Sperm whale ‘clicks’ have complex patterns similar to human speech - The Hindu

Marina: Welcome to Deep Voices — I'm so glad you're here. I'm Marina, a marine biologist and science communicator who has been completely, hopelessly in love with whales and dolphins for as long as I can remember, and this is the show where we dive into their world together. Marina: Before we go deep, a warm thank you to today's sponsors — Ada, who helps businesses integrate A I into their workflows in really meaningful ways; Ago Consulting, silicon development experts working across everything from A I to full SoC design; and Zen Semiconductor, an umbrella company with an incredible portfolio spanning the silicon industry. These are the folks helping keep Deep Voices going, and I'm genuinely grateful. Marina: Today we've got a beautiful lineup. We're talking about sperm whales and the jaw-dropping complexity hiding inside their clicks. We're looking at how A I is starting to crack open the question we've all been quietly asking — can we actually talk to animals? And we have a story about spinner dolphins in Hawaii that is both tender and urgent. Let's go. Marina: Okay, so picture this. You're underwater in the deep ocean — and I mean deep, like a kilometer down, maybe more. It's pitch black. No sunlight reaches you here. And moving through that darkness is the largest toothed predator on Earth — a sperm whale. An animal that can grow to eighteen meters long, that can hold its breath for over an hour, that has the biggest brain of any creature that has ever lived on this planet. Marina: And it's clicking. Marina: Now, when most people hear "clicking," they think — oh, that's echolocation, right? The whale is pinging the darkness, finding squid. And yes, that is part of it. But researchers have been looking much, much more carefully at those clicks, and what they're finding is honestly stunning. Marina: Sperm whales produce these rapid sequences of clicks called codas. A coda is a short pattern — maybe three clicks, maybe eight, arranged in a specific rhythm and timing. And individual whales have codas they use repeatedly. Social groups share codas. Different populations around the world have different coda repertoires — like regional dialects. Scientists have known this for a while. Marina: But recent analysis has gone further, finding that the structure of sperm whale clicks has layers of complexity that start to look a lot like the structural properties we associate with human speech. Things like combinatorial structure — the idea that smaller units can be combined in different ways to create different meanings. The click patterns aren't just random. They're not just noise. There is something deeply organized happening in there. Marina: Think about what that means. Down in the dark, in the cold, these massive ancient animals are exchanging something — information, identity, maybe emotion — in a system structured enough that researchers are now comparing it, carefully, to the architecture of language. Marina: Sperm whales are also intensely social. They live in tight matrilineal groups — grandmothers, mothers, daughters, aunties — and they babysit each other's calves. They've been documented caring for a young dolphin with a spinal deformity who had joined their group. These are not simple creatures making simple sounds. The complexity of their clicks mirrors the complexity of their lives. Marina: And here's the thing that keeps me up at night in the best possible way — we are only just beginning to listen properly. Marina: So that brings us perfectly to the second part of today's episode, because there is a growing scientific movement dedicated to exactly that — listening properly. And A I is right at the center of it. Marina: Scientific American recently ran a piece asking whether A I could finally let us talk to animals, and it's a question that's moved from science fiction into genuine scientific discussion in a remarkably short time. The key project I want to tell you about here is Project CETI — that's C, E, T, I — which stands for Cetacean Translation Initiative. And it is one of the most ambitious scientific endeavors of our time. Marina: Project CETI brings together marine biologists, linguists, cryptographers, roboticists, and A I researchers, all focused on one target — sperm whales. The plan is to record millions of sperm whale codas using underwater microphones, robotic fish, even tags placed gently on the whales themselves. And then to feed all of that data into machine learning models — the same kind of large language model architecture that underlies tools like the A I assistants many of us use every day — and ask: is there a pattern here that constitutes something like a language? Marina: The researchers are being careful. They're not promising translation. They're not saying we'll be having conversations with whales by next Tuesday. What they're saying is that for the first time, we have the computational tools to actually analyze whale communication at the scale and depth it deserves. Marina: And there are early hints that are thrilling. Analysis of sperm whale codas has found properties like combinatoriality — where basic units combine to make more complex ones — and context-dependence, where the same coda appears to be used differently in different social situations. These are hallmarks of complex communication