A strange sound dubbed “biotwang” was first heard bouncing around the Mariana Trench 10 years ago, and scientists have finally figured out where it comes from
Recorded by microphones deep in the ocean, the unexplained sound—a low, sonorous grunting followed by a squeaky, mechanical echo, like a frog burping in space—first rumbled through a computer speaker about a decade ago. Baffled researchers called it the “biotwang.”, a data scientist at Google Research’s AI for Social Good, adding her own impression of a hearty groan.
The new study lays out the evidence associating biotwangs with Bryde’s whales in the western North Pacific. The data confirmed that the animals the researchers studied comprise a distinct Bryde’s whale population and showed where in the ocean they were found during different seasons and years—something that had previously been impossible because scientists couldn’t tell different populations of the mysterious whales apart.
"We seem to be so detached from, or simply have no access to, this amazing acoustic underwater world. I think it’s about time that we change that." -Once scientists know where and when these whales travel, Harrell says, AI models could “connect that data to climate and environmental factors” and thus support protection efforts.
The technology isn’t perfect. “These algorithms can only search for a frequency they know,” Meynecke says. Baleen whale vocalizations change over time and between populations. But because the tools are open-source, other scientists can use them to discover more about whale language. “We seem to be so detached from, or simply have no access to, this amazing acoustic underwater world,” he says. “I think it’s about time that we change that.
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