Smart Whales

It's not just germs that are outwitting humans.

FISHERMEN in the Gulf of Alaska are being outwitted by sperm whales that use the sound of boat engines as an aquatic dinner bell and steal the catch as it is winched aboard.
The giant whales have worked out that the sound of the boats means the approach of a ready-caught meal, and they have learnt to wait for the telltale sounds that the engines make when the catch is being raised from the seabed.

Researchers believe that about 90 male sperm whales are taking fish from lines in the eastern part of the gulf, an area where fishermen rarely saw whales 20 years ago.

As the fishing boats approach, the whales dive shallower than usual and wait until they hear the change in engine speed as the fishermen haul in their lines. “That’s the whales’ cue,” Jan Straley, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast