C

Two summers ago, in the blue waters off the coast of a small Caribbean island; a sperm whale named Rounder began to give birth. Eleven members of her family slowly gathered around to support her, coming from miles away in their home waters. They called to one another in Morse code-like clicks as they waited for the baby to arrive and in the hours that followed, when they held the baby above water so that she could breathe.

Scientists are developing innovations in recording and analyzing their communications that could someday make it possible to understand at least some of what whales say to each other in this extraordinary moment. David Gruber, president of Project CTI - Cetacean (鲸类) Translation Initiative, has gathered dozens of linguists, biologists, roboticists, and experts in artificial intelligence to document the lives and communications of sperm whales. Gruber's team is working to develop a translation tool, which would transform sperm whale sounds into human words. One result of the research might be a world in which-humans "undeniably understand" these creatures' experience from their own perspectives, and this might breathe new life into whale conservation.

Consider, for instance, the problem of ocean noise pollution. Massive marine mammals such as sperm whales depend on highly-specialized echolocation systems to search for food and navigate the vast, lightless zones of the ocean and their highly-developed cerebral neural systems support near-constant communication with companions in their social groups. Thus, sound constitutes an irreplaceable and life-sustaining sensory core for them. Growing human noise - oil and gas exploration, construction, and most of all, ship engine noise - is a clear harm, disturbing the basic activities of sperm whale life.

While the evidence of harm is obvious, current laws are far from functional. Existing regulations (法规) provide a legal framework for preventing harm, but noise-related harm is mostly ignored. This is exactly where the breakthrough lies. What if whales were documented not only struggling to make themselves heard above the noise, but actually talking about it? Were a sperm whale heard voicing the pain caused by ship engine noise, its words would likely carry more weight in a court of law than do human descriptions of the problem. Being able to present the whales' own statement, so to speak, might lead to action being taken.

The pursuit to find and translate complex animal communication should not reduce the worth of creatures who don't appear to have those capacities. We may simply fail to appreciate their intelligence; and the lack of rich communication does not make any life less special. But it would still be incredible, and perhaps transformative, to know what sperm whales say - and this could be seen as an entry point, a beginning rather than a destination, on the journey to appreciating all creatures.