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New Day Cafe ~ Saturday: A Whale Of A Diary... [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-26

Dearest Newdists. I hope you all are well, despite the bizarre timeline we find ourselves in.

Also, I’m going to be teensy bit late. I have to run to the bank and sort somethings out that they messed up.

Anyway, we move on to whales. Very much more a story to promote happiness. Oceans are deep and home to a hugely diverse groups of intelligent beings.

x There is no #EarthDay without the Ocean. It covers more than 70% of our planet and is home to over a million of Earth's plants and animals 🐋🌿🌍 #30x30



📸: Fabrice Guerin pic.twitter.com/Iu88pdoErR — Lewis Pugh (@LewisPugh) April 22, 2025

“They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains the hottest blood of all….” DH Lawrence, Whales Weep Not.

This could happen? Awesome! I’m looking forward to whale commentary on humans, and life.

I’ll share only three paragraphs. But you can read it for free if you give them an email. That said, I love this idea. It’s like giving rivers personhood designation [Anglia Ruskin Uni] and legal rights. Similarly whales [National Geographic] :

Two summers ago, in the turquoise waters off the coast of a small Caribbean island called Dominica, a sperm whale named Rounder began to give birth. Eleven members of her clan slowly gathered around to support her, converging from miles away in their home waters. They called to one another in choruses of Morse code-like clicks as they waited for the baby to arrive and in the hours that followed, when they held the calf above water so that she could breathe, only lowering her when her fins finished unfurling. Soon after, they departed. Scientists are developing innovations in recording and analyzing sperm whale communications that could someday make it possible to understand at least some of what whales say to each other in these extraordinary moments. People might translate what they only now surmise: expressions of care and joy, arrangements of duties, cries of pain and discomfort. With those translations would come profound and surprising legal questions. SNIP Gruber is the founder and president of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative), which has gathered dozens of linguists, biologists, roboticists, and experts in artificial intelligence to document the lives and communications of Dominica’s sperm whales. Their work builds on several decades of findings in the field of animal communication—not only in sperm whales but throughout the animal world, from songbird syntax to chimpanzee gestures and river turtle repertoires.

x The eye of a female humpback whale, seen up close.



[📸 moore_rachel] pic.twitter.com/0RLZNNXoZc — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 18, 2025



x Whale spotting is one of the world’s most unique jobs, with a history stretching back to the days of whaling in the Azores.



A job that once hunted whales now protects them. Pretty cool, right? Follow #OceanX for more incredible ocean stories. pic.twitter.com/DjA6MBvgvS — OceanX (@oceanx) March 27, 2025

Their teams are working on translating whale conversation, by using AI to translate/convert sperm whale sounds into human language and back into whale language.

The process is described has having a part 1 and a part 2 in their research paper. Here’s a bit more on it [Abstracts Papers SSRN]:

This Article explores the burgeoning fields of artificial intelligence and bioacoustics and their potential to reshape nonhuman animal law. Historically, Western science dismissed nonhuman animal vocalizations as simple and lacking complexity. However, recent advancements in recording technology, artificial intelligence, and interdisciplinary collaborations have revealed that many species, from whales to honeybees, possess sophisticated communication systems. Pioneering projects, like Project Cetacean Translation Initiative’s (CETI) work with sperm whales, are challenging long-held assumptions about animal communication and opening the door to new legal and ethical considerations. This Article examines the legal implications of understanding nonhuman animal communication by asking: If these initiatives succeed, how might the legal terrain be reshaped?

x Humpback whale with its calf.



📹 Paul Nicklen



pic.twitter.com/OuFzRyB3rk — Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 11, 2025

What fascinated me is that this translation is very possible [SciAm]:

For all the world’s linguistic diversity, human languages still obey certain universal patterns. These run deeper than grammar and syntax; they’re rooted in statistical laws that predict how frequently we use certain words and how long those words tend to be. Think of them as built-in guardrails to keep language easy to learn and use. Now scientists have found some of the same patterns in whale vocalizations. Two new studies show that humans and whales have converged on similar solutions to the problem of communicating through sound. “It strengthens the view that we should not be thinking about human language as a completely different phenomenon from other communication systems but instead we should be thinking about what it shares with them,” says Inbal Arnon, a psychologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-author of one of the studies.

x That time a beluga whale returned a phone someone dropped in the sea waters of Norway.pic.twitter.com/UKpSAdyMqI — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 5, 2025



We know they understand play —

x A drone captured the incredible moment a whale pushed a paddleboard with its fin.



Maximiliano Jonas filmed the amazing footage off the coast of Puerto Madryn, Argentina



[📹 maxijonas]pic.twitter.com/0tmVnDV6t4 — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 23, 2025

x This beautiful bowhead whale calf, born in 2022, could live to see the year 2222! 🤯 Bowhead whales are believed to be the longest-living mammal, with some living more than 200 years. Learn more about Arctic whale research: https://t.co/6ctVkPJvcm pic.twitter.com/tXuFxbN1p3 — Fisheries and Oceans (@FishOceansCAN) January 20, 2023

It all began about a year ago when [Conversation]:

In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, to recognise whales as legal persons. Aotearoa New Zealand has already granted legal personhood to a river (Te Awa Tupua Whanganui River), land (Te Urewera) and a mountain (Taranaki maunga), but He Whakaputanga Moana differs from these earlier processes. It is based in customary law, or tikanga Māori, rather than Crown law. The declaration seeks to protect the rights of whales (tohorā) to migrate freely and to use mātauranga Māori alongside science for better protections. It also aims to set up a dedicated fund for whale conservation. But a core concept of legal personhood is the idea that the “person” (in this case, whales) can sue to protect their rights.

What a great idea. If you want to read more, here’s Greenpeace bringing more explanations to this developing idea of legal personhood for whales.

x Whales and dolphins playing together in the Ocean 🐬🐳 pic.twitter.com/YW22pFsyot — Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) April 9, 2025



x Fin whale, the second-largest whale species after the blue whale, swimming alongside dolphins in the ocean,



pic.twitter.com/MNvMrRudwk — Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) March 18, 2025



x Whistle, click, chirp, or sing your way through the weekend with the beluga whale! Known as the “canary of the sea,” this social animal uses sound to communicate & navigate the open ocean. Since it's so reliant on sound, noise pollution is one of its greatest threats. pic.twitter.com/Yi5BtM9QbP — American Museum of Natural History (@AMNH) April 20, 2025



Who knew that sharks like a cuddle puddle??!

x Mini shark hotels do exist! #DYK that nurse sharks are known to sleep in cuddle puddles of up to 40 sharks? 🦈💤 pic.twitter.com/OvzrnYnRHo — Lewis Pugh Foundation (@LewisPughFDN) April 23, 2025

Newdists, please grab a cuppa, something to eat, and join us in the thread.

New Day Cafe is an Open Thread

What do you want to talk about today?

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