Humpback Whale Intelligence
Mission at Stellwagen Suggests Scientists Communicate With Whales
Nov 26, 2008
Humans manage to talk to whales in this story, and the humpbacks end up by letting the scientists know they have understood and by testing them.
Mission at Stellwagen Plot
The book (Mission at Stellwagen by Donald L. Angell ISBN 1-60610-466-7) was written by a psychologist, and this shows – not only in the perceptive human character-sketches, but also in the way the emotional life of the whales is portrayed. A ‘thriller-like’ plot, with all the usual complicated twists and turns as the characters develop, is set against a backdrop of serious scientific investigation. Marine Biologists carry out tests with wild Humpback Whales, trying to work out how much the whales can understand.
Human Reaction to Whales
Throughout the novel the author explores the ways in which the human characters react to their exposure to wild humpbacks. The central character (by chance a clinical psychologist, just like Donald Angell!) is moved from a casual interest early on to a deep involvement by the closing pages. He has been exposed to the thoughts and enthusiasms of the scientists, and the callous indifference of the ‘baddies’. Different characters in the story show a wide range of involvement with the whales, ranging from an almost spiritual attachment in one case to scientific curiosity in others, and cynical indifference in a few. Reading the book prompts one to identify with one character or another, and thereby to explore ones own reactions to the possibility of another species having a high intelligence. (Humpback Whales are the central characters in this book, but something similar could easily have involved other whale species, or any of the Great Apes.)
Humpback Intelligence
An article about Humpback Whales states that ‘Humpbacks will often work together when bubble-netting a large shoal of fish’ and points out that this requires a lot of complex co-ordination. Some form of communication must surely be involved, but does that mean that the animals are intelligent? Donald Angell suggests that whales might have ways of understanding that differ greatly from our own, and he points out that they have lived socially in their environment far longer than we have lived in ours. Huge migrations and different social structures might have led to very different forms of intelligence in whales, and they could well have evolved mentally in ways that we would find difficult to comprehend.
Whale Conservation
It is fascinating to speculate on the possibility of intelligence and language in other species (whales and Great Apes), and this would undoubtedly influence the way we see these animals – but even without any such revelation we ought to do our utmost to protect them. Conservation measures that help Humpback Whales survive will protect parts of the marine environment allowing many other (less obvious) species to prosper. Protection for almost any individual species involves the safeguarding of habitats – and habitat loss is one of the crucial issues of our time.
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