Whales Speak in Dialects

A very interesting discovery by scientists including David Mellinger of Oregon State University is that blue whales living in different ocean regions make diffect sounds or combinations of sounds when they vocalize. As Mellinger put it, "The whales in the eastern Pacific have a very low-pitched pulsed sound, followed by a tone. Other populations use different combinations of pulses, tones and pitches." Mellinger notes that we do not know if some of the difference is genetic, or if it's all a matter of "dialects" a whale learns from its parents and others as it's growing up.