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Ichingcarpenter

(36,988 posts)
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 07:57 AM Jun 2014

The Begula whale that tried to talk human to his Navy captors

While captive in a Navy program, a beluga whale named Noc began to mimic human speech. What was behind his attempt to talk to us?






Millions of years before we humans came along, the earth’s oceans were a vast, unbroken web of whale song. The complex courting arias of humpbacks, the distinct clicking dialects of migrating sperm-whale clans, the congalike poundings of Pacific grays, the multi-thousand-mile moans and blips of massive blue and fin whales conversing across oceans at octaves well below our range of hearing, the nearly nonstop Arctic chatter of belugas: All of them are being drowned out now by our clamor.

And yet a single beluga managed to make his voice go global again, and in the only medium left him: the worldwide web. The extraordinary history of Noc (pronounced no-see) resurrects a captive who somehow has found a way to speak to us, both literally and figuratively, of the true nature of his kind.

Since the early 1960s the United States had been deploying marine mammals, beginning with dolphins, for tasks including mine detection and recovery of test torpedoes. By the mid-1970s, the locus of the naval cold war had shifted to the Arctic, where the latest Soviet submarines were secreting themselves under the ice cap, an environment off-limits to animals including dolphins and sea lions used in the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP). Experiments commenced on weaponry that could function in such extreme conditions. The Navy needed marine mammals with built-in sonar, capable of locating and retrieving sunken experimental torpedoes in the frigid waters and low visibility of the Arctic.

In August 1977, with Canadian government consent, Sam Ridgway, a Texas-born veterinarian and a co-founder of NMMP, dispatched a team to the northern coast of Manitoba. There, the Navy would procure the first belugas for a new Arctic initiative, known as “Cold Ops.” Belugas typically travel in pods of approximately 25 whales, led by a dominant male but bound by close ties between mothers and their calves. Newborns nurse for about two years and, living within a multitiered matriarchal society very similar to that of elephants, are also raised by an extended group of females................


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/story-one-whale-who-tried-bridge-linguistic-divide-between-animals-humans-180951437/?no-ist

Its a long tale AND IT EVEN HAS THE RECORDINGS of the whale speaking which you can listen to.
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The Begula whale that tried to talk human to his Navy captors (Original Post) Ichingcarpenter Jun 2014 OP
bookmarked for later. Sounds amazing! hlthe2b Jun 2014 #1
This is just amazing! crim son Jun 2014 #2
Very interesting article. Link to audio was pnwest Jun 2014 #3
Try the audio at the soundcloud website bananas Jun 2014 #8
Yeek!! That was eerie! Thanks for the link, tho. pnwest Jun 2014 #11
What an interesting read. Loki Jun 2014 #4
Whales aren't actually all that smart Orrex Jun 2014 #5
I found that an incredibly sad story. zeemike Jun 2014 #6
OTOH, #belugagrads proverbialwisdom Jun 2014 #7
Absolutely. What a shame. Heartless exploitation, stealing their worlds from them. Judi Lynn Jun 2014 #10
Dory speaks whale ThoughtCriminal Jun 2014 #9

Orrex

(63,086 posts)
5. Whales aren't actually all that smart
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 10:38 AM
Jun 2014

If they were, they'd know better than to try to associate with us.

zeemike

(18,998 posts)
6. I found that an incredibly sad story.
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 10:40 AM
Jun 2014

Those poor creatures just wanted to go home...and be with their family...and I am sure that is why Noc was trying to communicate with us.
But man can be inhumane to man, and he can also be cruel to a baloga whale.

proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
7. OTOH, #belugagrads
Sun Jun 15, 2014, 11:56 AM
Jun 2014
Katie Smith @rezkatie · 22h
Had a great time seeing @Raffi_RC! My last concert was 20 years ago! Almost cried a few times! #nostalgia #belugagrads

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http://www.childhonouring.org/belugagradsnetwork.html
http://www.childhonouring.org/lightwebdarkwebbook.html

Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
10. Absolutely. What a shame. Heartless exploitation, stealing their worlds from them.
Mon Jun 16, 2014, 12:49 AM
Jun 2014

Giving them nothing, actually, in return, but loneliness, and early deaths.

Very, very sad.

This article tells us, also they are completely aware the Navy noise is killing whales. They are continuing to do it, regardless when we also know it can be done without harming the sentient sea animals.

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