Loneliest whale in the world cries out

Maybe lovelorn humans could learn a bit from the whale known only as 52, who has fascinated scientists since 1989.

It was in that year its unique call was detected by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s William Watkins.

He didn’t see the whale exactly, but picked up its call, and the lonely sound was made at the 52-hertz frequency, hence the nickname.

Nobody knows what species the whale is exactly, but they do know that its sound is just below the lowest note on a tuba.

This is the problem — the sounds he makes are unique, and no other whale recognises them, which explains why no lady whale has answered his love call.

Even the US Navy has got involved.

Their sophisticated billion-dollar system — built to track enemy submarines in the Cold War — has recorded 52’s movements each year since he was first heard.

It seems the whale moves around a fair bit in its search for love, from off the coast of California to the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific.

And 52 has always travelled alone — making it a terribly lonely life, if whales do indeed feel such things as loneliness!

Although its call is very low to us, it is reckoned to be very high-pitched compared to other whales like the giant blue.

This could be down to some kind of deformity, although another school of thought thinks 52 may be a hybrid of two different species.

The story has intrigued humans, even if 52 doesn’t seem capable of intriguing other whales.

People have written songs about the lonely creature, and one man hopes to make a film about it.

Bizarrely, many lonely people have written to the experts, describing how they understand the whale’s loneliness and how they feel that way themselves sometimes.

But undeterred, whale 52 just keeps searching for love anyway.

Whales are well known to be quite sociable creatures, and some species will travel up to 3,000 miles to find other whales and communicate with them.

Josh Zeman is fascinated by the whale’s story.

He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund an expedition to find 52.

And he’s been taken aback by the amount of interest he’s received from people around the world.

Zeman points out that 52 most likely does feel lonely, because whales have spindle cells, which he says allow them to have emotions, to love, hate and be part of social circles.

Let’s hope the whale bumps into Miss Right soon — and can sing a happier song at last.

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