24:51,433 --> 00:24:56,433
Humpback whales are charismatic 
animals that have long beguiled 
humans with their moving

324
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:01,800
song and thrilling displays 
- including the dedicated 
scientists striving to unlock

325
00:25:06,833 --> 00:25:11,833
the secrets of these 
giant, ancient mariners.

326
00:25:13,266 --> 00:25:17,133
Humpback whales are an integral 
part of the marine ecosystem.

327
00:25:17,133 --> 00:25:20,333
Because they are feeding 
on schooling fish,

328
00:25:20,333 --> 00:25:21,600
as well as krill,

329
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,166
they're what we call 
a sentinel species.

330
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,433
So they are a reflection of 
the health of the oceans.

331
00:25:28,433 --> 00:25:33,433
And so it's important that we 
not only understand their role 
in the ecosystem, but that we

332
00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:37,733
maintain healthy population.

333
00:25:37,733 --> 00:25:42,733
lama kohol- please 
take care of the whale.

334
00:26:11,566 --> 00:26:16,566
Major funding for this 
program was provided by 
the Batchelor Foundation,

335
00:26:18,333 --> 00:26:21,766
encouraging people to 
preserve and protect 
America's underwater resources

336
00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:28,300
And by The William J. & 
Tina Rosenberg Foundation,

337
00:26:29,700 --> 00:26:34,033
the Do Unto Others Trust, 
and by the following.