Ever heard of the poor and lonely 52-hertz whale?
Well, discover what’s behing the mysterious weird noise!
In 1989, William Watkins from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution noticed something unusual while sorting through some old US Navy whale recordings – a vocalization emitted at 52Hz. To hear the haunting song of the 52-hertz whale (sped up 10 times) please click here or watch the video below!
This was significantly higher than most whales, which tend to vocalize between 17-18Hz.
Due to its very unique vocalizations scientists have been able to effectively track its movement with partially-declassified US Navy hydrophone network built to monitor Soviet submarines as the sea creature travels from California to the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
This research caught the attention of the media who popularized the idea of a lonesome whale traversing the Earth’s oceans on its own migratory route, while calling out for a mate at a frequency unfamiliar to fellow whales and therefore never receiving a reply. This media coverage proved popular with the general public, leading to the creature being dubbed “The World’s Loneliest Whale”.
So far information about the creature is scarce. In fact no one has ever seen it and scientists remain uncertain on what species of whale could be emitting this higher frequency, though they have theorized that it may be a fin or blue whale.
In mid-2013 a group of film makers and scientists headed out to the North Pacific to try and locate the creature for their documentary “Finding 52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale in the World”.
Researchers have dismissed ideas that it could be a new species or undiscovered lifeform and instead suggest that the “lonely whale” is possibly a hybrid or perhaps malformed, causing it to communicate on a different frequency.
Listen to other creepy Mystery Strange Sounds From the Deep Oceans: bloop, Julia, whistle, train, slowdown, upsweep!