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North Pacific right whales are quite rare. So rare, that when when scientists recently heard some singing, they were astounded. After all, these whales aren’t supposed to sing.

“Singing has not been documented before in any right whales species or population …” said Jessica Crance, a NOAA research biologist based in Seattle. “The fact that we documented singing is really unique and really rare and unexpected. We have no idea why they are singing.”

There is one theory: that the whales are essentially singing out of loneliness, trying to attract the few females left.

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“We think it’s maybe the male’s attempt to attract a female,” Crance said. “But at this point with so few animals and so few data that correlate acoustical behavior with their physical behavior, it’s difficult to say … at this point it’s all speculative.”

The sounds were first recorded in 2010, but scientists weren’t exactly sure what they were hearing. They had to go back through years of data to verify it. When they did confirm the song, it was “sheer excitement” Crance said.

What a right whale sounds like

These “songs” aren’t like other whale songs, however. Rather than the melodic echoes most people think of, these songs sound more like the whales are briefly shouting into the darkness. One call sounds like a gunshot.

“They normally make two call types, the gunshot sound and the up call,” Crance said. “The songs we are hearing are comprised almost exclusively of that gunshot sound. So our songs sound very different from what people expect to hear when they hear the term ‘whale song.’ They tend to think of humpback whales which are really quite melodious.”

“One of the biggest questions we hope to answer soon is if this is in fact unique to our population, or if other populations sing but it has not yet been discovered.” Crance said. “If it is in fact unique to our population, why is that the case? Why is it that the rarest of the right whale populations is the one singing?”

Scientist plan to continue monitoring the whales. If the songs are unique to this one North Pacific population, they can use it to track them better.

North Pacific right whale

Extensive whaling in the 1800s drew down right whale populations significantly. Which is why.

“It’s estimated that between 25,000 and 37,000 animals were taken in just a few decades,” Crance said. “And then in the 1960s the Soviets came in illegally and targeted them again and just decimated what was left of the population and brought their numbers down to what we think there is today, which is approximately 30 individuals.”

“Historically, they once were widely distributed throughout the entire Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, but now their range is quite constricted,” she said. “But we still don’t know what their migration routes are or their breeding and calving grounds are. There is still so much about this population that we don’t know.”