Singing Humpback Whales off West Cork Coast
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:49 pm
Hi All
Just a quick note to let you know that we\'ve uploaded a portion of the WAV file of the singing humpbacks in West Cork on Wed. 10th Dec. They are available from the lead article on www.iwdg.ie by simply clicking on the YouTube link at the end of the article. Or on this link
http://www.iwdg.ie/article.asp?id=2167
This is the first recording of \"singing\" humpbacks in Irish waters and is without precedent in any inshore European waters. This is an important discovery as conventional wisdom is that only the male humpbacks sing, and only when in tropical breeding grounds, when they use these vocalisations to attact females. West Cork in mid December is beautiful, but could never be described as tropical. We should be in a position to confirm the gender of at least one of the singing pair, #HBIRL9 before too long, as it was biopsied on 26/11/08 by Dr. Simon Berrow of the IWDG.
These recording were made by Eugene Mc Keown, Biospherics Engineering Ltd, who are an Acoustic Consultancy, specialising in the impact assessment of environmental noise and vibration, based in Bearna, Co. Galway. They are testing an acoustic detection system for cetaceans which is being developed under the Sea Change strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan 2007-2013. Eugene has been woring closely with the IWDG all summer and is a member of the PReCAST Steering Committee, a joint IWDG/GMIT initiative.
A big thanks to Andrew Malcolm for embedding the clip and making it possible for us all to hear it online. Enjoy!
Pádraig Whooley
Sightings Co-ordinator
Just a quick note to let you know that we\'ve uploaded a portion of the WAV file of the singing humpbacks in West Cork on Wed. 10th Dec. They are available from the lead article on www.iwdg.ie by simply clicking on the YouTube link at the end of the article. Or on this link
http://www.iwdg.ie/article.asp?id=2167
This is the first recording of \"singing\" humpbacks in Irish waters and is without precedent in any inshore European waters. This is an important discovery as conventional wisdom is that only the male humpbacks sing, and only when in tropical breeding grounds, when they use these vocalisations to attact females. West Cork in mid December is beautiful, but could never be described as tropical. We should be in a position to confirm the gender of at least one of the singing pair, #HBIRL9 before too long, as it was biopsied on 26/11/08 by Dr. Simon Berrow of the IWDG.
These recording were made by Eugene Mc Keown, Biospherics Engineering Ltd, who are an Acoustic Consultancy, specialising in the impact assessment of environmental noise and vibration, based in Bearna, Co. Galway. They are testing an acoustic detection system for cetaceans which is being developed under the Sea Change strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Marine Research Sub-programme of the National Development Plan 2007-2013. Eugene has been woring closely with the IWDG all summer and is a member of the PReCAST Steering Committee, a joint IWDG/GMIT initiative.
A big thanks to Andrew Malcolm for embedding the clip and making it possible for us all to hear it online. Enjoy!
Pádraig Whooley
Sightings Co-ordinator