Story perspectives

Study finds sperm whale click changes near ships in Caribbean

8/14/2026

Summary

Story summary

A June 18 study found sperm whales off the Caribbean island of Domenica changed click patterns when ships were present.
CETI founder David Gruber’s team recorded over 10,000 codas from 13 tagged whales between 2014 and 2016.
When noise occurred, whales emitted more a-codas than i-codas and compressed interclick intervals.
Bioacoustics expert Nathan Merchant said the results add nuance to worries shipping noise—doubled each decade since 1960, per Ocean Conservancy—may harm cetacean communication.

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Story summary

A June 18 study found sperm whales off the Caribbean island of Domenica changed click patterns when ships were present.
CETI founder David Gruber’s team recorded over 10,000 codas from 13 tagged whales between 2014 and 2016.
When noise occurred, whales emitted more a-codas than i-codas and compressed interclick intervals.
Bioacoustics expert Nathan Merchant said the results add nuance to worries shipping noise—doubled each decade since 1960, per Ocean Conservancy—may harm cetacean communication.