The Whalesong Project - Log Season 2006

July 10, 2006 - The 'National Geographic News' report on an issue affecting marine mammals and other aquatic animals during the recent international maritime training event off Hawaii. See the full story here.

July 7, 2006 - The NRDC (Natural Resourses Defense Council) posted a powerful movie called 'Lethal Sounds', narrated by Pierce Brosnan. Please have a look!

June 20, 2006 - The 58th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission is over and it ended with a 'beat of the drum' - for the first time in two decades Japan won their first vote in favour of whaling. The so called 'St. Kitts and Nevis Declaration' was adopted with 33 votes in favour, 32 against, and one abstention.

Thanks to the 20 year old moratorium we are still able to enjoy encounters with these awesome creatures. Now, the declaration states that the moratorium is 'no longer necessary'. Luckily it still stands because it needs a 3/4 majority to be overturned. Cris Clark, New Zealand's Environment Minister, critizised the pro-whaling tactics of Japan though she was talking about 'a significant diplomatic victory for Japan'.

While Norway is ignoring the moratoruim all together, Japan and Iceland are taking use of a loophole, declaring their whaling as 'research'. These three countries are hunting about 2000 whales a year.

One of the pro-whaling argument is that the whales are eating the oceans empty. Humpback whales are not able to eat big fish which we humans prefer (like tuna, perch or salmon) because their throat only has a diameter of only 6-8 inches! If a bigger fish came into its mouth, the humpback whale would have to spit it out to avoid suffocating. The only types of fish the humpback whales eat are herring or mackerel, and both kinds are not overfished yet. The greatest danger to the fish supply comes from us humans who are about to destroy their own food support by overfishing.

We at Whalesong are doing whatever we can to protect the whales and their habitat. Thanks to everybody who supports us!

June 16, 2006 - Great news for Hawaii! President Bush created the 75th national monument which is around the northwest Hawaiian Islands and the surrounding waters - 1,400 miles long and 100 miles wide in the Pacific Ocean. This world's largest protected marine sanctuary is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park! It will protect nesting green sea turtles, the endangered monk seals, and other rare species.

The area of 140,000 square miles is now the biggest marine sanctuary in the world as it supersedes the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. 7.000 species can be found there - at least one-fourth of them are endemic which means you can't find them anywhere else on this planet. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), responsible for the management of nearly all of the protected area, said: "It's the single largest act of ocean conservation in history. It's a large milestone." We agree :)

'Get Inspired! Get Involved! Celebrate! Today!' is the motto of World Ocean Day 2006 - the website www.worldoceanday.org tells us about the history: 'Created in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro - although not yet officially designated by the United Nations - World Ocean Day is an opportunity each year to celebrate our world ocean and our personal connection to the sea. The Ocean Project helps each year to coordinate events and activities worldwide with aquariums, zoos, museums, conservation organizations, schools, businesses. Together with the World Ocean Network, we are also working to have the United Nations officially designate World Ocean Day as June 8th each year.'

Our enthusiasm to save the whales and the oceans is necessary more than ever! Several threats are endangering not only the humpback whales: Ocean pollution (a stranded sperm whale at the German coast of the North Sea had to be treated as dangerous waste because the body had been so polluted), increasing noise pollution, in the form of underwater explorations for oil or gas, ships, air guns or newly developed underwater sonar systems or lost and dumped equipment from the fishing industry. Besides that there still is commercial whaling! Although there are international restrictions, Norway and (mainly) Japan are killing whales for so-called scientific reasons. But the meat is often found in restaurants or, as a recent plan of the Japanese government suggests, in school cafeterias.

The International Whaling Commission convenes on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis (West Indies) for its annual meeting from 16-20 June. We are all concerned of a shift by the commission to a more pro-whaling stance as Japan has recruited at least 19 countries in recent years to support their view to 'utilize' whales. The whale populations are not strong enough to stand commercial whaling. See the full San Francisco Chronicle story here.

Please support our work for more awareness - 'One only protects what One knows' - see how you can help

May 25, 2006 - Dan, founder of our Whalesong Project will speak on the Annual Conference of the Hawaii Museums Association today. The conference will be held at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center - theme of the session is:

Place, Space, and Voice: Learning from Non-Museum Settings
Interpretation of place and space occurs in a myriad of venues. This session examines the challenges of providing 'voice' to a local community, prison setting, theatrical stage, and the marine environment. Panelists will discuss issues of interpretation in non-museum settings. What can we learn from their experiences?

