Frequency of Song Determines Numbers of Blue Whales

It has been suggested that Blue Whales are generally thousands of miles apart during their mating season and so it has further been suggested that the whales use song to indicate their location to each other. It is thought that this is done primarily by the males, but none of this has officially been shown to be true, except the singing, which does happen though researchers are not positive that it is linked to mating. In the past these songs have been at a high frequency. High frequencies under water travel farther then lower frequencies and so it was an advantage to sing “girly” so to speak to allow for the song to travel the greatest amount of distance. Researchers are finding that the tone of the whale song has been steadily decreasing to lower frequencies, thus indicating that the number of Blue whales is possibly on the rise. Lowering the frequency of song suggests that the whales do not need their singing to reach further distances and so have lowered the frequencies accordingly.  The singing drains the whales of the air in their lungs and so after each song they must surface, and then it’s down again to sing some more. The Blue whales have been tracked using their songs and have been found to be anywhere from the Southern California coast to the Indian Ocean and further.
Scientists can use the theories about frequency and it’s relation to population size to estimate the sizes of other whale species as well. I wonder if they will be able to apply the same theories and technologies to other animals, possibly to those that are found to display similar behavioral patterns? I have always found oceans to be intriguing but I’m also deathly afraid of sharks, though I also see the beauty in them (a little nutty, I know). I never use to find much use for anything in the ocean and pretty much equated salt water to “things that can hurt me live in there”. I now know that there is much beauty in the water and that most anything in nature could probably kick my ass in some manner so I have also learned to respect nature. It works for me. As far as the whole whale thing goes, it would be interesting to see if they could tie it to actual numbers. It’s hard to tag a whale but maybe someone could figure out a way in which they could get at least one, identify his/her song, and follow them around the oceans. Maybe this is already being done but even just one whale would give a great deal of information and necessary information into the singing/breeding link of Blue Whales.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20091110001908data_trunc_sys.shtml