There’s a whale somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, an increasingly famous whale, who sings at 52 hertz instead of the usual 15–20 hertz. Judging by the recordings we have, he seems to be a male, and he seems to be traveling alone.
That’s why this whale is capturing more and more people’s attention: Is he a hybrid, or maybe deformed? Is he swimming solo because other whales literally can’t hear his high-pitched voice? Is he terribly, terribly lonely?
Hannah Cheng investigates in a three-part series of blog posts (don’t worry, they’re all pretty short) about the solitary cetacean, the public’s reaction to him, and techniques we could use to study him more.
