We’ve Been Using Whales to Contact Aliens for Years. As It Turns Out, Whales Have Been Trying to Communicate With Us, Too

A dog barks, and a cat meows, each trying to communicate with us. They use not only vocalizations but also their gaze, body language, and gestures. Communication across species is vital for bonding and survival. Some believe that whales also seek to communicate with people, perhaps by creating large circles in the water to observe their reactions.

This quest for communication extends to the realm of extraterrestrial life.

Communicating with aliens. For decades, humanity has attempted to establish contact with aliens. While the potential for contact exists, effective communication proves more complicated. However, while there’s life, there’s hope.

In 2021, researchers from the SETI Institute, the University of California Davis, and the Alaska Whale Foundation initiated the WhaleSETI project. Their goal was to decipher the intricate vocalizations of humpback whales, identifying patterns and exploring potential forms of interspecies communication.

Speaking with whales. Researcher Breenda McCowan published an article in 2023 outlining one of the team’s contact tests. She recorded 20 minutes of underwater sounds and analyzed them to identify patterns that might attract whales. During this study, a 38-year-old female whale named Twain approached within 330 feet of the boat and responded with her own vocalization.

For 20 minutes, Twain engaged in a vocal exchange, synchronizing her responses with the playback intervals of the recordings. This interaction allowed researchers to refine the specific recording fragments to which Twain responded most effectively, highlighting a conversational behavior between humans and whales.

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Bubble rings. In recent years, the team has continued to “communicate” with whales, achieving much more than just recognizing sounds in their “language.” Co-author Fred Sharpe pointed out that “humpback whales are extremely intelligent, have complex social systems… and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls.” He further explained that, in addition to vocalizing, they also “make tools.” However, these tools aren’t physical objects. Instead, they use nets out of bubbles.

These bubble rings actually represent a sophisticated hunting strategy. By creating them, humpback whales can encircle and capture both fish and krill. Whales swim in upward spirals while releasing air through their blowholes, generating vortices that, at the surface, look like bubble rings.

As a result, rather than expending energy by chasing their prey, the whales “trap” a significant amount of it within these vortices. They can then lunge with their mouths open, swallowing large quantities of prey in a single bite without using as much energy as they would during a traditional chase.

Contact. You might think that this hunting technique is employed during aggressive behavior. However, a new finding from McCowan’s team reveals an interesting twist. In a recent study, researchers present and analyze 12 different episodes where 11 whales created a total of 39 rings for a purpose other than hunting: attracting our attention.

Friendly whales. Sharpe believes that whales are forming rings in an apparent attempt to interact playfully or simply to observe our reactions. Researcher Jodi Frediani points out that “the majority of [whales the team has studied] approached boats and swimmers blowing bubble rings during these episodes of curious behavior.”

You might assume that whales were trying to eat something in the water, but their behavior suggests otherwise. During the episodes, whales remained motionless, aligning their bodies horizontally without any signs of feeding behavior. No prey was seen within the rings, nor was any aggressive behavior observed.

Given that no other whales were nearby, and there was only one individual whale along with the team, the conclusion is that they were waiting for the researchers’ response.

Back to aliens. “We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback ‘language,’” McCowan said. While the whales’ behavior and their communication through rings is captivating, co-author Laurance Doyle highlighted the mission’s goal: contacting aliens.

“Because of current limitations on technology, an important assumption of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that extraterrestrials will be interested in making contact and so target human receivers,” he explained. In other words, humans would be for aliens what whales are for us in attempting to make contact. “This important assumption is certainly supported by the behavior of humpback whales,” Doyle added.

Image | Vidar Nordli-Mathisen

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