- [Narrator] Orcas have a language of their own.

They communicate through touch, movement,

and most importantly, sound.

And it's marine scientist

Ellyne Hamran's job to eavesdrop on them.

She's an acoustic researcher studying

the sounds marine mammals

like whales and dolphins use to communicate.

She's captured hundreds of hours of orca recordings,

like the one you're hearing.

- Whales are using sound as their primary sense

unlike humans that are using their vision.

So, it's very important for whales to be able

to communicate to each other, to find mates,

to search for prey, also to navigate the area.

- [Narrator] This summer, she's listening to the orcas

of Norway's Lofoten archipelago,

beloved by the creatures for its healthy populations

of herring and other fish to feed on.

But an invisible problem is increasingly alarming experts,

noise pollution from whale-watching cruises,

oil exploration, and other human activity.

Ellyne has set out to study how it affects the whales

and she hopes to use her findings

to help make Lofoten a marine protected area,

limiting unwelcome noise and blocking oil drilling.

She works for Ocean Sounds,

a nonprofit that advocates for marine ecosystem conservation

and has been tracking orcas here in Lofoten since 2003.

On a typical day, Ellyne, her husband Bjorn,

their dog Bailey, and a team of researchers

drive around the islands

in an inflatable boat looking for action.

When they spot whales, they slowly approach,

then turn off the engine to minimize noise.

They use an underwater microphone

called a hydrophone to record vocalizations.

- During socializing, they're producing

a variety of vocalizations.

It can be whistles, calls, buzzes, clicks,

same with when they're feeding.

They're a little bit more quiet when they're traveling.

So, we'll be able to go and record them

when we have the right moment.

- [Crew Member] Breach, breach, breach!

- [Narrator] They also photograph the orcas

to keep track of the family groups.

The scientists assign each of them a number

and add them to a catalog.

- We will be able to use this method

to track them over time.

It's a very noninvasive

and inexpensive way of doing the research.

- [Narrator] Bjorn operates a drone

that films whales from above.

Over time, they match the orcas' sounds up with behaviors,

gradually learning their complex language.

Each pod speaks its own dialect,

so tracking them is essential

for understanding the communication.

The large population of whales also attracts thousands

of people looking for boat tours every year.

But these ships full of whale lovers

can actually be quite disturbing to ocean life.

- We've had issues of boats zooming through pods,

sometimes even between the mother and calf.

It's also quite loud on the hydrophone,

even loud enough that you want to turn the volume down,

but the whales are not able to go in

and modify how loud the boats are.

And I don't think people are aware of this issue.

- [Narrator] When a boat drives too close to orcas,

it can overpower their calls.

- It could mask the vocalizations

so they can't be able to communicate

with each other nearby or find a mate.

- [Narrator] And it can scare away the fish orcas feed on.

- [Ellyne] They spend quite a lot of time

rounding up the herring to feed

and then a boat could come way too close

and now disperse the fish.

- [Narrator] The looming threat of oil drilling

also poses a problem.

In 2019, the Norwegian government reached

a deal to block drilling in Lofoten for now.

But every seat in the parliament

is up for election in September 2021,

which could put the area at risk again.

And even without permission to drill,

companies can still use blasts of compressed air

to map where oil lies beneath the ocean floor.

These seismic surveys can be louder

to marine life than fireworks from three feet away.

Researchers aren't sure how these sounds

affect ocean mammals' health,

but studies have found that a single air gun blast

can be heard underwater for months.

All this, combined with occasional

military exercises in the area,

creates an underwater cacophony

that interrupts whale communications.

- They're vocalizing already at the surface.

So, we'll deploy the hydrophone.

Just boat noise now, they've stopped calling.

- [Woman] Okay.

- [Narrator] Because orcas are instinctively collaborative,

communication is central to everything they do.

Disoriented whales may also swim out

of their usual living area.

- [Ellyne] With the whales wanting

to be away from all the boat noise

and needing a bit more space,

sometimes they're hugged a bit on the coastline,

too close to the rocks.

- [Narrator] Ellyne says this may explain

why the spring of 2020 saw more whales

stranded on the coasts than any previous season.

- It could be due to noise pollution and acoustic trauma.

If we were able to be here within

the first 48 hours of when the whales stranded

and to actually look into the head

and see if there's any damage within the ear canal areas.

- [Narrator] The strandings could also have been caused

by a harmful algae bloom

or a virus that affected several species.

But unless Ellyne and the team can examine

a stranded whale shortly after its death,

they can't gather much information.

- It actually wasn't reported in time

to really see why it had died.

We unfortunately cannot take a blubber sample

since it's decayed too much.

Usually at this point we take a tooth

or we take a bone sample.

And there were no teeth in the jaw,

but we do have a sample of one

of the vertebrae that we've taken.

- [Narrator] Ellyne collected samples

from other stranded whales,

including a pilot whale, during this research mission.

These samples of blubber and bone

can tell researchers about an animal's sex,

genetics, diet, and more.

Ultimately, Ellyne's findings support

Ocean Sounds' efforts to educate

the public about protecting the mammals.

- Our focus isn't only on research,

but we're also focused on conservation

and outreach and education.

- [Narrator] Ocean Sounds has a set of guidelines

for whale-watching boats that

they're lobbying to turn into Norwegian law.

They include requiring boats to slow down,

shift into neutral, and then turn off the engine

while approaching whales,

and maintaining a minimum distance

of 50 meters at all times.

The goal is to regulate noise levels in the region

while still allowing whale-watching and fishing to operate.

And making Lofoten a marine protected area

would ban oil exploration and drilling in the area.

Until that happens,

Ocean Sounds is selling recordings

of whale communications online

as a way to raise awareness and fund their operations.

- We're trying to be able

to not only study the vocalizations and behavior,

but also to bring the whales to the people,

giving a voice to the whales.

(gentle music)