Monday, October 14, 2013

10-14-13 More About The Humpback

Monday, October 14th
...let me set the stage for what occurred this afternoon (Monday)...
-friends who live on the west side.
-about 10pm they took dog out one last time on Sunday evening.
-they were walking near the water somewhere between Lime Kiln and Andrews Bay.

...this afternoon (Monday) I saw these friends.
...I told them I had something for them to listen to.
...Without telling them what it was, I began playing the recording clip of the humpback whale from Sunday night (see prior post).

...one of them began to literally freak out, "what is that?!" "what is that?!"...
...the other one chimed in with "that's what we heard!"
...and they both said they were ready to run back inside and lock the doors because the sound was nothing like they have ever heard before and it was spooky sounding. They didn't know what it was! No joke!
 
...Then I told them it was a humpback whale they had heard.


I had been listening to the under surface sounds and they were hearing what was occurring above or possibly near the surface...

It would be so awesome to be able to have both!
Maybe...if there's a next time...
They're now figuring out how to record on their cell phones so if it happens again they'll be ready to record and not run!

This is an amazing place!

2 comments:

Scott Veirs said...

Very cool. In AK humpback feeding sounds have broadband source levels of 162 dB (low freq grunts) through 175 (moan) and 180 (blow hole shrieks and trumpet-like blasts) to 192 dB (surface impacts). Did your friends hear all of those (and/or other) types of sounds?


That's about the intensity of SRKW calls (155 dB) and NRKW clicks (205 dB) which are often heard in air. At what range would you say one can typically hear SRKW sounds in air, Jeanne?

Jeanne said...

Hi Scott, They heard grunts and moans, and a trumpet-like (elephant-like they said). They did not hear any high pitched sounds. On the audio clip (prior post) they did not hear the loud trumpet-like sound toward the end of the recording.

As for the other question: When the conditions are right their sounds can be for a long distance. Exactly what distance?...I'll get back to you on that.