Whales off Kihei sing on Web

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

KIHEI, Maui — In New Hampshire their sounds are compared with a pack of coyotes on the flanks of Mount Monadnock. In Zimbabwe their "rumblings'' are reminiscent of the the great African elephant.

Dan Sythe, founder of the wahelsong project, uses a high-speed Internet connection from his Kihei condominium to send whale songs over the World Wide Web. Timothy Hurley • The Honolulu Advertiser

The humpback whales off Kihei.

Formerly the delight of snorkelers, swimmers and divers here, the humpback whale songs are now being heard all over the world by people connected to www.whalesong.net, a Web site established by a small group calling itself Whalesong.

The project, which employs an underwater microphone in the ocean off Kihei, seeks to foster a greater appreciation of the marine environment by bringing the annual wintertime chorus of chirps, squeaks, squeals, grunts and moans to people everywhere.

Whalesong is the brainchild of Dan Sythe, a California business owner and radio engineer who moved to Maui in October to tackle the project full-time. He actually started a year ago, but technical problems made transmission difficult.

This year the project has taken off, attracting quite a few listeners, including an Oregon physician who is recommending that patients listen at night "for emotional calming and better sleep," and an Alabama teacher who is incorporating use of the Web site in student marine science assignments.

"It's the most fulfilling work I've ever done," said Sythe, who has received e-mail from listeners as far away as Europe, Africa and Australia. "The descriptions of the songs range from joyful cooing to purring to haunting sounds. And it changes during a full-moon night. They seem to come out in large numbers, and they go nuts."

Sythe saw his first whale breach off Maui's Makena Beach in 1969 and later volunteered for Greenpeace, working radio communications aboard the renowned Rainbow Warrior in its high-seas battles with commercial whalers.

The idea for this project grew out of his experience swimming at Kihei's Charley Young Beach during one of his many visits to Maui. He enjoyed pointing out to tourists that they could hear the whales by diving below the surf.

"They would come up transformed-looking," he recalled. "The effect on people was remarkable."

With his California-based business producing instruments to monitor radiation from nuclear power plants, he came up with the idea of monitoring the sounds of the ocean. He acquired the Web site with the goal of bringing the whale songs to the world.

While he wasn't in a hurry to bring the concept to reality, last year a new motivation surfaced: the Navy's controversial low-frequency active-sonar experiments that environmentalists fear are harmful to the highly acoustic whales. He decided to speed up development to monitor not only the whale songs but potential sonar transmissions.

"But my primary mission is to inspire people," he said.

Sythe's dream was not cheap. To get the project up and running, he cashed out his retirement savings to underwrite a radio system, hydrophone, audio feed system, Web site, Internet connection, buoy and beacon operation.

The system is maintained by Sythe and a handful of dedicated volunteers who are working to obtain nonprofit status, which would allow them to seek grants and other donations.

Sythe has big plans, including the development of school curriculum materials, an outreach program to Maui schools and establishing acoustic monitoring stations at hotels and other spots on Maui. He's also considering establishing a hydrophone hookup in Alaskan waters to pick up the whale songs in their summertime feeding grounds.

Sythe and the volunteers will soon be installing a land-based listening station at the Kihei headquarters of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

Kent Noonan, a high-tech consultant from Kula who is volunteering with the Whalesong project, has decided to cut back on his own business to devote more time to the enterprise.

The reason: Noonan has seen the effects of whale songs on people firsthand.

"When they hear them live, their eyes light up. It's like 'Wow.' It becomes real to them. It really does engage people into a process of caring for the ocean."

Reach Timothy Hurley at thurley@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.