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The real NOC. Photo courtesy: Discover Magazine
“Who told me to get out?” asked a diver, surfacing from a tank in which a whale named NOC lived. The beluga’s caretakers had heard what sounded like garbled phrases emanating from the enclosure before, and it suddenly dawned on them that the whale might be imitating the voices of his human handlers.
The outbursts — described today in Current Biology and originally at a 1985 conference — began in 1984 and lasted for about four years, until NOC hit sexual maturity, says Sam Ridgway, a marine biologist at National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, California. He believes that NOC learned to imitate humans by listening to them speak underwater and on the surface.
A few animals, including various marine mammals, songbirds and humans, routinely learn and imitate the songs and sounds of others. And Ridgway’s wasn’t the first observation of vocal mimicry in whales. In the 1940s, scientists heard wild belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) making calls that sounded like “children shouting in the distance”. Decades later, keepers at the Vancouver Aquarium in Canada described a beluga that seemed to utter his name, Lagosi.
Ridgway’s team recorded NOC, who is named after the tiny midges colloquially known as no-see-ums found near where he was legally caught by Inuit hunters in Manitoba, Canada, in the late 1970s. His human-like calls are several octaves lower than normal whale calls, a similar pitch to human speech. After training NOC to 'speak' on command, Ridgway’s team determined that he makes the sounds by increasing the pressure of the air that courses through his naval cavities. They think that he then modified the sounds by manipulating the shape of his phonic lips, small vibrating structures that sit above each nasal cavity.
Stan Kuczaj, who studies sea mammal behaviour at the University of Southern Mississippi, is convinced. “The beluga did seem to be mimicking human speech, and did so quite successfully,” he says. “Belugas are known to have excellent acoustic mimicry skills.”
Justin Gregg from the Dolphin Communication Project, says, “Listening to the recording, it does not sound exactly like human speech — I have no idea what the whale is “saying”—but [Ridgway’s team] have certainly made the case that the whale was trying very hard to produce human language sounds.”
“We do not claim that our whale was a good mimic compared to such well known mimics as parrots,” but it is an example of vocal learning nonetheless, the paper concludes. “It seems likely that NOC’s close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his human voice, as well as in its quality.”
Gregg adds that belugas, like dolphins, are very social animals, and the ability to learn and mimic new calls might help them to address other individuals. They also have very sophisticated echolocation, and can subtly alter their ultrasonic clicks to scan their environment. “They already have an amazing ability to alter parameters of their vocal tract, which should make it all the more easy to replicate human speech sounds,” says Gregg.
Andy Foote, a marine ecologist at the University of Copenhagen who has studied vocal learning in killer whales, agrees that NOC's calls sound human. Belugas are known as the 'canaries of the sea,' beacuse of the wide range of their vocal calls. Killer whales, by contrast, produce a more limited range of sounds that rarely stray from the calls of their group, Foote notes, which could explain why Shamu and other captive orcas have never mimicked human speech.
Those looking to hear NOC for themselves will have to settle for these recordings. He died several years ago after over 30 years at the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF) in San Diego, CA.
Once again, Gov. Sarah Palin shows not only her love of and commitment to the environment; but, also the integrity of both herself and her office. It would seem that she is openly on the side of whichever team is winning; whichever side will garner her most publicity; whichever side will prove most beneficial to her career; and, whichever side has the most money she can leave with.
Fresh from her defeat (and the environment’s gain) only six months ago when she tried to keep polar bears off the endangered species list comes Alaska’s (read Gov. Sarah Palin) plans to sue over the increased protection of beluga whales in the Cook Inlet.
Only five groups of beluga whales live in US waters off Alaska. Scientists listed the beluga whales as endangered last year after determining the whale would face extinction in less than 100 years. The population in the Cook Inlet has already dwindled to 375 from thousands.
Under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, all federally funded or permitted activities in the Cook Inlet are now subject to review.
“It's warranted because the beluga population near Anchorage may already be recovering through cooperative state and federal management efforts,” Gov. Sarah Palin said.
"This (endangered species) listing didn't take those efforts into account as required by law," Palin said in a press release posted online.
Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg found alleged procedural errors in the decision by the National Marine Fisheries. They also accused the Fisheries Service for not adequately explaining or building a strong enough case to explain why the Cook Inlet whales should be regarded as a “distinct population” worthy of special protection.
"Failure to consider protection measures already in place and failure to document and support key elements of this decision are major flaws in the final rule," Colberg said.
But various Alaska scientists and environmental groups close to the controversy criticized the lawsuit.
"It seems the Palin administration only likes one kind of science -- the kind it agrees with," said Craig Matkin, an Alaska marine mammal specialist with the North Gulf Oceanic Society. "Every objective expert who's looked at this small and isolated (beluga) population agrees it should be listed." Audubon Alaska scientist John Schoen noted that the protective status for local belugas was strongly endorsed by the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission empanelled by Congress.
Palin has warned that special beluga protections could do "serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of Cook Inlet”. Besides being home to the well-known city of Anchorage, the basin is also a mature oil-producing area. Could this be the “vibrant economy” Palin is referring to?
This isn't the first time Palin has put Big Oil before the environment; and; her past behaviour proves, it won't be the last. "Gov. Palin seems more than willing to sacrifice endangered whales on the altar of oil companies," said Brendan Cummings, director of The Center for Biological Diversity.
“The endangered species designation doesn't have to turn into an economic calamity,” said Bob Shavelson, director of the Cook Inletkeeper organization, which advocates protecting the estuary's sealife and habitat while harvesting the Inlet's resources.
"Responsible development and endangered species can co-exist," Shavelson said. "The Palin administration should respect the science and the rule of law -- not throw public tax dollars at a frivolous lawsuit."
There are two main questions that need to be answered before the designation of “endangered species” can be granted. They are:
1. Are these belugas a separate species or subspecies than other belugas?
2. Is the number of belugas diminishing as rapidly as scientists claim?
Part of the answer lives on in archival materials.
In 1979 an aerial survey of the inlet belugas by University of Alaska biologists estimated their numbers at about 1,300 animals. In 1994 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) biologists only found half that many. By 1998, the population had fallen to 347, NMFS said.
That prompted strict controls on the Alaska Native subsistence harvest of the Cook Inlet whales under terms of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Still, the beluga population in the inlet has been slow to respond, federal biologists say. The present population is estimated at about 375 whales.
Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd thinks that represents progress. "The population is stable and beginning to recover," Lloyd said in the governor's press release.
In a nine-page "notice of intent to file a lawsuit" Colberg also questioned whether the Cook Inlet belugas should be distinguished from four other populations that thrive off the coastline of western and northern Alaska.
Federal scientists say the answer is yes -- that Cook Inlet is home to the only beluga population south of the Alaska Peninsula and its glacial fjord and tidal estuary setting in particular provides a unique whale habitat.
Says Colberg: "These two determinations are inadequately documented." Sounds kind of lame when you consider Palin has announced that her stand is "Drill, Baby, Drill."
Check out the petition at: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/650267901
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