Blue whale songs are getting deeper, say baffled scientists
Blue whales are famed for their haunting songs that travel thousands of miles under the ocean. Now scientists have discovered the world’s largest mammals are singing in deeper voices every year – and they are not sure why.
A study in the journal Endangered Species Research, has found male blue whales all over the world have lowered their tone.
Mark McDonald of WhaleAcoustics first noticed the change about eight years ago when he had to shift automated blue whale song detectors off California to lower frequencies.
They found all the studied whales had dropped their voices although the range varied. Blue whales in the northeast Pacific population lowered their voices the most with a drop of 31 per cent between 1963 and 2008. This is the same as three white keys on the piano.
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