May 20, 2006 - 'Pump, Don't Dump' is the slogan, demand and goal of a resident and visitor movement committed to stopping the senseless practice of dumping human waste into the Hawaiian waters around Maui. This organization scheduled their next demonstration at Maalaea Harbor today, starting at 6:30 am.

Their website www.pumpdontdump.com tells us: 'Tour boats are a great draw for Maui's 2 million visitors each year, but unfortunately only a couple of operators have decided to ensure the preservation of this magnificent area by pumping their human waste instead of dumping it into the ocean. It is estimated that over 1,000 gallons of sewage are dumped into the waters each day by the 600,000+ people that use the Maalaea Harbor each year exposing all living things to pollution and disease.'

Today is the first national Endangered Species Day. 'We are celebrating endangered species success stories today, including the American bald eagle, peregrine falcon, gray wolf and many of our nation's wildlife, fish and plants.' tells the press release of the Endangered Species Coalition.

Most of all great whale species - including the humpback whale - appear on the 'red list' of the World Conservation Union - a record total of 16,119 species on the 2006 list are facing extinction!

May 2, 2006 - An unusual and unexpected incident of 200 melon-headed whales coming close to shore happened in Hanalei Bay on Kauai back in July 2004. Melon-headed whales normally live in deep-waters, at least about 15 miles from the shore line. A recent report now states that Navy sonar is the most likely cause of this incident. Please see the full story covered by the San Francisco Chronicle here.

April 29, 2006 - We've added plenty of new humpback photos showing different whale behavior to our photo album - please have a look!


April 26, 2006 - It's International Noise Awareness Day today!

Noise is becoming more and more a health strain for humans - for the oceans noise is becoming a certain danger. Increasing noise pollution is affecting the navigational abilities of the whales.

Boat and shipping traffic: studies of Dr. Marsha Green show that whales behave different at a noise level of about 120 db - lots of small vessels cruising around Maui reach this noise level. Whales react by swimming 2 to 3 times faster than usual to avoid the noise. Supertankers for example can reach up to 190 db (this is 3.200 times louder than 120 db!) and can be heard under water one day before they actually get there.

Air guns: used by the industry for oil and gas exploration. In times of dwindling resources the use of these air guns increased dramatically. They detect the sea bottom with the use of 250 db loud sound blasts which are sent down every 5 seconds - for hours! Hydrophones are picking up the echo, providing the industry with the information whether oil or gas would be available under the surface. 250 db (this is 3.2 million times louder than 120 db) marks the loudest noise ever produced by humans apart from dynamite.

Sonar: low and mid frequency active sonar systems are able to detect quiet vessels and therefore it produces extremely loud sound waves (up to 235 db). Imagine standing in a distance of about 20 feet from a Saturn V rocket taking off... According to the Navy this noise can be heard in an area of 2,4 million square miles - that means a sonar testing can be heard within the entire North Pacific. The problem is that tests are being held in areas where whales are located.

For comparison only: as little as 85 db it is dangerous for the human ear! Contrary to the whales, humans can close their windows or just put on ear plugs to protect themselves against the noise. They are unprotected against underwater noise pollution and the loss of their sense of hearing often means death as they lose the ability to navigate. Therefore it is not astonishing that the significant increase of whale strandings are being linked to sonar tests.

We are playing recorded songs at the moment - we will switch to live sounds as soon as we have fixed the problem. Please be patient with us.

April 24, 2006 - The 'Live 365' Server is down - unfortunately there is nothing we can do except wait for it to resolve... Please enjoy whale vocalizations in our archive

The Whalesong Project is participating at Earth Day for the third time today: our cooperation with the Sirius Institute in Puna, Hawaii started in 2004. The research institute, focusing on dolphin communication, asked us to provide live whale sounds for the Earth Day 2004 event. Hawaiian musicians played their favorite tunes on stage to the live songs of the whales off of Maui.

'Whales sing to the Stars' has been the motto on Earth Day 2005 in April last year - for the very first time in history live whale songs have been sent to space! The DeepSpace Communication Network based in Florida made it possible to beam the songs of the humpback whales 11 trillion miles to outer space with nearly 185.000 mph!

Today the live stream of our hydrophone system will be send to the universe again - via a 15 feet big dish antenna. The voices of our beloved whales will be traceable in a distance of about 3.5 light-years!

True to the motto: 'One only protects what One knows' we would like to 'give a microphone' to the important voices of the whales that may not be heard above the noise of the modern world. The idea to send these wonderful vocalizations beyond our 'Blue Planet' fascinated us from the early beginning.

