Photo: Humpback whale. Image source: rawpixel.com / Freepik photobank
New observations may indicate that humpback whales are showing friendly interest in people, trying to "flirt" with them. This is the conclusion reached by a group of foreign researchers who published an article in the journal Marine Mammal Science. Scientists noticed that humpback whales release bubble rings near boats and swimmers, showing curiosity towards them. In the past, such cases were not recorded. What this behavior may indicate, Svetlana Artemyeva, a research fellow at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the portal "Scientific Russia".
Blowing paths, clouds and rings of bubbles is a well-known "habit" of humpback whales in itself. But earlier, researchers drew attention to how humpback whales use this for more expected purposes - for example, when catching fish.
A new article, written by researchers from the University of California at Davis together with representatives of other institutes, focuses only on bubble rings.
“Here we describe 12 episodes of bubble ring blowing. A total of 39 rings were recorded from 11 individual humpback whales. The aim of this study is to describe the contexts in which humpback whales produce bubble rings and to elucidate their potential purposes,” the publication notes.
The records date back to different years, from 1988 to 2023. The frequency of observations increases over time. Thus, since 2020, episodes have been recorded every year, with two records for 2021 and 2023.
The scientists classified the whales’ behavior during these 12 episodes. It turned out that in two cases, the animals were most likely hunting fish, and in another case, the humpback whale was resting. But in the remaining nine situations, the whales showed curiosity. In five of the nine episodes, the whale was alone, which rules out the possibility of blowing bubbles to convey something to their own kind. And in all of these cases, the closest object to the humpback was a swimmer or a boat.
“Seven of the eight whales that released rings (one of the whales showed interest in people twice at different times — Correspondent’s note) approached the boat or swimmer at a distance <…> of 13–15 [meters] or less. When other whales were nearby, they remained at a distance, while the one that blew bubbles swam up to the boat or swimmer <…>. In two cases <…> the humpback whale that blew bubbles initially approached with exploratory intentions, including almost touching the swimmer,” the authors of the article explain. In none of the described cases did the whales show aggression, irritation, or a desire to avoid contact with a person.
The news of the study was enthusiastically picked up on the Internet as probable evidence that whales are trying to “talk” to people using bubbles instead of a tongue. However, it is too early to draw such conclusions.
"The original scientific publication talks about communication, not about conversation. Communication can be different. Therefore, it is a bit incorrect to draw conclusions about conversation," marine biologist Svetlana Mikhailovna Artemyeva explained to a correspondent of "Scientific Russia." "The article talks about play communication. Obviously, the terms "conversation" and "play communication" have critically important differences."
Previously, cases of play communication between whales and people have not been recorded.
"The authors note that bubbles were usually recorded during hunting: for humpback whales, this is one of the ways to drive fish. The fact is that schooling fish are scared of bubbles and gather together. That is, for humpbacks, this is a way to concentrate prey so as not to chase each fish separately. This phenomenon is not for nothing called a "bubble net": the prey is "caught" in it, and it becomes much more convenient for humpbacks to eat it this way," said S. M. Artemyeva. - Some individuals use this technique on their own, in other cases, there is a group hunt, when several humpbacks join in and catch fish together. Thus, until recently, it was believed that humpback whales mainly release bubbles for hunting. At the same time, in the observations described in new publications, it was play communication that was assumed. I have already seen these materials and read the comments of scientists. Probably, humpbacks are “flirting” with people in this way, displaying playful behavior.”
S.M. Artemyeva added that the age of the animals can play an important role — young individuals are probably more willing to try to make contact with people. In this study, it was possible to reliably determine the age of three out of eight humpbacks — one was a year old, another was quite young (4 to 6 years old), and the third was older (at least six years old).
"Whales are undoubtedly highly intelligent mammals, so young individuals can show curiosity. Naturally, like any baby, they show play behavior, and interest, and a desire to explore," the researcher noted. As an example, S.M. Artemyeva cited observations of gray whales in the Gulf of Mexico, which have been the subject of many publications on social networks.
"There are many photographs showing young animals swimming up to boats with tourists and sticking their heads out of the water. These are always young animals, mostly calves. That is, while the mother dives into the depths and feeds at the bottom (gray whales are benthic feeders), the calf remains on the surface and tries to interact with an object nearby," S.M. Artemyeva explained.
Why have such observations only recently begun to be recorded? This is probably due to the fact that whales in general have begun to interact with humans more often in a positive way: in the past, these animals were actively hunted, but now this is prohibited in almost all countries. In addition, tourists are showing great interest in whale watching. Perhaps the ocean giants have simply begun to get used to us.
“The number of people who can interact with whales has increased because in recent years, so-called whale watching tourism has become extremely popular all over the world. Citizen science is also actively developing: for example, there is a very large-scale project called Happywhale (an online platform for tracking whales based on observations by enthusiasts — Correspondent’s note). That is, at present, thanks to tourists, scientists are collecting a huge amount of information about whales. And at the same time, many people are attracted to whale watching, they try to interact with the animals,” said S. M. Artemyeva. “Previously, this was the prerogative of researchers who kept their distance during observations. We need to describe the behavior of wild animals, so we try to minimize interaction with them. And now, since tourism is at its peak, it is theoretically possible that humpback whales are developing new behavior. Because in the past, humans essentially interacted with whales only in the form of hunting. Then they were on the verge of extinction for a very long time and were not found everywhere. Now the number of whales, especially humpbacks, is generally growing, despite the fact that there are separate populations whose numbers remain stable or are falling. And, naturally, more and more people are engaged in amateur whale watching and swimming with them. This applies not only to humpbacks, but to other species as well. And it is precisely now that such interactions have begun to be actively observed. Perhaps whales have also begun to get used to people."
Another important factor is that humpbacks are mostly serene creatures.
“In general, according to evidence, humpbacks have always been relatively peaceful and timid,” noted S.M. Artemyeva. “Some whales exhibit an avoidance reaction or can even show aggression, starting to beat their tails in the presence of people or motorboats. But humpbacks are not one of them. They have always been considered calm and were not afraid of boats. I think that is why we can say that some kind of interaction occurs between them and people.”
S.M. Artemyeva noted that the study is of interest: “We need to observe how the interaction between people and whales is formed, because, in fact, this is an active, growing trend of the last ten years.” Earlier publications on human-whale interactions were either devoted to hunting these animals (before the moratorium on whaling), or spoke of a neutral or negative reaction of mammals to people (for example, collisions with ships and avoidance of boats).
At the same time, the authors of the article note that the collected data require further study and analysis, including from the point of view of the acoustic effect produced when releasing bubble rings. In order to confirm or refute the idea of whale communication with people, it is necessary to collect more evidence of such episodes and carefully study them. S.M. Artemyeva also drew attention to this: "It is very difficult to draw any final conclusions based on such fragmentary data."
