Associated PressROSEAU, Dominica — Scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island of Dominica have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort that could one day help better protect them.
Scientists have been trying for decades to understand what those clicks might mean, with only minimal progress. While they still don't know, they now think there are sets of clicks they believe make up a"phonetic alphabet" that the whales can use to build the very rough equivalent of what people think of as words and phrases.
Pratyusha Sharma, the paper's lead researcher, said this alphabet could then be used by the whales in an unlimited number of combinations. Gruber, a biology professor at the City University of New York, said sperm whales seem to have sophisticated social ties and deciphering their communication systems could reveal parallels with human language and society.
Goldbogen, who was not involved in the study, said that if we were one day able to understand what sperm whales were saying, that knowledge should be used for conservation purposes, like minimizing their risk of being hit by ships or reducing ocean noise levels.