Bomb-Detected Whales & What It’s Like to Film Shark Week
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2021
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn how nuclear bomb detectors found a secret population of blue whales. Plus: what it takes to film sharks underwater.
Dive deeper into all your favorite Shark Week shows with Shark Week’s Daily Bite Podcast hosted by Luke Tipple:
- Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shark-weeks-daily-bite/id1527053422
- Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0dfzM1ktSB1mSKD5z4Qujm?si=R8rNBksMRS-JrgMs9JIJ5g&dl_branch=1
- Learn more: https://www.discovery.com/shark-week/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-daily-bite-podcast
Nuclear bomb detectors found a secret population of blue whales by Briana Brownell
- Landow, S. (2021, June 8). New population of blue whales discovered with help of bomb detectors. Phys.org; Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2021-06-population-blue-whales-detectors.html
- Baker, H. (2021, June 10). Nuclear bomb detectors uncover secret population of blue whales hiding in Indian Ocean. Livescience.com; Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/secret-blue-whale-population-discovered.html
- Leroy, E. C., Royer, J.-Y., Alling, A., Maslen, B., & Rogers, T. L. (2021). Multiple pygmy blue whale acoustic populations in the Indian Ocean: whale song identifies a possible new population. Scientific Reports, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88062-5
More from Joe and Lauren Romeiro and Shark Week 2021:
- Start your 7-day free trial of discovery+ https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity
- Shark Week 2021 Full Schedule https://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-newsroom/discovery-channels-shark-week-2021-swims-off-with-jawsome-lineup-featuring-more-hours-of-shark-programming-than-ever-before/
- Shark Week 2021 Visual Guide https://www.discovery.com/shark-week/your-guide-to-shark-week-2021-pictures
- Follow @laurenromeiro333 on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/laurenromeiro333
- Follow @joeromeiro333 on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/joeromeiro333/
- Learn about new Eli Roth film “Fin” https://www.discovery.com/dnews/New_Eli_Roth_Film_FIN_to_Premiere_During_Shark_Week_on_discovery
- Learn more about “Return to Shark Vortex” https://ew.com/tv/shark-week-2021-guide-all-32-specials/?slide=3a0bc578-6635-494f-93f0-6e214e673413#3a0bc578-6635-494f-93f0-6e214e673413
- Learn more about “Ninja Shark 2: Mutants Rising” https://ew.com/tv/shark-week-2021-guide-all-32-specials/?slide=c08c41fe-90dc-46b3-8ce2-92c6a3f42d47#c08c41fe-90dc-46b3-8ce2-92c6a3f42d47
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/bomb-detected-whales-what-its-like-to-film-shark-week
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from |
| 0:04.8 | Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:08.0 | Today you learn how nuclear bomb detectors found a secret population of blue whales. |
| 0:13.0 | Then, two of Shark Week's veteran cinematographers will tell you what it takes to film sharks, |
| 0:19.0 | and how camera footage can help save shark species around the world. |
| 0:23.0 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:25.0 | How do you find blue whales? |
| 0:28.0 | If you guessed by using a nuclear bomb detector, |
| 0:32.0 | you are absolutely right. |
| 0:35.3 | This sounds kind of weird, but it's exactly what happened. |
| 0:38.7 | Recently, scientists have located a new group of pygmy Blue Whales in the Indian Ocean using data that was originally |
| 0:45.9 | collected to detect illegal nuclear bomb detonations. |
| 0:50.8 | And how did they do that? |
| 0:52.4 | Well, instead of looking, they listened. |
| 0:55.0 | That's the thing about Blue Whales. They're quite the crooners. |
| 0:59.0 | Blue Whales sing loud complex songs that repeat themselves like a refrain? |
| 1:05.8 | They're like an anthem for the group too. |
| 1:08.3 | Each population of whales sings a unique kind of song. |
| 1:12.4 | These songs vary in their style. I mean their structure, key, and |
| 1:16.3 | tempo all differ between population groups. Because they're distinct, scientists can tell which population is swimming where by |
| 1:25.0 | listening to their unique sounds. But to find that, like I said, scientists need |
| 1:30.0 | to listen. And unfortunately, there are few scientific acoustic monitoring arrays in the Indian |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.