Whales Mix it Up in Disco Bay

Climate change might be giving the world’s largest whale a boost in northwest Greenland’s Disco Bay, reports Science Daily. Bowhead whales, which can measure up to 60 feet long and weigh 100 tons, had all but vanished from Disco Bay. Now for the first time in 125,000 years an ice-free Northwest Passage has given northern Pacific bowheads a chance to wander in and mate with the bay’s small remaining population.

What’s more, the toothless sweethearts sing not one but two melodies combined together. Such musical mixing is a skill unique to bowhead whales, according to Outi Maria Tervo, a University of Copenhagen PhD student doing field research in Disco Bay.

Courting bowheads also appear to be quite choosy about which ballads they perform. Each year they croon a brand new tune, never repeating ones from previous years.

Prior to commercial exploitation, the world’s bowhead whale population likely numbered 30,000 to 50,000, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries data. By the 1920s roughly 3,000 were left. Today scientists estimate between 7,000 and 10,000 animals worldwide.

With any luck, maybe the love songs playing in Disco Bay will strike all the right chords and help move those numbers up the charts.