The Whalesong Project team is humbled and honored to be invited - once again - to one of the most prestigious festivals on the Island. 'Kukulu I Ho'oilina', or 'Establish a Legacy', is the theme for the 14th annual 'Celebration of the Arts' festival at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua this weekend. We will provide the unique opportunity to listen 'live' to our most anticipated return guests, the humpback whales.

March 15, 2006 - Hokumoanalani, our floating island of technology that connects the deep ocean sounds to the worldwide web, has been running flawlessly for many days now. Mahalo to Jeanette Clark for assisting in an after-dark mission in rough oceans to complete the last repair mission. And big thanks to Raina Ferris for visiting again from Aotearoa (New Zealand), and sharing her ocean (and other) wisdom with us, and for keeping watch during the repair mission. More on Raina's visit to follow.

March 14, 2006 - We sadly note the passing of "Luna", the now famous Orca of Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. The Mowachaht/Huchalaht First Nation believes that Luna embodied the spirit of their deceased and beloved Chief Ambrose Maquinna. Luna loved to interact with humans and boats. He was struck by a tugboat on March 10. A baby Kohola, humpback whale, was also struck by a boat on Maui last week. If you are piloting watercraft, please drive carefully. Our oceans are full of life. Please take care.

March 12, 2006 - We want to congratulate Whalesong Board of Directors member George Kahumoku for winning a Grammy award for Best Hawaiian Music Album of the year. Read more about this at www.kahumoku.com. Two of the artists on the album are young musicians that were taught and nurtured by George. Whalesong has established a fund named Mele No Ka Oi, to support George in nurturing other young island musicians at his annual workshops.

March 7, 2006 - Between us here at Whalesong, we sometimes refer to our repair missions as "dark side of the moon adventures." This refers to those space missions where you have no communications with the outside world, and you have to work with what you have under difficult circumstances. Without going into detail, it is difficult to repair electronic systems when the waves are rocking the buoy and canoe, and the wind and sea spray are prevalent. Thanks to everyone and especially Kent Noonan for the careful attention and dedication to keep the live songs of the whales traveling the wires, airwaves, terrestrial and satellite networks....into homes around the world.

March 3, 2006 - We are broadcasting LIVE again! Please enjoy these wonderful whale songs...

March 2, 2006 - The 'Live 365' Server is down - unfortunately there is nothing we can do except wait for it to resolve... Please enjoy whale vocalizations in our archive.

We have had some difficulty with the solar charge controller generating noise in the audio when the batteries get full. The sound comes and goes as the waves point the buoy more directly at the sun. We will be trying to make changes to eliminate this, but it will be a rather major effort. Until then, when you hear this sound, you can expect that it will be annoying until the sun is a little lower in the sky, about 16:00 local time, or 2:00 UTC.

February 26, 2006 - We've had some problems with the live feed during the last couple of hours. Mathew and Kent were able to fix it today - thank you!

February 17, 2006 - The buoy has been repaired again this morning. The webcast is now LIVE again, just in time for Whale Day here in Kihei on Saturday. This annual celebration, held less than a mile from the buoy site, is Maui's celebration to honor the whales. We will have a tent there. We hope to see you.

February 15, 2006 - The buoy went off the air again this morning. Dan and Kent will try to go out to fix it tomorrow. The webcast right now is from the Kalama Lullaby CD.

February 14, 2006 - We've added new photos to the website: Please have a look at the photo section

February 12, 2006 - Full moon on Maui until Monday: it is often very exciting listening during the night on a full moon. They sometimes swim right up to the buoy and sing like they know what it's there for. We call it "Open Mike Night" or "Karaoke Night". Of course there are no guarantees, but often the whales make a lot of noise all night in the moonlight. So give it a try tonight: our time zone is UTC -10hrs, EST-5hrs, and PST -2hrs.

February 11, 2006 - A repair mission to the buoy was completed at dawn this morning. It was not without suspense, as the problem and solution were challenging, and the ocean is always ....fluid..... environment to operate in. The songs this evening are dramatic and beautiful, and much different than the songs of the past season. Researcher Jim Darling, whom we caught up with at the Kapalua Whalequest Festival this weekend, also observed the difference in the song this year. His latest research, he tells us, has found that the Humpback Whales of Brazil and Africa are singing the same song, and that the whales of the Philippines and Hawaii are singing a different song. He believes that all of the whales in the Northern Hemisphere sing the same song, and the same situation exists in the Southern Hemisphere. Whale Photographer Flip Nicklin will be displaying his dramatically beautiful photographs at the Ritz again tomorrow, and he and many other exciting speakers will be presenting their work and research throughout the day.

