4.7 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2020
⏱️ 12 minutes
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0:00.0 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
0:05.4 | Maddie Sify here with NPR Climate Correspondent Lauren Summer Hey Lauren. |
0:09.1 | Hey Maddie. So today you promised me a story about the coronavirus pandemic that is not |
0:15.6 | incredibly depressing. Yes I will not let you down and here I'll give you a hint about what it's about. |
0:22.8 | Oh it's a whale. And by my expert ears Lauren I will guess it's a big whale. |
0:36.3 | Oh expert. Yeah. That was a humpback whale in Glacier Bay National Park Alaska. |
0:43.3 | This is the time of year where they've arrived they've migrated all the way from Hawaii to |
0:48.4 | eat basically. Those cold waters in Alaska have a lot of food. Okay ready yeah I'm going to give |
0:54.2 | you another one. I'm getting like more of a free willy vibe from that one. Yeah. Sintation bonus points. |
1:07.0 | Those are killer whales. They were recorded in April swimming by the hydrophone that the National |
1:13.6 | Park Service has installed down at the bottom of Glacier Bay. Hydrophone being an |
1:18.0 | underwater microphone. Yeah you got it. But what's really important here is what you're not |
1:23.2 | hearing in those recordings which is this. Oh yeah boat noise aka human noise. There's less |
1:33.8 | humans out here making human touristy noises. Right exactly. I mean the cruise ships and the boat |
1:39.2 | tours that people take to go see the glaciers they're not happening. So the whales are getting a |
1:44.8 | break from that noise underwater and sound is really key for whales. It's how they experience the |
1:52.5 | world. So today on the show how the global slowdown is creating quieter oceans and how scientists |
2:01.1 | are using this moment to listen to how whales are responding which maybe could help protect them |
2:07.1 | from underwater noise pollution in the future. This is shortwave the Daily Science podcast from NPR. |
2:17.7 | So the whales in Glacier Bay are hanging out for the summer in this newfound quiet. How much |
2:24.4 | quieter are we talking about Lauren? That's something scientists are measuring right now. Like |
2:29.1 | Christine Gabriel. She's a wildlife biologist at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska. And you know |
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