The World's Loneliest Whale: 52-hertz Whale

In the middle of the ocean,

One lonely whale cries

No matter how much it shouts, no one can hear it

So lonely it just stays quiet.

- Whalien 52

It's been nicknamed as "the loneliest whale in the world". It sings a song like no other. Some say it wanders alone across the Pacific Ocean, crying out for companionship that never comes.

No-one knows for sure whether the whale is male or female, what species it is, or even if it still lives. The last in the original series of recordings was made in 2004.

The 52-hertz whale is an individual whale of unidentified species, which calls at the very unusual frequency of 52 Hz. This pitch is much higher frequency than any other whale or even the other whale species with migration patterns most closely resembling this whale's, like the blue whale with 10–39 Hz or fin whale with only 20 Hz. It has been detected regularly in many locations since the late 1980s and appears to be the only individual emitting a whale call at this frequency.

The track of the 52-hertz whale is unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species. Its movements have been somewhat similar to blue whales, but its timing has been more like fin whales. It is detected in the Pacific Ocean every year beginning in August–December and moves out of range of the hydrophones in January–February. It travels as far north as the Aleutian and Kodiak Islands, and as far south as the California coast, swimming between 30 and 70 km each day. 

Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have been unable to identify the species of the whale. They speculate that it could be malformed, or possibly a blue whale/fin whale hybrid. The research team has been contacted by deaf people who believe the whale may be deaf. Still, its unique call is the only one of its kind detected anywhere and there is only one such source per season. Because of this, the animal has been called the loneliest whale in the world.

The story begins in 1989. An array of hydrophones called SOSUS, built by the US Navy to detect enemy submarines, picked up some strange signals. They were whale songs, and they were similar to blue whale calls, but there was one big difference.The keynotes of the song were at a frequency of 52 Hertz. To human ears, this is a low bass note, but it is significantly higher than the blue whale, which sings between 10 and 40Hz. Fin whales also seemed like an unlikely fit, since they sing at 20Hz.

The signal of the whale was recorded in the northeast Pacific. It has been sped up ten times, raising the pitch to 520 Hz since that is too deep for the human ear or, at best, at the very fringes of a person’s hearing,
https://soundcloud.com/bbc_com/the-52hz-whale-recorded-by-bill-watkins

Compare with this signal by a blue whale (10-40 Hz)
https://soundcloud.com/bbc_com/a-blue-whale-calling

And a fin whale with 20 Hz
https://soundcloud.com/bbc_com/the-pulsed-call-of-a-fin-whale

Sounds different, right?


It was Bill Watkins, a marine mammal researcher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts, who first realized the significance of the Navy's recordings. For Watkins, tracking the 52Hz whale became a passion.

He passed away in 2004, aged 78, but a few months before his death he completed work on a paper that summarised 12 years' worth of recordings. His findings would be discussed for years to come. Watkins had found that the 52Hz whale was not just unusual, but outright unique.

  

"It is perhaps difficult to accept that if this was a whale, that there could have been only one of this kind in this large oceanic expanse," Watkins and his colleagues wrote. "Yet in spite of comprehensive careful monitoring year-round, only one call with these characteristics has been found anywhere, and there has been only one source each season."

There are plays and books about the whale and music videos that use it as inspiration. 
The Loneliest, a short documentary film about two women searching for the loneliest whale, was made in April 2014 by Lilian Mehrel, with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Montreal-based saxophone player and composer Colin Stetson's 2013 album New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light included a song entitled "Part of Me Apart From You". Though not explicitly written about the 52-Hertz whale, when first performing the song live, he has remarked on at least several occasions that the story of the "loneliest whale" resonated deeply with his composition. "This whale is alone in a large body of water, swimming, singing its song, calling for a likeness it will never find," he said by way of introducing the song at a performance at Toronto's Great Hall on 19 May 2013. "When I play this song, I can't help but think about this whale, who right at this very minute is singing alone."

South Korean hip-hop group BTS's 2015 album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2's fourth track, "Whalien 52", explicitly uses the 52-hertz whale as a metaphor for the alienation from others often felt by adolescents.


The English folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman included the song "52 Hertz" on their 2015 album Tomorrow Will Follow Today. The song is about the whale and includes the line, "52 Hertz, 52 Hertz, I'm singing a love song that no-one can hear" in the chorus.

sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/01/26/the-loneliest-whale-in-the-world/?utm_term=.a5a166d13b81
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150415-the-loneliest-whale-in-the-world

What is the topic of the text?

a. 52-Hertz Whale
b. Blue Whale
c. Fin whale
d. Whalien 52

What is the species name of the whale?

a. Balaenoptera musculus

b. Mesoplodon grayi

c. Unidentified

d. Physeter macrocephalus

Where did the signal of the whale was recorded? 

a. in the Atlantic Ocean

b. in the northeast Pacific Ocean

c. in the US Navy

d. in Massachusetts

When did The Loneliest, a short documentary film about two women searching for the loneliest whale, was made?
a. in March 2013
b. in May 2014
c. in April 2014
d. in April 2013

Who has the 'passion' of tracking the whale?
a. Lilial Mehrel
b. BTS
c. Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
d. Bill Watkins