https://nautil.us/how-whales-could-help-us-speak-to-aliens-559443/
On Aug. 19, 2021, a humpback whale named Twain whupped back. Specifically, Twain made a series of humpback whale calls known as “whups” in response to playback recordings of whups from a boat of researchers off the coast of Alaska. The whale and the playback exchanged calls 36 times. In their 2023 published results, McGowan, Sharpe, and their coauthors are careful not to characterize their exchange with Twain as a conversation.
In what’s being called a breakthrough, scientists have had an extended conversation with a humpback whale. Could this encounter teach us how to talk with ET? It’s “Alien Says What?” on Big Picture Science.
In December, a Templeton Foundation-funded team from the University of California at Davis and the Whale SETI Institute had a 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback in Alaska.
When they played a whale’s “thrruup” call recorded in the same spot the day before, a female humpback known as Twain responded 36 times, matching the intervals and waiting for responses from the boat.
Animal behavior scientist Brenda McCowan joins Dave from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Fred Sharpe from the WhaleSETI Team and Laurance Doyle from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA.
Can 'Conversations' with Whales Teach Us to Talk with Aliens? A controversial 20-minute interaction with a humpback whale might help scientists communicate with extraterrestrials and nonhuman Earthlings alike.