February 10, 2006 - High winds blew down a tree and knocked out the power in Kihei yesterday, but the system worked on back-up power during most of the event. At approx. 5 am this morning the buoy stopped working. A repair mission was unsuccessful. The sea was rough, and we could not complete delicate repairs. The Whalequest Festival began in Kapalua at the Ritz Carlton Resort, and Whalesong is there to share whale songs and talk story
with local school children and teachers.

February 7, 2006 - The weather was with us today - a group of five volunteers including Dan and Kent brought the buoy out today. There is a lot of singing going on - so plug in and enjoy!

January 24, 2006 - Kent, our chief engineer, gave us an update on the buoy today: "We have made a lot of progress, but it’s still not done - we will get it in the water as soon as we can. If I had to guess, we will be deploying around Feb 1 to Feb 5.
This has turned out to be a major overhaul. We have completely torn apart the electronics, rewired the power system, built a new electronics enclosure, fixed and modified the amplifier, rewired the transmitter, built a power filter to eliminate charging system noise, painted several coats of several kinds of paint, replaced the solar panels, redesigned the panel mounting system, etc. ..."

Please be patient with us and stay tuned. You may like to listen to recorded sounds - we've added new sound files for you. Enjoy!

January 14, 2006 - Hokumoanalani, our whalesong buoy and underwater microphone is undergoing painting and extensive repairs at various locations on Maui. We have a large base of volunteers and we are very grateful for each of their participation towards bringing the songs of our Hawaiian Humpback whales to the world. This is an expensive project and our bank account is almost empty. Any donations will be gratefully accepted, are tax deductible, and will help us:

Launch Hokumoanalani and restart our live webcast for our sixth season
Develop our website, especially in areas that allow schools and children to participate
Participate in multiple events through the whale season
Accommodate volunteers and cultural resources relative to our project

We are an all volunteer organization, no salaries or compensation paid to any of our officers, volunteers, board members. We continue to consider this project our kuleana (a Hawaiian word that means both responsibility and privilege). Each year brings new challenges, and it also brings new bright faces, and new experiences...and knowledge and wisdom about the oceans and
these mysterious whales....that we are exceedingly grateful for.

We have been corresponding with Raina from Aotearoa (see April 10 log entry). She reminds us that her clan considers these whales to be their family, and she says that her friends cry when they hear the recording we made from the boat when she visited (the audio file is accessible from the log entry on April 10). We want to bring Raina back here to learn more about this relationship her clan feels with na Kohola, the Hawaiian Humpback whales. Anyone interested in helping with that can send a donation with
instructions on its use.

Stay tuned. We hope to be in the water in the next ten days if the
resources become available. The new solar panels are due in tomorrow. Last year's panels deteriorated beyond use...the ocean tends to break technology down pretty fast.

December 21, 2005 - The overhaul of the system appears to be more challenging as we have thought. The aggressive saltwater has not only damaged parts of the electronics but also two of the three solar panels. We now need to raise funds for the corrective maintenance - we will keep you posted. When you are considering charities for your year end donations, please help us getting LIVE ON AIR again - you will find more information here.

November 22, 2005 - The weather was on our side today: a team of 6 volunteers managed it to get the buoy in. Two attempts failed due to bad weather conditions. It is essential now, to get the system up and running, remove all the natural cover and paint the floating device with an anti-fouling coating. All this has to be done within the next weeks...

November 3, 2005 - The first humpback of this upcoming season has been sighted! We just got a report today that a whale was spotted off of Makena Beach 'two days ago'. Until we are able to broadcast "live" again we are facing some technical challenges like overhauling the whole system. Please have a look how the buoy looks like - just after a few months in the water...

It will take us time and money to get the system up again. Everybody who could help us with this challenge is very welcome: no matter how small the contribution may be - everything is helpful for us! Donations can be sent by check to:

October 26, 2005 - Science magazine has published a study showing that the humpback whales are not the only marine animals which migrate from Alaska to Hawaii. Scientists of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game discovered that some salmon sharks (a close relative of the white shark)also travel thousands of miles to the subtropical waters of Hawaii. They dive about half a mile deep, where they encounter water temperatures ranging from 36 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The cold water slows down the shark's heart, just as it would ours. But in contrast to the sharks, ours would stop beating.

October 6, 2005 - Some of the whales may actually be on their journey from Alaska to Maui and we are eager to welcome them again. Whalesong is in preparations for the upcoming whale season which officially starts on December, 15th. Please stay tuned for our live feed and keep on checking back.

September 1, 2005 - We are happy to announce two new categories on Whalesong.net: please find out everything you always wanted to know about humpback whales at our Humpback FAQ. You want to get a better picture of The Whalesong Project? See photos from the beginning until now at Photos. Enjoy!