Aerial Signals Project

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The Aerial Signals Project, led by Dr Fred Sharpe and a multidisciplinary team, focuses on the "aerial acoustic ecology" of North Pacific humpback whales. While underwater whale sounds are well-documented, this project aims to catalogue and understand the diversity of signals produced at the surface, which remain significantly less studied. The primary research is conducted at the Five Finger Lighthouse in Frederick Sound, Southeast Alaska. This location offers a stable, 360-degree platform with low ambient noise, allowing for 24/7 monitoring of the large annual gatherings of humpback whales. 

The project links marine biology to Astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The team argues that ubiquitous whale signals like "thrums" were missed for decades due to perceptual limitations rather than technological ones. This suggests that "missed signals" from other intelligences may be "environmental noise" we haven't yet learned to recognize. From a conservation standpoint, these signals help monitor whale presence and abundance. Crucially, they aid responder safety during entanglement interventions by allowing teams to interpret the temperament and "approach criteria" of an animal based on its acoustic output.