Strange noises from the bottom of the Pacific are a dialogue between animals

Nov 21. () –

An analysis with cutting-edge technology mysterious repetitive sounds recorded at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean decades ago has determined that they respond to a conversation between animals.

In July 1982, researchers in New Zealand recorded unidentifiable sounds as part of an experiment to characterize the soundscape of the southern Fiji basin. The sound consisted of four short bursts that resembled a quack, which inspired the sound’s name “Bio-Duck.”

“The sound was so repeatable that at first we couldn’t believe it was biological,” he said. in a statement researcher Ross Chapman from the University of Victoria. “But in talking to other colleagues in Australia about the data, we discovered that a similar sound was heard quite frequently in other regions of New Zealand and Australia.”

They reached a consensus that the sounds had to be biological.

Chapman presented his work analyzing mystery sounds during the 187th virtual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held Nov. 18-22.

“I became involved in the analysis of data from the experiment in 1986,” Chapman said in a statement. “We found that the data contained a goldmine of new information about many types of sound in the ocean, including the sounds of marine mammals.

“You have to understand that This type of ocean noise study was in its infancy in those days. It turned out that we were learning something new about sound in the ocean every day as we dug deeper into the data; “It was really an exciting moment for us,” he said.

However, the sounds have never been conclusively identified. There are theories that the sounds were made by Antarctic minke whales, since the sounds were also recorded in Antarctic waters in later yearsbut there was no independent evidence of visual sightings of the whales making the sounds in the New Zealand data.

THEY CAN BE A CONVERSATION

Regardless of the animal, Chapman believes the sounds could be a conversation. The data was recorded by an acoustic antenna, a hydrophone array that was towed behind a ship. The uniqueness of the antenna allowed the researchers identify the direction where the sounds came from.

“We found that there were usually several different speakers in different places in the ocean, and they all made these sounds,” Chapman said. “The most surprising thing was that When one speaker spoke, the others remained silent.as if they were listening. Then the first speaker would stop talking and listen to the others’ responses.”

This expert presented the waveform and spectrum of the recordings during his session, as well as further evidence that the work was a conversation between several animals.

“It’s always been an unanswered question in my mind,” Chapman said. “Maybe they were talking about dinner, maybe it was parents talking to babiesor maybe they were just commenting on that crazy boat that kept going back and forth towing that long rope behind it.”