Voices of the Deep:
Humpback Whales of the North Pacific
Exploring the global intelligence of humpback whales
Center for Conservation Bioacoustics
Cornell University
California National Primate Research Center
University of California at Davis
University of California at Davis
Using modern theories of information and structure in complex systems**, we are developing new signal analysis tools to analyze the informational, semantic, functional, and social communications within humpback whale populations. The long-term goal is to deepen our understanding of individual and group behaviors in ways that will improve their conservation.
Over a decade of field seasons in southeast Alaska, we monitored the behaviors and vocalizations of humpback whale populations, largely during their summer residence in the Inside Passage of the Alaskan panhandle.
Complementing behavioral reportings, we employ multi-hydrophone recordings and acoustic playbacks.
In addition to this marine biological research effort, we are developing a plan for an observatory—the SouthEast Alaska WHale observatory (SEAWHO)—to provide the cloud with realtime, online acoustic signals from a large hydrophone-array deployment in Fredericks Sound. Beyond accumulating a massive behavioral data set for cetacean researchers worldwide, the processing backend will employ modern causal inference and machine learning to identify individual whales by their vocalizations and positional migration and to extract useful interpretations of their acoustic interactions.
** We are adapting recent mathematical innovations in meromorphic functional analysis [1], informational generalization of spectral analysis [2], and reproducing kernel Hilbert space representations of computational mechanics’ causal states [3] to acoustic signals—that is, continuous-value, continuous-time series.
[1] P. M. Riechers and J. P. Crutchfield. Beyond the spectral theorem: Decomposing arbitrary functions of nondiagonalizable operators. AIP Advances, 8:065305, 2018.
[2] P. M. Riechers and J. P. Crutchfield. Fraudulent white noise: Flat power spectra belie arbitrarily complex processes. Physical Review Research, 3(1):013170, 2021.
[3] N. Brodu and J. P. Crutchfield. Discovering causal structure via reproducing-kernel Hilbert space ε-machines. arXiv.org:2011.14821, 2020.
Documentary:
Fathom follows Dr. Ellen Garland and Dr. Michelle Fournet, two scientists focused on the study of humpback whale songs and social communication. As they embark on parallel research journeys on opposite sides of the world, they seek to better understand whale culture and communication. Premiers 25 June 2021 on Apple TV+. Trailer. Press release.
Video:
Laurance Doyle & Fred Sharpe, Humpback Whale Communication and the Search for Alien Intelligence
Winner of the 2021 Webby Award for best Science and Education video.
Talks:
Jim Crutchfield, N Whales from M Hydrophones: Seminar, Complexity Sciences Center, Physics Department, University of California, Davis, California, 28 August 2019. (Video).
NEWS
25 June 2021: Fournet’s bioacoustic whale studies highlighted in documentary Fathom. Premiers Tribeca 16 June 2021, available globally 25 June on Apple TV+.
