Discovered that a single blue whale's heartbeat can be detected from two miles away

I stumbled on this fact reading a marine biology article while waiting for my oil change, and it blew my mind because I always thought whale sounds were the only thing that traveled that far through water - has anyone else run across weird animal facts that completely changed how you see them?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_simon26d ago

wait so if that's true, does that mean a blue whale's heart is basically like a giant bass drum underwater? i'm wondering how they even measured that without scaring the whale half to death

carter.gavin26d agoMost Upvoted

You ever tried to get an accurate reading on a skittish animal without messing with it? @the_simon, the way they did it was by using non-contact sensors and buoys, basically the same trick vets use on nervous dogs except with way bigger electronics. That bass drum comparison is pretty spot on since the water makes the low thump travel like crazy.

richard_anderson26d ago

Holy cow, wait - a bass drum? I mean I get sound travels differently in water but that's still wild to think about. @carter.gavin are you saying these things are so massive their heartbeats actually thump through the water like some kind of giant subwoofer? That almost doesn't sound real but I guess if the ocean is good at carrying low frequencies it makes sense. Just blows my mind they can pick up a heartbeat from a distance like that without the whale even knowing it's being monitored.