Inside our quest to talk to dolphins

Scientists are trying to talk to dolphins. It’s a decades-long quest to decode an alien culture, and it could open the door to communicating with thousands of species.

In the Deep is a new series by Quartz on the wonders of our oceans and the intrepid scientists seeking to understand them. From the depths of the ocean to vibrant coral reefs, we follow a new generation of explorers using cutting edge technology to push the frontiers of human understanding.

FOLLOW QUARTZ:

[jimmygadd]

one time in my life on a diveboat in egypt, we heard "Dolphins" that was the start of a lifetime memory, it was a pod of wild dolphins that came and checked us out, we all jumped in the water, 4 males came and checked out us, then a 5 year old jumpd in to the water, then the dolphins changed and the whole pod with kids come it was around 50-70 dolphins and always around the little girl was two dolphins that looked like they took care so no bad should happen, then the dolphins swim by us with baby dolphins.

Memory of a lifetime, those images is like they happend this morning!

[waywardplanet]

I wonder if one could communicate to the dolphins that our hearing range isn’t as advanced as theirs, like, by setting up a keyboard for them with a huge spectrum of pitches. They’d mess around with the keyboard, learn it makes different tones, and then one way or another they might hopefully notice that humans don’t react to the higher pitches. Maybe the buttons for the pitches we *can* hear would be differently colored, so that the dolphins would have a visual aid. Then, maybe, a separate human/dolphin dialect that both species would have to compromise on could be developed.

[heartquake]

This is so amazing. I can't wait to see what happens in the future with this research

[Supportsystemforme]

I was so pleased to come across your site. I joined your research as a visitor many years ago - 1989, I believe. It was an amazing experience. I had trained before but could not keep up with the other swimmers for length of holding my breathe. At one point, I swam to the surface and decided to just relax at the top with my snorkel and watch others swimming and diving. A few seconds later two dolphins swam next to me, one on either side. I stared into their eyes and almost lost my breathe. As soon as I was near to the boat, they swam away. You thought maybe they were concerned that I was away from my "pod." Ever since, I've been donating and writing letters to support dolphin projects, such as Earth Island Institute that tries to stop killing of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Your research trip was amazing. I wish my underwater pictures had come out. I remember their excitement when my camera started rewinding. They were fascinated by the whirring. Take care, Marlene Meyer in Washington

[ryanowen]

The world needs more pure science like this

[advertiseYT]

What happens if you record their sounds and play it back to another dolphin?

[ThePCadict]

Gotta start feeding AI (machine learning, etc...) this data. They will crack it i bet

[ChloeLalonde]

I wonder if there was a baby that grew up only hearing what the dolphin mothers were saying to calf’s that it might naturally learn dolphin-ish

[beautyofscience]

Magical, just like in the Arrival movie.

[raymcdonald]

Rather than creating wars, deadly weapons and divide and conquer the population we as humans could do so much more of this type of thing.

[coachdelgado]

One summer I fell off a fishing boat taking photos dolphins and lost my camera in the fall. Shortly after dolphin brought it up. It was deemed broken and useless but the act of the dolphin was surreal.

[dakotajara]

So you know how we're constantly seeking intelligent alien life and believe they're on other planets/galaxies? I think we've been living with alien life this whole time (dolphins/whales). But who knows lol

[infamous]

6:58 those dolphin sounds on the graph look like a finger print...

[goteem]

I wonder 1 day if a dolphin made a dope mixtape we humans can understand

[aa-tows]

Hmm, that is interesting, dolphy what you think about it?
-Hehegehfehegeee
Yeah I think the same, GUYS YOU ARE AMAZING!!!

[jadibdraws]

I do feel we need to try to understand species on our own planet better if we wish to have any hope of ever communicating with intelligent life from another planet too often when we fantasize about aliens looking more like us being similar to us. But the reality is there are likely many aliens who are nothing like us. Who can be closer to a sea creature, amphibian, or bird like. So its good to understand our own planet better & the animals among us.

[ThePineTreesBand]

Can anybody point me in the direction of any video/info of any progress achieved in the time since??

[justahuman]

I hope they went back and then communicated to them in that newly discovered frequency....

[benw]

If dolphins can hear in the human range of speech, then why not also try to see if dolphins can learn what human words mean, say English words for the objects, or common scuba and surfing and swimming and beach words. It could be handy to have a human to/from dolphin translation system, if the dolphins could understand us and start from their end. Yes, that assumes they could do that. It assumes they might be intelligent. It's at least an approach to test, to try, and to see what happens. Plus, it's more direct than an arbitrary system of made-up sound codes for scarf, ring, etc., which no one else would understand without knowing the key.

[MagnusFriberg]

I heard what she said in the very end... 😀