Table 1. — Summary o( previously published data on gray whale sounds. 



Eberhardt 

 & Evans. 

 1962 



Painter. 1963 



iWenz. 1964 



Rasmussen & Head. 1965 



2Gales. 1966 



Hubbs, 1966 



Asa-Donan & Perkins. 1967 



Cummings et al , 1968 



Poulter. 1968 



'■- Both references show data on sounds recorded by Asa-Donan in 1955 



Vocalizations have been recorded 

 from migrating gray wiiales off the 

 southern California coast (Wenz, 1964. 

 and Gales. 1966. both reporting on 

 recordings made by P. V. Asa-Dorian 

 in 1955; Asa-Dorian and Perkins. 

 1967: Cummings. Thompson, and 

 Cook. 196S) and from gray whales 

 in the lagoons of Baja California. 

 Mexico, where the whales breed 

 (Eberhardt and Evans. 1962; Painter. 

 1963; Poulter. 1968). Unsuccessful 

 attempts to obtain sounds from gray 

 whales off southern California and 

 in the lagoons have been made by 

 Rasmussen and Head (1965) and by 

 Hubbs (1966). The published data 

 on gray whale sounds are summarized 

 here in Table 1 . 



Gigi had already been in captivity 

 at Sea World and hand-fed by her 

 trainer for about 2 months before the 

 tank recordings were made. Although 



she seemed quite content in her un- 

 natural surroundings, her behavior 

 was certainly not representative of a 

 free-ranging gray whale of the same 

 age. Hence, the sounds may or may 

 not be similar to sounds emitted by a 

 young gra\ whale in its natural en- 

 vironment. A second problem with 

 any tank recording is the effect of 

 tank resonance and reverberation on 

 the physical characteristics of the 

 sounds. Certain frequencies were 

 probably accentuated in amplitude 

 and extended in time. Nevertheless, 

 the data at least represent the general 



James F. Fish is with the Naval 

 Undersea Center, San Diego, 

 CA 92132. James L. Sumich is 

 with Grossmont College, El 

 Cajon, CA 92020. George L. 

 Lingle is with SEACO, Inc. al 

 the Naval Undersea Center, San 

 Diego, CA 92132. 



frequency range and variety of a 

 young captive gray whales sound 

 emissions. 



SOUNDS OF GIGI 

 AT SEA WORLD 



Sounds were recorded simultane- 

 ously in water and in air on a 2-track 

 tape recorder (Uher 4200)' at 19 

 cm/sec. The hydrophone (Wilcoxon 

 M-H90-A). connnected to one chan- 

 nel of the recorder, was suspended 1 

 m above the bottom of the circular 

 concrete tank (11 m wide X 4 m 

 deep). The frequency response of the 

 underwater recording system was 40 

 Hz to 16 kHz. ±.^ dB. The micro- 

 phone, connected to the other channel. 

 was lowered over the lip of the tank 



' Use of trade names in this publication does 

 not imply endorsement of commercial products 

 by the National Marine Fisheries Service. 



39 



