{"id":14283,"date":"2023-10-25T16:19:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T20:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/?p=14283"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:51:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:51:42","slug":"decoding-whale-communication-with-ai-what-whales-are-saying-what-they-can-teach-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/2023\/decoding-whale-communication-with-ai-what-whales-are-saying-what-they-can-teach-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Whale Communication with AI: What Whales are Saying &#038; What They Can Teach Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Decoding Whale Communication with AI: What Whales are Saying &#038; What They Can Teach Us\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/people\/shane-gero\/\">Shane Gero<\/a>, scientist-in-residence in <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/\">Department of Biology<\/a>, Carleton University has been researching family of whales for almost 20 years. His fascination with the mammals was ignited in the 1980s \u2013 like that of many children during that era \u2013 by watching <em>Free Willy<\/em>&nbsp;and CBC\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Danger Bay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This interest turned to passion, and eventually a career, when he began working with the legendary scientist, Hal Whitehead, at Dalhousie University during his PhD. Together, Whitehead and Gero journeyed to the Eastern Caribbean where they encountered families of sperm whales thriving off the leeward coast of Dominica. This finding launched Gero\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thespermwhaleproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dominica Sperm Whale Project<\/a>&nbsp;(DSWP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"914\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-160x97.jpg 160w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-240x146.jpg 240w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-768x468.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-400x244.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-360x219.jpg 360w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/230\/RecordingWhales-DavidFabien-1-200x122.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since then, Gero and his team have put in thousands of hours observing the sperm whale population, detailing their behaviors and history. In 2019, Gero was approached with the idea for a large collaborative initiative \u2013 one that would attempt to understand whale communication whilst also focusing on conservation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.projectceti.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Project CETI<\/a>&nbsp;was launched a year later, where Gero is now the lead biologist. In 2021, Gero\u2019s work with sperm whales&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/story\/research-whales-best-doc-emmys\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contributed to an Emmy-award winning documentary<\/a>,&nbsp;<em>Secrets of Whales<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/story\/whale-communication-gero-ai\/\">Click here!<\/a> to read the full story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shane Gero, scientist-in-residence in Department of Biology, Carleton University has been researching family of whales for almost 20 years. His fascination with the mammals was ignited in the 1980s \u2013 like that of many children during that era \u2013 by watching Free Willy&nbsp;and CBC\u2019s&nbsp;Danger Bay. This interest turned to passion, and eventually a career, when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-undergrad-opportunities"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14283"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14317,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14283\/revisions\/14317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/biology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}