Eavesdropping on Antarctic Whales' Conversations... Activity Monitoring

Establishment of Activity Monitoring System for Antarctic Blue Whales and Fin Whales

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Among the various sounds in the Antarctic sea, researchers have succeeded in distinguishing only the sounds of blue whales and fin whales. This breakthrough enables the identification of the number and location of these giant whales solely through their sounds. The Korea Polar Research Institute, in collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Brittany in France, and the University of Pretoria in South Africa, recently published these findings in the international scientific journal Scientific Reports, announced on the 13th.

The research team introduced unmanned autonomous underwater acoustic observation equipment and collected 300,000 hours of data over the past 20 years. They then developed a method to automatically detect whale sounds. Blue whales (also known as sei whales) and fin whales are the largest animals currently existing on Earth and are known to communicate by producing low-frequency sounds (around 20 Hz) that propagate over long distances underwater. According to the analysis, in 2014, blue whale signals were most frequently detected near the King Sejong Station and least near the Jang Bogo Station.

Being able to listen to whale sounds underwater provides significant assistance in understanding the population size and activity range of endangered whales. Blue whales and fin whales were each hunted by the hundreds of thousands during the 20th century and have since been designated as endangered species. Furthermore, a lack of observational data has made it difficult to accurately estimate their population numbers.

The Korea Polar Research Institute has publicly released over 100,000 whale signal data identified through this research. This data is expected to be used to analyze the spatiotemporal movements of whales through artificial intelligence technology.

Won-Sang Lee, head of the Glacial Environment Research Division at the Korea Polar Research Institute, stated, "We will expand our research using the observation network installed in the Antarctic sea to study the habitats of endangered species and other marine animals, as well as the impact of climate change on the Antarctic ecosystem."

The unique 'Z' shaped pattern of the blue whale frequency is clearly observed around 20 Hz. Low-frequency signals propagate very well over long distances underwater.

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