courtship techniques have evolved in whales

Well-known researchers from the University of Queensland have studied for almost 20 years the populations of whales that evolve on the east coast of Australia. They actually found that in 1997, when the study began, male whales relied heavily on their song to seduce a partner. At the time, a singer was twice as likely to mate as a non-singer.

But 20 years later, the acoustic dredge is no longer as successful with females. What works best now to seduce is silence, and possibly a show of force that consists of rushing into your opponent. A non-singing male is now five times more successful than a whale that continues to sing as before. For these researchers, it is linked to the fact that whale populations have been increasing since the ban on hunting in the 1960s. The number of whales off the coast of Australia has thus multiplied by seven during the 20 years of their study.
And in a more competitive context, nothing beats discretion. Because if the male whales sing, they can be spotted, and therefore the competitors can disembark.

For Olivier Adam, professor of bioacoustics at the University of La Sorbonne, the hypothesis is very relevant. This whale specialist advances another: human activities, by generating a lot of underwater noise, may have also made seduction by song less effective, less profitable. Studies show that underwater noise doubles every ten years.

Humpback whale populations are increasing

Populations are recovering in Australia and they are also increasing by 6% to 7% per year in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. But be careful not to rejoice too quickly because other threats hang over the whales: climate change, industrial fishing, but also the mining of the seabed. Very little research has examined the impact this extraction would have on cetaceans. However, the continuous sounds of machines could stress and disorient them, British researchers from the University of Exeter warned this month.