Oldest Whale Sound Recordings Unearthed from 1949

Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts, have uncovered the oldest known recordings of whale sounds, dating back to March 1949 off the coast of Bermuda. The discovery, made while digitizing archival audio last year, captures the complex song of a humpback whale and offers a rare glimpse into marine communication from a time when the ocean was far quieter than today.

The recordings were captured inadvertently by scientists aboard a research vessel conducting sonar tests and acoustic experiments in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Unfamiliar with the haunting vocalizations they heard, the team grew curious and kept their equipment running, even silencing the ship's engines to isolate the sounds. The audio was preserved on a plastic disc using a Gray Audograph dictation machine, a format that endured better than the magnetic tapes common at the time. By modern standards, the underwater recording gear was rudimentary, but it represented cutting-edge technology in the late 1940s.

This find predates the widely recognized discovery of humpback whale songs by biologist Roger Payne by nearly two decades. Payne's 1970 album,...