Andersen, Stephen O.

English

University of New Mexico

Volume 24 
Issue 4 Fall 1984 
Fall 1984 
Communication and Behavior of Whales, Roger Payne, Ed. 
Stephen O. Andersen 
Recommended Citation 
Stephen O. Andersen, Communication and Behavior of Whales, Roger Payne, Ed., 24 Nat. Resources J. 
1154 (1984). 
Available at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nrj/vol24/iss4/17 
This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UNM Digital Repository. It has 
been accepted for inclusion in Natural Resources Journal by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For 
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COMMUNICATION AND BEHAVIOR OF WHALES
ROGER PAYNE, Ed.
Boulder: Westview Press. 1984. Pp. 643. $35.00
Communication and Behavior of Whales is important in several re-
spects. It is the first collection of essays on whale research using passive
observation of live animals in their natural habitat. It makes a break with
dependence on dead animals and it finds new truths in the process. It is
based on the 1980 AAAS symposium.
The book is also a tribute to the ability of a small group of often poorly
funded researchers to discover new truths. Roger Payne, editor, and the
twenty-five other authors are truly pathfinders in these new techniques.
One author supported her own research by waiting on tables-a real tribute
to low overhead and minimal administration!
Prior to the late 1960s most whale research used dead specimens do-
nated by the whaling industry, and later by kills taken under special
permit. This meant that an individual whale could be sampled only once.
Thus, most data was a comparative average based on a commercial harvest
sample. For instance, reproductive rates were based on in-uterus fetus
counts and on analysis of scars on the ovary that are associated with
whalebirth.
Sampling from harvested specimens introduces substantial bias because
harvesters may seek out whales with particular economic value (large
size) or may find that some whales, i.e., pregnant females, are easier to
pursue. The resulting harvest may be the slower, smaller lunged (more
opportunity for harpooning), older, pregnant, geographically convenient,
or other subset of the general population. Management or science based
on such a sample leads to conclusions about demographics, anatomy,
reproductive rates, and stock viability that may not be valid. Of course,
the use of dead specimens eliminates the opportunity for research into
topics such as communication, kinship, and migration. Research using
captive animals, or in circumstances where animals interact with their
observers (touching, playing, distracting), is equally suspect. The special
intelligence of whales compounds this behavioral distortion because in-
dividuals learn to repeat what the observers want to see most. Passive
observation has none of these problems.
In addition to direct scientific value, this research has had important
political and management implications. Passive observation of live ani-
mals has allowed scientists to pursue their professions without depending
on whale killing and it has neutralized the whaling industry's claim that
their enterprise was necessary to supply corpses for research.
BEHAVIOR OF WHALES
Interested readers will want to study the volume for its comprehensive
cataloguing of facts. The amazing uniqueness of certain research results,
however, will only be appreciated by experts. For example, it may seem
obvious that individual whales can be identified from flukes, fins, and
whole animal traits (bumps, groves and scars) but this technique has only
been recognized for a decade or so. Consider that if you are working
with a carcass there is no opportunity to test your ability to recognize the
individual again. Aged and landed specimens rarely maintain their subtle
distinctions, anyway.
Almost every reader will find a favorite essay or two. As an economist,
I am partial to the two papers on migratory distinctions and stock iden-
tification (Payne and Guinee, Darling and Jurasz). This research on pop-
ulation composition is at the heart of management decisions. For example,
the suggestion that Eastern North Pacific Humpbacks form one intermin-
gling stock-despite the existence of a couple of winter assembly spots-
means that managers can be less concerned if Humpback observations in
a particular area diminish. There is, however, very little known about
behavioral distinctions (versus anatomical or geographical uniqueness)
that would support the hypothesis that new subspecies can be identified
within an otherwise identical population on a basis of behavior alone.
Other papers consider vocalizations, breeding behavior, and research
techniques. The annotated bibliography by James Bird took years to
assemble and is the most comprehensive available, although somewhat
dated because it includes no publications after 1980.
The research reported in this book is exceptional in the same way as
Goodall's chimpanzee or Fossey's gorilla work. It gives us insight into
these great marine mammals without the expense and ethical compromise
of slaughter. The knowledge it presents is vital for preservation of the
vast habitats required to assure the survival of the endangered animals.
Read it as a scientist or wildlife manager, or merely as a model for your
own creativity.
STEPHEN 0. ANDERSEN
Department of Economics
College of the Atlantic
October 1984]


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