Kickstarter

Whalesong Project (a 501c3 organization), also known as www.whalesong.net , has a very simple aim—to broadcast humpback whale songs live from the waters off Maui to the world free of charge over the internet, so anyone can listen to what the whales are singing at anytime, all over the world. Humpback whales sing the longest and most musical song of any animal in the world, a fifteen to thirty minute aria with melodies, repeating phrases, clear rhythms, and organized structure, much like a slowed down extended bird songs. When this song was first discovered by humans at the end of the 1960s, it became the bestselling nature recording of all time and led to an awakening of concern for whales as part of the growing environmental movement. Today the song is known of but rarely listened to, and whales are still in danger from the Japanese whaling industry, from pollution, and from a proliferation of underwater noise from shipping and sonar tests.

The more people get to hear the song, the more they are inclined to care. Plus, the song is incredibly beautiful and a whale can sometimes keep singing it for up to twenty four hours! To keep these songs broadcasting all whale season long (from December through May in Hawaii), we need to keep our floating buoy with its underwater microphone and its radio antenna that broadcasts to a wi-fi network on shore. So far Dan Kaili Sythe and his band of intrepid volunteers has kept this project going for eleven years with small donations and his own pocket. Now those funds are exhausted, and we need $5000 to get the buoy in the water this year. Listen, and learn from this ancient underwater music.