The 52-hertz whale, colloquially referred to as 52 Blue, is an individual

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

of unidentified species that

calls Call or Calls may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Call, a type of betting in poker * Call, in the game of contract bridge, a bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage Music and dance * Call (band), from Lahore, Pak ...

at the unusual frequency of 52

hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that o ...

. This pitch is at a higher frequency than that of the other whale species with migration patterns most closely resembling the 52-hertz whale'sthe

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

(10 to 39 Hz) and the

fin whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of ceta ...

(20 Hz). Its call has been detected regularly in many locations since the late 1980s, and appears to be the only individual emitting a whale call at this frequency. However, the whale itself has never been sighted; it has only been heard via hydrophones. It has been described as the "world's loneliest whale", though potential recordings of a second 52-hertz whale, heard elsewhere at the same time, have been sporadically found since 2010.

Characteristics

The sonic signature is that of a whale, albeit at a unique frequency. At 52 hertz, it is a little higher than the lowest note on a

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

. The call patterns resemble neither

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

nor

s, being much higher in frequency, shorter, and more frequent. Blue whales usually vocalize at 10–39 Hz, fin whales at 20 Hz. The 52-hertz calls of this whale are highly variable in their pattern of repetition, duration, and sequence, although they are easily identifiable due to their frequency and characteristic clustering. The calls have deepened slightly to around 50 hertz since 1992, suggesting the whale has grown or matured. The migration track of the 52-hertz whale is unrelated to the presence or movement of other whale species. Its movements have been somewhat similar to that of blue whales, but its timing has been more like that of fin whales. It is detected in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

every year beginning in August–December, and moves out of range of the hydrophones in January–February. It travels as far north as the Aleutian and Kodiak Islands, and as far south as the California coast, swimming between 30 and 70 km each day. Its recorded distance traveled per season has ranged from a low of 708 km to a high of 11,062 km in 2002–03. Scientists at the

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, i ...

have been unable to identify the species of the whale. They speculate that it could be malformed or a

hybrid. The research team is often contacted by deaf people who wonder whether the whale may also be deaf. Whatever biological cause underlies its unusually high frequency voice does not seem to be detrimental to its survival. The fact that the whale has survived and apparently matured indicates it is probably healthy. Still, its call is the only one of its kind detected anywhere and there is only one such source per season. Because of this, the animal has been called the loneliest whale in the world. Calls picked up by a sensor in 2010 suggest that there may be more than one whale calling at 52 Hz.

History

The 52-hertz whale was discovered by a team from the

. Its call was first detected in 1989, then again in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, following the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

, the U.S. Navy partially declassified the recordings and technical specifications of its SOSUS anti-submarine hydrophone arrays, and made SOSUS available for oceanographic research. , the whale had been detected every year since.

In media

Film

''The Loneliest'', a short mockumentary film about two women searching for the loneliest whale, was made in April 2014 by Lilian Mehrel, with the

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is an American philanthropic nonprofit organization. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan Jr., then-president and chief executive officer of General Motors. The Sloan Foundation makes grants to suppor ...

. The title of the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

ese movie '' 52Hz, I Love You'' (2017) is inspired by the whale, using it as a metaphor for the loneliness experienced when looking for love.

Stare Yıldırım Stare may refer to: Places * Staré, a village and municipality in Michalovce District in the Kosice Region of eastern Slovakia * Stare, Oborniki County in Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) * Stare, Piła County in Greater Poland V ...

's 2018 film ''My Name is Batlir, Not Butler'' features the 52-hertz whale as both a character (mostly represented by a photo and voice-over) and as a metaphor for the loneliness of those who are different. The animated short film entitled ''

The Phantom 52 ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019. The film is written and directed by

Geoff Marslett Geoff Marslett is an American film director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His early career started with the animated short ''Monkey vs. Robot'' which was distributed internationally by "Spike and Mike's Classic Festival of Animation" on vi ...

, and stars

Tom Skerritt Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor who has appeared in over 40 films and more than 200 television episodes since 1962. He is known for his film roles in ''M*A*S*H'', ''Alien'', '' The Dead Zone'', '' Top Gun'', '' A ...

as the loneliest whale. ''The Phantom 52'' went on to play at over 60 film festivals worldwide and win a half dozen awards. A feature-length documentary entitled '' The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52'', directed by Joshua Zeman, the director of '' Cropsey'', and executive producers Leonardo DiCaprio and Adrian Grenier, was commercially released by

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which ...

on July 9, 2021. The film follows Zeman and a group of five scientists and oceanographers on a quest to find the whale off the coast of California. Funded through a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign, the film received generally positive reviews among critics, holding an approval rating of 86% based on 35 reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. ''Time'''s Stephanie Zacharek called the film "both invigorating and calming to watch," while Katie Walsh wrote in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' that the film is "a modern-day Moby Dick with a conservationist bent" that "surprises, delights and will keep you on the edge of your seat." Sheri Linden of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' wrote that "the film's epilogue caps the action with a rapturous surprise", referring to the sightingcomplete with film footageof a

hybrid, believed to be the source of the 52 Hz calls. The 52 hertz whale was also seen in a children's show titled The Deep.

