Multimedia Release

Blue Whale Song Spectrogram

Reports and Proceedings

San Francisco State University

Blue Whale Song Spectrogram

image: A spectrogram showing a visual representation of a blue whale's "song" recorded by San Francisco State University Professor Roger Bland. Whale songs consist of an A call, a series of pulses, followed by a long, low moan called the B call, both can be seen in the orange markings. Bland analyzed more than 4,000 blue whale calls, recorded off the coast of California, and found that all the whales produced their B call at the same pitch – 16.02 Hz, with a very slim margin of error from call to call. Results were published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Inset: enlargement of a blue whale's B call, lasting about 15 seconds at a frequency of 16 Hz. Please see the related release : http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/prsrelea/fy10/002.html. view more 

Credit: Roger Bland, San Francisco State University


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