After analyzing five years of blue whale calls from MBARI's hydrophone along with tagging data, a new study found that the time of day that the whales sing changes dramatically depending on whether the whales are feeding or migrating. This audio was recorded from MBARI’s deep-sea hydrophone on the seafloor just outside of Monterey Bay. Using this data, scientists discovered that the day/night pattern of “B calls” can be used as an indicator of whether the whales are feeding or migrating. The vid

Blue whale vocalizations are very low frequency sounds with some in the 15 Hz range. These tones characteristically travel long distances due to the high power, but also due to very long-wavelengths (over 300 feet for 15 Hz). This enables their songs to be heard thousands of miles from the source. We can assume that the projection distance is important (Nature can be extravagant, but she is never wasteful), but we can only speculate why they need to broadcast their songs across ocean basins. The