HUMPBACK WHALES: THE MAJESTIC SINGERS OF THE SEAS

The musical symphonies of the Humpback Whales are sophisticated and often romantic. Their use of mathematical symmetry has been paralleled to that of the prodigy Mozart. The score of his Symphony NO. 41 in C Major, K. 551 (“Jupiter”), has been compared to and said to parallel Mozart’s perfect mathematical complexity.
The Humpback Wales music is a complex form of acoustic communication that can be heard many miles away. Their songs are taught and repeated down the generations. Migrating over 5,000 miles from tropical breeding grounds to colder protective feeding grounds has caused accent variations without changes in their mathematical symmetry.
Prior to commercial whale hunting, over 125,000 humpback whales roamed the seven seas. In 1950’s their numbers were reduced to 440. Whaling restrictions allowed the pod’s numbers to grow to 650 by 1967. Continued Russian whaling brought this number down to 500 in the 1960’s. The international ban on whaling in 1986 brought a recovery of 93% of their original size. Today there are 13,000 in the North Atlantic, 80,000 in the southern hemisphere and 21,000 in the North Pacific. The 80 left in the Arabian Sea are considered endangered. Today the Atlantic off the Dominican Republic has the largest concentration population in the world. Between 2016-2023 elevated humpback whale mortalities have been reported along the Atlantic coast stringing from Maine to Florida. NOAA investigations have revealed that 40% were caused by propeller damage, ship hit and fishing net entanglement.
Russia, Japan and Norway are still whaling today. Sonar equipment is used to locate the pods. Explosive weapons, harpoon guns, harpoon grenades and guns are used. Japan’s whaling uses factory ships.