Music

Ambient artist Andy Othling, under the name of Lowercase Noises, released an EP called ''Migratory Patterns'' in 2011. The album "is a collection of songs written as a chronicle of the story of the famed 52Hz whale." Montreal-based saxophone player and composer Colin Stetson's 2013 album '' New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light'' included a song entitled "Part of Me Apart From You". Though not explicitly written about the 52-hertz whale, when first performing the song live, he has remarked on at least several occasions that the story of the "loneliest whale" resonated deeply with his composition. "This whale is alone in a large body of water, swimming, singing its song, calling for a likeness it will never find," he said by way of introducing the song at a performance at Toronto's Great Hall on 19 May 2013. "When I play this song, I can't help but think about this whale, who right at this very minute is singing alone." South Korean group BTS's 2015 album '' The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2'' includes the track "Whalien 52", which explicitly uses the 52-hertz whale as a metaphor for the alienation from others often felt by adolescents. The English folk duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman included the song "52 Hertz" on their 2015 album ''Tomorrow Will Follow Today''. The song is about the whale and includes the line, "52 Hertz, 52 Hertz, I'm singing a love song that no-one can hear" in the chorus. In 2016, No Land (a music group made up of Azerbaijani, Iranian, Kurdish and Turkish musicians) released 52 Hertz Whale - Outro. In 2017,

Shoegaze Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with "dream pop") is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming vol ...

band Cloakroom released a song called "52hz Whale." In 2017,

Zhou Shen Zhou Shen (; born ), also known as Charlie Zhou, is a Chinese singer known for his ethereal voice and wide vocal range, capable of singing soprano. He is best known for his song "Big Fish", which has won 8 awards. In November 2017, Zhou releas ...

released a song called "A Lonely Blue Whale Living Like an Island" or "化身孤岛的鲸", inspired by the whale. In 2018, American singer Chrysta Bell released a song called "52 Hz", inspired by the whale. In 2020, a

Vtuber A , or , is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated in Japan in the mid- ...

known as Bao released a song called "52-Hearts," which is a play on words for the 52-hertz whale. In 2021,

Amber Run Amber Run is a British indie rock band from Nottingham, UK composed of Joshua "Joe" Keogh, Tom Sperring, and Henry Wyeth. The band have released three full-length albums. three mini-albums and five EPs. Initially called Amber, they later changed ...

released a song called "52 Blue." In 2021, instrumental post rock band Gilmore Trail released a song called "Echoes of Solitude", using their instruments to create their own interpretation of the sounds of the lonely whale. In 2021, Polish rapper Sokół released a song called "52 Hz", inspired by the whale.

Books

In 2007, Agnieszka Jurek (ed.) and 30 international artists, musicians, filmmakers and journalists published a book titled ''52 Hertz Whale - he sounded different than he should''. In 2017, Jessica Therrien and Dorene Uhrich published a book titled ''The Loneliest Whale''. In 2015, Matt Dahl, editor of Chatsworth Press, published the anthology ''Lonely Whale Memoir''. In 2019, Lynne Kelly published a book titled "Song for a Whale", about a deaf girl who tries to find the whale. In 2020, Japanese novelist

Sonoko Machida is a Japanese writer. Her story ''Cameroon no Aoi Sakana'' received the R-18 Literary Award in 2016. Her novel ''52 Hertz no Kujiratachi'' won the 2021 Japan Booksellers' Award Grand Prize and sold over 400,000 copies in Japan. Early life an ...

published a novel titled ''52-Hertz Whales'', in which the anomalous whale serves as a metaphor for "voiceless" lonely people who find each other by chance. In 2020, an illustrated children's book was published by Umbrelly Books Publishing, called "52, A Tale of Loneliness." The book was written by Johnny DePalma, Illustrated by Kyle Brown and has an available companion audiobook, as read by Patton Oswalt.

References

External links

Map of the 52-hertz whale's migration patterns
Individual cetaceans Pacific Ocean Sound measurements Whale sounds