Mirissa Pygmy Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) vocalization: low-frequency infrasonic pulses?
What underwater acoustic frequencies (15 to 30 Hz) characterize Blue Whale communication calls recorded over the southern continental shelf?
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3 Answers from travellers
Pygmy Blue Whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) feeding off Mirissa emit low-frequency infrasonic vocalizations spanning 15 Hz to 35 Hz, below the threshold of human hearing. Hydrophone arrays deployed in the Dondra canyon record powerful acoustic pulses (reaching 188 dB re 1 uPa at 1 meter). These low-frequency sound waves travel hundreds of miles through deep-ocean SOFAR channels without significant attenuation, allowing widely dispersed individual whales to communicate across the northern Indian Ocean basin regarding krill concentrations and breeding aggregations.
Commercial container vessel engine rumble (dominant below 100 Hz) creates chronic acoustic masking that overlaps with blue whale communication frequencies.
Bioacoustic researchers use hydrophone recordings to map whale density and migration tracks during monsoonal storm periods when surface visual surveys are impossible.
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