This episode was originally released on November 15, 2022

Things aren’t always what they seem on the surface, especially when it comes to our oceans. So many mysteries hum below its watery surface. So, you may just have to use your ears when it's too dark to see exactly what's going on down there.

Dr. Kaylee Byers looks into the ocean giants that lurk in the depths and the unique songs they share with us. She sits down with whale biologist Dr. Jennifer Allen on how whale songs are imparting a cultural exchange between populations that are hundreds of miles apart. Filmmaker Joshua Zeeman shares his journey to find the infamously dubbed 'Loneliest Whale'. And Paeleobiologist Dr. Travis Park from the Museum of Natural History in London tells us how whales developed their unique singing superpowers by taking us back through millions of years of evolution. Finally, researcher Grace Baer brings us to a remote west coast station studying whale populations and the effects of ocean traffic noise.

It's a whale-sized episode taking you on a listening journey into this wonderful watery world!

Special thanks to Captain Gaelen Krause of the Island Odyssey, for capturing recordings on his journey to search for whales along the British Columbia coast.

Resources:

1. Southern Resident Killer Whale Research Project | Parks Canada

2. Whales learn songs from each other in a cultural 'deep dive' | phys.org

3. Whale-monitoring robots are oceanic eavesdroppers with a mission | Popular Science

4. Whale Songs Are Getting Deeper | The Atlantic

5. The search for the loneliest whale in the world | The Guardian

6. The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 | Bleecker Street Media

7. BTS (방탄소년단) Whalien 52' MV | BigHit Entertainment

7. Watkins Marine Mammal Sound Database | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

8. Underwater Noise Pollution Is Disrupting Ocean Life - But We Can Fix it | TIME

9. Convergent evolution in toothed whale cochleae | BMC Evolutionary Biology

10. Evolutionary Basis of High-Frequency Hearing in the Cochleae of Echolocators Revealed by Comparative Genomics | Oxford Academic