Interspecies Communication: Can We Talk to Whales?

Whether it’s the idea of contact with extraterrestrials, sign language with primates or practicing new tricks with the family dog, humans are fascinated by the idea of communicating with other species. For her recent New Yorker article “Talk to Me,” science writer and journalist Elizabeth Kolbert traveled to Dominica to report on CETI: The Cetacean Translation Initiative. Kolbert reports: “CETI represents the most ambitious, the most technologically sophisticated, and the most well-funded effort ever made to communicate with another species.”

Sperm whales use a series of clicks called “codas” to communicate with each other. For example, here is a “conversation” between “Roger” and “Rita,” two adult females near Dominica:

Roger: 1 + 1 + 3

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3, 1 + 1 + 3

Roger: 9 Increasing (9 clicks with ever-increasing intervals between each click)

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3

Roger: 10 Increasing

Rita: 1 + 1 + 3, 1 + 1 + 3

And so on…

The sperm whales around Dominica have a repertoire of around 26 codas. The CETI team aims to place temporary recording devices on sperm whales in the region to record and track patterns of codas. Like ChatGPT digests millions of webpages and has become incredibly proficient at predicting language patterns to come up with answers and creative output, so CETI hopes that a computer model can learn to digest and predict codas, thus creating communication a whale would understand.

The idea of communicating with a whale in this way is interesting, but I was asking myself, “What’s the endgame? To help them? To help ourselves? Create increased empathy or knowledge?” I agree with Kolbert that the late biologist Roger Payne has a good answer. Payne was known for recording humpback whale “songs” that were released as an LP. These “songs” inspired empathy in humans and helped lead the way in the fight to rescue certain whale species from extinction. Payne was an early supporter of the CETI project. He said, “Inspiration is the key… If we could communicate with animals, ask them questions and receive answers—no matter how simple those questions and answers might turn out to be—the world might soon be moved enough to at least start the process of halting our runaway destruction of life.”

Read the full article here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/11/can-we-talk-to-whales

Image courtesy of: http://www.insidescience.org

What I’m Working On

Greetings to everyone out there. Here is what I’ve been working on over the past few months…

So far in 2023, most of my translation projects have been in the agriculture/environment, education, legal, and health and wellness fields.

Hope you’re enjoying summertime!

Diving into Books at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival

This past weekend, I attended the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. Perfect spring weather inspired my husband and I to ride our bikes over; held in downtown Santa Fe near the plaza, this event was packed with author speakers, book signings and booksellers from all over. The festival felt like a good intro to summer reading.

We heard one author speak: David Treuer, whose recent book “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee” aims to shatter myths about Native American life, serving as a kind of response to the often-read “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown.

Another highlight was stumbling upon the open-mic reading during the lunch hour right when we arrived!

Interested in more of my posts about books and reading? Check out my posts about the books “The Time In Between” (“Entre costuras”), “The Seamstress and the Wind” (“La costura y el viento”), and “The Truce” (La tregua).

Image courtesy of Trend Magazine.

Día de la Tierra 2023

Earth Day is around the corner. I’m grateful in these moments for the work of all who are doing their part and who encourage us to do the same: Schools with gardening programs. Land trusts. Farmers and ranchers trying new sustainability practices. Advocates for responsible recreation. Companies inventing nature-friendly products and services.

Here are a few stories that caught my eye over the past few months. 

Neighborhoods in Bogotá, Colombia are making the move to parklets and bike-friendly streets.

The “Miyawaki Method” is helping to reforest the Amazon in Brazil.

Futuralga is a Spain-based company based that just came out with produce containers made from marine algae, a natural and renewable material.

Earth Day is every day!

Las Carpetas

I recently heard about the artwork of Christopher Gregory-Rivera on an episode of the Las Raras podcast. Christopher Gregory-Rivera’s recent work, called “Las Carpetas” (“The Files”), examines the history of government surveillance on the island of Puerto Rico. The “carpetas” he refers to are files with information about Puerto Rican citizens — targets of FBI and Puerto Rican Police Department surveillance over the course of 40 years. These individuals were deemed “politically subversive” or somehow connected to the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.

A Puerto Rican artist based in New York City, Christopher Gregory-Rivera compiled and photographed an impressive number of original documents to create this series, which documents files, photographs, videos and handwritten notes. The result is both aesthetically beautiful and emotionally sobering.

One of the most interesting facts I learned when hearing about “Las Carpetas” is that there is a Spanish verb used in Puerto Rico that came from this time: “carpetear.” This verb is now commonplace and means to gather information on someone, especially for political reasons.

You can learn more about “Las Carpetas” on Christopher Gregory-Rivera’s website, and you can read more about this part of Puerto Rican history in a testimony presented by Ramón Bosque-Pérez called “The FBI and Puerto Rico: Notes on a Conflictive History.”

Image courtesy of buzzfeednews.com.

Winter Words

Both Spanish and English have beautiful words to describe winter! These unique words go beyond some of the more commonly known terms to conjure up the feeling of the season.

Spanish winter words:

carámbano – icicle

rompope – eggnog

duende – elf, fairy, goblin

copo de nieve – snowflake

hoguera – bonfire

granizo – hail

muñeco/a de nieve – snowman/woman

cascabeles – bells

English winter words:

névé – nevero

blizzard – ventisca

slush – aguanieve

whiteout – tormenta de nieve, condición de visibilidad limitada por nieve