The Secret Sound of Killer Whales: Inside a New Ocean Listening Network

View guidelines for use of these broadcast-ready news packages.

Click here for the full media package

BY BEN TRACY, SENIOR CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT ON ASSIGNMENT FOR CLIMATE CENTRAL

A mysterious ocean heatwave has warmed the waters of the North Pacific to record highs. The so-called “warm blob” can have big impacts on marine life already threatened by ship traffic and climate change. Now, scientists in Washington state are working to protect one of the ocean’s most endangered species—the Southern Resident orca—by listening to them more closely than ever before.

Tapping Into the Secret Language of Orcas

It’s early morning in Washington’s San Juan Islands when a team of scientists heads out on the water. They unspool what looks like a simple cable, but it’s actually a high-tech listening device. Divers descend below the surface to secure it to the ocean floor—then wait for the targets of their mission to arrive.

“I mean you guys are kind of a whale spy. You’re eavesdropping on their conversations,” says Senior Climate Correspondent Ben Tracy to marine biologist Scott Veirs. He replies with a laugh “yeah well they are not very private.”

The conversations belong to the Southern Resident orcas—better known as killer whales. Veirs says that fierce nickname overshadows something else about them. “They’re very chatty whales. Like two thirds of the time they’re saying something,” he explains. “And they say it really loud.”

Orcas use clicks and calls to hunt and navigate. The new fiber optic cable captures those sounds and sends real-time data back to shore. University of Washington researcher Shima Abadi says it’s far more powerful than a standard hydrophone, which only listens from one spot.

“The fiber optic cables are acting like thousands of hydrophones along the length of the cable. So all of the sudden we have so many receivers that are recording and we can get the data in real time” she says. 

This project could lead to something much bigger. While this test cable runs just over a mile, there are already more than 750,000 miles of fiber optic cables on the ocean floor worldwide—the same cables that carry global internet traffic. Scientists say those lines could someday double as a vast underwater listening network, providing unprecedented insight into how marine life is coping with human activity and a rapidly changing climate.

How Sound Could Help Save an Endangered Species

A recent study by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute found that the distinctive songs of blue whales dropped off significantly as food grew scarce following marine heatwaves—a possible sign of stress.

“At a global scale climate change amplifies existing stressors,” says Yuta Masuda, Director of Science at Allen Family Philanthropies, which funds the orca listening project.

Masuda says expanding the use of these cables could revolutionize our understanding of how whales and other marine mammals behave, communicate, and migrate. “It’s like going from a 2D picture to a 3D picture,” he explains.

That kind of real-time acoustic data could be crucial to saving the endangered Southern Resident orcas. Their population has dropped 25% in recent decades—to fewer than 75 whales. Tracking their movements could alert ships to slow down when orcas are nearby and help identify areas that should be protected. 

“So it’s just increasing the scale and the frequency and the quality of the data that’s available,” Masuda says.

Explore Climate Central’s data on rapid ocean warming.