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All the following recorded whale sounds on this website are copyrighted and may not be used without our permission!

Humpback whales are known for their singing: these 'classical' whale songs could only be heard in their breeding grounds. For the population of the North Pacific this could be the waters around Hawaii sein, but also the coastal regions fo Mexiko or Japan. But this is only one population out of six different ones world wide and as every single one has it's own 'dialect' the songs differ from each other.

In this archive we have whale sounds recorded off of Maui produced by Kent Noonan, our sound engineer as well as feeding calls off their feeding grounds in Alaska, courtesy by the Jupiter Foundation - enjoy!

Recordings off of Maui, Hawaii

by Kent Noonan, Sound Engineer of The Whalesong Project

Buoy, hydrophone 2007 March 2007
Buoy, hydrophone 2007 February 2007
Kayak, Aquarian Hydrophone April 2006
Buoy, Whale up close February 2005
Buoy, Hydrophone 2005 January 2005
Kayak, Aquarian Hydrophone February 2004
Buoy, full moon 2003 Kalama Lullaby
Buoy No 1, Hydrophone 2001 April 2001
Buoy No 1, Hydrophone 2001 April 2001

Hear yourself - the feeding calls can't be compared to the 'classical' whale songs. It's more like commands when they go hunting their prey together.

Feeding calls off of Alaska

courtesy of the Jupiter Foundation
Alaska 2005 Track 1
Alaska 2005 Track 2
Alaska 2005 Track 3

Increasing noise pollution, in the form of underwater explorations for oil or gas, ships, air guns or newly developed underwater sonar systems, is affecting the navigational abilities of the whales. The 'LFAS' (low frequency active sonar) is able to detect quiet vessels and therefore it produces extremely loud sound waves (up to 235 db!). All this could be linked to the increasing number of marine mammal strandings. Imagine this: for the human ear a sound level of 'just' 85 db is meant to be dangerous...

Sound samples of sonar systems

You want to enjoy whale songs at home? No problem - please contact us for one of our CDs.

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