You can now hear a pod of endangered killer whales swimming off the coast of Washington, Oregon and British Columbia thanks to a new live stream website.
Through your phone or laptop, you can eavesdrop on these killer whales through a live stream named ‘Orcasound’. It uses hydrophones, which are microphones that are placed underwater, that picks up sounds from the ocean around two main areas off the coast of Washington.
People can choose to listen between the two areas. The first one is the Orcasound lab in Haro Strait which is known as the “summertime habitat” of this species of whale, while the second one is Bush Point, which these whales use to pass through once a month in their hunt for salmon. The hydrophone at Bush Point however, is currently being repaired and should be live again in a few days.
The website also notes that if you’re lucky you might even get to hear humpback whales in the fall and male harbor seals in the summer.
The main reason the website was set up was for research purposes. Scientists still don’t know to this day what the calls and whistles of these whales mean and only further research can help them get closer to the answer. But you can too help scientists in their research. The makers of Orcasound have urged that if people hear killer whales or any “other interesting sounds”, they can share them with the makers by dropping a mail on ihearsomething@orcasound.net and contribute to the research.
