Can man communicate with dolphins? The social and intelligent ways cetaceans have interacted with humans so far suggest that much can be gleaned from the “language” system of these sea mammals.
Evidence indicates that cetaceans are by nature social and communicative. Vortex ring plays and echolation, for example, are part of their communal profile. An understanding of the sonic basis of this communication system has also brought forth new research in uncharted territory – the creation of a Dolphin Lexicon through the techniques of the Cymascope.
Vortex Ring Plays
Because dolphins are social animals, they communicate through play, one form of which is very similar to what human children do on hot, summer days: blow bubbles. Dolphins are able to blow bubble rings that are perfect toroidal vortices. Evidence has shown that vortex rings are part of the cetacean’s sonic expertise.
Vortex rings are created by blowing a ring out of the blowhole or by flipping a dorsal fin fast enough to create a water vortex. Dolphins have been known to play with these rings by moving them around sonically and ultrasonically. They bounce the rings off walls; they elongate them with their flippers into huge, long spirals. Often, they swim through these wide rings for their amusement. Then like a group of teenagers bored with play, they bite the rings and let them break up into tiny bubbles.
Echolocation
Vortex ring plays are not often witnessed by humans. Echolocation, however, is part of the cetacean’s daily repertoire. It is the ability to locate objects through echoes. When a dolphin clicks, the sound striking an object is reflected back to the mammal. Through this process, it is able to determine the distance between it and the object. These sonic echoes also allow the cetacean to identify the size, width and characteristics of different objects.
As well, echolocation allows dolphins to converse with one another. Part of their group communication skills, echolocation allows them to devise hunting and foraging strategies, protect their young and even eavesdrop on each other.
In brief, the echolocation system consists of an acoustic transmitting system coordinated with a large antenna known as the melon, which gives the cetacean its characteristic dome like head. There is also a set of acoustic receivers located on each side of the lower jaw.
Because dolphin echolocation has tremendous acoustic power, the range of dolphin communication can reach as far as 100-200 meters. Evidence indicates that dolphins “see” with sound in the same way ultrasound produces images of an unborn fetus.
Cymascope
The ability of the dolphin to “see” a sonic image is the basis for breakthrough research into deciphering dolphin language. One example of such research is the Cymascope, a technique that converts sound to images.
Previous techniques using the spectrograph have been able to display cetacean sounds as graphs of frequency and amplitude. The Cymascope, however, captures the sound vibrations as expanding holographic bubbles and beams as repeatable patterns of energy. In this sense, they are pictures that resemble what these sea mammals actually see from their echolocation.
Because of recent advances in high frequency recording techniques, the creators of Cymascope have been able to capture cetacean sounds in greater detail. Their goal is to build a library of dolphin sounds complete with their pictorial equivalent. Their ultimate goal is to speak to dolphins with a basic vocabulary of dolphin sounds.
There is no doubt that dolphin communication will enhance human understanding of the marine kingdom.
Source:
- Horowitz, Leonard. DNA: Pirates of the Sacred Spiral. Sandpoint, Idaho: Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2008.
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