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Nature reflects our nature
52-Hertz
“In the underwater world dominated by sound lives
the loneliest whale with an unusual vocalization”. 52-
hertz whale is an individual whale which calls at an
unusual frequency of 52 Hz. Due to its unique sonic
frequency, it appears to have gotten less or no re-
sponse from other whales be it blue or fin whales.
Blue whales usually call at the frequency of 15-20
Hz while fin whales vocalize at 20 Hz. As the pitch
of 52 Hz whale is much higher than the frequency to
which whales respond to, it seems to have received
no company despite calling out thereby earning the
nickname of “The Loneliest Whale”.
This unusual frequency was first discovered by Wil-
liam Watkins, one of the pioneers in the field of marine
mammal bioacoustics in the North Pacific in 1989.
Despite receiving the signal of a whale travelling in
the same way and the area of blue and fin whales,
the vocalization was of rather high pitch which roused
interest in the Watkins. Thus, William Watkins and his
team recorded the whale yearly for about 14 years,
each time picking the signal in August or September
and following it until, it swam out of range in January
or early February. The findings were published in the
Journal Deep Sea Research in 2004.
unheard ones out there. It has been a namesake for
some foundations which have reached out to help
others. While this empathetic and caring nature of
human beings, one can hope that people will soon re-
alize that they are in fact causing many species to be
lonely through their materialistic ways. Extinction rate
now has been estimated to be 1000 to 10,000 times
the natural background rate. We have to protect the
species for balanced and sustaining biosphere.
Shraddha Kunwar
B.Sc. Environment Science
2nd year (Batch-2017)
Surprisingly, the study was picked up by the general
media and this quickly caught attention of the public.
Humans were wondering and relating empathetical-
ly that if the whale was communicating at a different
frequency than others of its kind then would it ever
receive any response. Soon the 52 Hz whale became
a symbol and metaphor of loneliness and ‘unheard-
ness’ to which many people appeared to identify
themselves with. The story of 52 Hz whale certainly
got people emotional thinking about the whale crying
out in a massive space but getting no response from
the void.
Upon researchers unravelling the story, some be-
lieve that whale’s singing has features similar to that
of a blue whale and that all the whale can usually
hear it. By 2015, the vocalization of the 52 Hz whale
had deepened as humans’ do and it sounded close
to 46 Hz. No sighting of the whale has been record-
ed till now. Even though unusual frequency might
cause difficulties in communication, it is indeed get-
ting harder for the whales’ call to be heard above the
noise caused by human activities such as oil and gas
exploration, degrading and shipping traffic.
The 52 Hz whale has given a story to the lonely and
Nature and Social Concern Society
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