Singers as Sentinels: How Whales Can Warn of Changing Ecosystems

A presentation from 2023–2024 Grass Fellow Eduardo Mercado III

At Radcliffe, Mercado is building on his discoveries about the nature, functions, and plasticity of whale songs. The Singers as Sentinels project combines sophisticated analyses of humpback whales recorded singing near Hawaiʻi and Colombia—geared toward identifying the ways that singers modify their songs in different contexts—with a broader effort to raise public awareness of how human activities are increasingly affecting the lives of whales. The outreach component of the project will focus on developing a scientific trade book, titled “Why Whales Sing and Dolphins Don’t,” that explains the likely functions of whale songs and why singing whales may be especially sensitive to noise pollution.

Register

Free and open to the public.

To view this event online, individuals will need to register via Zoom.

For instructions on how to join online, see the How to Attend a Radcliffe Event on Zoom webpage.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing a link and password for this meeting.