Scientists contact whales in first communication experiment

 Whale experts and alien hunters may not seem like they have much in common, but a recent study suggests otherwise. In a groundbreaking experiment, scientists from UC Davis, the Alaska Whale Foundation, and SETI teamed up to communicate with whales. The researchers had a 20 minutes conversation with a humpback whale named Twain in her own language.

The experiment took place off the coast of Alaska, where the scientists played a “contact call” into the ocean to see if any whales would respond. Contact calls are similar to human greetings and are used by whales to call over other whales or let each other know where they are. Twain, the humpback whale, swam up to the boat and circled it in response to the call.

For the next 20 minutes, the scientists emitted the same contact call 36 different times at varying intervals, and Twain responded to each call, even closely matching the intervals. This type of interval matching suggests that Twain was engaged in an intentional exchange.

According to coauthor Brenda McCowan, researchers believe this is the first communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback “language.” The calls played to Twain were recorded from a small group of whales the researchers encountered the day before. It is possible that Twain was responding to her signal.

The significance of this study goes beyond communicating with whales. Laurance Doyle, a principal investigator at SETI, believes that Twain’s behavior could be similar to how intelligent alien races may seek humanity out. Just as Twain responded to the contact call from the scientists, extraterrestrial beings might also make contact with human receivers if they are interested in communicating.

Doyle and his colleagues at SETI are now working with animal experts to create intelligent filters that can aid in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. These filters will help scientists identify intelligent signals from space, potentially making first contact with an alien race.

The research also explores the idea of whether intelligent alien life would seek out humanity. Whale research has indicated that curiosity accompanies intelligence, and creatures with high social interaction, such as dolphins, meerkats, and elephants, may also possess similar qualities.

This research has the potential to shape the future of how we search for extraterrestrial life.