systems. Marina: Now I want to connect this to something happening much closer to shore — in the Pacific Northwest, with orcas. The Center for Whale Research, which has been tracking the Southern Resident killer whales for over five decades, recently had an encounter with J Pod and L Pod — two of the three family groups that make up this critically endangered population. Marina: The Southern Residents are famous for having their own dialect — a set of calls that are completely distinct from any other orca population. They pass these calls down through generations. A young orca born into J Pod learns J Pod's calls. Researchers can identify which pod an orca belongs to just by listening. That is culture. That is learned, transmitted, socially specific vocal culture. Marina: And right now, these whales are in trouble. There are fewer than seventy Southern Residents left. Every encounter the Center for Whale Research documents is precious — not just scientifically, but as a record of a culture that could be lost. When researchers spot J Pod and L Pod together, there's this mix of joy and heartache, because you're watching something irreplaceable. Marina: The hope is that tools like A I-assisted acoustic analysis will help us understand not just what these whales are saying to each other, but how their communication changes under stress, how it shifts when food is scarce, how a culture sounds when it's fighting to survive. Marina: We're building the tools to listen. The question is whether we'll do it in time. Marina: Okay, I want to close today with a story that I find both heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure, because that's often how it goes when humans and cetaceans share the same water. Marina: Spinner dolphins. If you've ever seen them, you know why they have that name — they leap out of the water and spin on their axis, sometimes multiple times before they splash back down. Nobody is entirely sure why they do it. Communication, play, parasite removal — possibly all three. They are joyful, acrobatic, sociable animals. Marina: In Hawaii, spinner dolphins follow a very specific daily rhythm. They spend their nights offshore, hunting small fish and squid in deep water. And then, as morning comes, they move into sheltered, shallow bays — places like Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island — to rest. This is not casual resting. This is essential, restorative sleep. Dolphins sleep differently from us — they rest one half of their brain at a time, staying partially alert — but they still need calm, undisturbed time to do it. Marina: And here is where it gets hard. Marina: Those same beautiful, sheltered bays that the dolphins need for rest are also exactly where tourists want to swim. And the tourism industry around swimming with spinner dolphins in Hawaii has become enormous. Kayaks, snorkel tours, paddleboards — sometimes dozens of vessels and hundreds of swimmers entering the water where the dolphins are resting. Marina: A study out of Hawaii has found a troubling link between this tourism pressure and declining calf numbers among spinner dolphin populations. When dolphins are repeatedly disturbed during their resting hours — when they have to keep moving, keep being alert, can't properly rest — it takes a physiological toll. Mothers have less energy. Reproduction suffers. Marina: NOAA actually enacted a rule in 2021 prohibiting swimming with or approaching spinner dolphins within fifty meters in their resting bays in Hawaii. It was the first federal protection of this kind for spinner dolphins in the United States. But enforcement is genuinely difficult, and the pressure continues. Marina: This is the tension that conservation biologists live in all the time. We love these animals. The people jumping into the water with the dolphins — they love them too. That love is real. But love without knowledge, love without boundaries, can still cause harm. And the dolphins can't tell us when they've had enough. Except that, in a way, they are telling us — through their declining calf numbers, through the data, through the science. Marina: If we learn to listen — really listen — that's what we'll hear. Marina: So that's our journey today. From the organized darkness of the deep ocean, where sperm whales are clicking in patterns we're only beginning to understand, to the cutting edge of A I research trying to decode those patterns, to the shallow, sunlit bays of Hawaii where spinner dolphins are asking, quietly, for a little space to rest. Marina: What ties it all together, I think, is this — these animals have voices. Complex, culturally rich, structurally sophisticated voices. And we are living in the first moment in human history where we might actually be able to understand them. That is an extraordinary thing to be alive for. Marina: Deep Voices, brought to you by Ada, Ago Consulting, and Zen Semiconductor — thank you so much for supporting this show and making these conversations possible. Marina: If today's episode moved you, please share it with someone who loves the ocean, or someone who needs to. Subscribe wherever you listen, and check the link in show notes for more on Project CETI, the Center for Whale Research, and the Hawaiian spinner dolphin protections we talked about today. Marina: Stay curious, stay kind to the sea — and I'll see you next time in the deep.