Communicating underwater is challenging.
Light and odors don't travel well, so it's hard for animals to see or smell.
But sound moves about four times faster in water than in air, so in this dark environment, marine mammals often rely on vocalization to communicate.
That's why a chorus of sounds fills the ocean.
Clicks, pulses, whistles, groans, boings, cries, and trills, to name a few.
But the most famous parts of this underwater symphony are the evocative melodies, or songs, composed by the world's largest mammals, whales.
Whale songs are one of the most sophisticated communication systems in the animal kingdom.
Only a few species are known to sing.
Blue, fin, bowhead minke whales, and of course humpback whales.
These are all baleen whales which use hairy baleen plates instead of teeth to trap their prey.
Meanwhile, toothed whales do use echolocation, and they and other species of baleen whales make social sounds, such as cries and whistles, to communicate.
But those vocalizations lack the complexity of songs.
So how do they do it?
Land mammals like us generate sound by moving air over our vocal cords when we exhale, causing them to vibrate.
Baleen whales have a U-shaped fold of tissue between their lungs and their large inflatable organs called laryngeal sacs.
We don't know this for sure because it's essentially impossible to observe the internal organs of a living, singing whale, but we think that when a whale sings, muscular contractions in the throat and chest move air from the lungs across the U-fold and into the laryngeal sacs, causing the U-fold to vibrate.
The resulting sound resonates in the sacs like a choir singing in a cathedral making songs loud enough to propagate up to thousands of kilometers away.
Whales don't have to exhale to sing.
Instead, the air is recycled back into the lungs, creating sound once more.
One reason whale songs are so fascinating is their pattern.
Units, like moans, cries, and chirps are arranged in phrases.
Repeated phrases are assembled into themes.
Multiple themes repeated in a predictable pattern create a song.
This hierarchical structure is a kind of grammar.
Whale songs are extremely variable in duration, and whales can repeat them over and over.
In one recorded session, a humpback whale sang for 22 hours.
And why do they do it?
We don't yet know the exact purpose, but we can speculate.
Given that the singers are males and they mostly sing during the mating season, songs might be used to attract females.
Or perhaps they're territorial, used to deter other males.
Whales return to the same feeding and breeding grounds annually, and each discrete population has a different song.
Songs evolve over time as units or phrases are added, changed, or dropped.
And when males from different populations are feeding within earshot, phrases are often exchanged, maybe because new songs make them more attractive to breeding females.
This is one of the fastest examples of cultural transmission, where learned behaviors are passed between unrelated individuals of the same species.
We can eavesdrop on these songs using underwater microphones called hydrophones.
These help us track species when sightings or genetic samples are rare.
For example, scientists have been able to differentiate the elusive blue whale's populations worldwide based on their songs.
But the oceans are getting noisier as a result of human activity.
Boating, military sonar, underwater construction, and seismic surveys for oil are occurring more often which may interfere with whale's communication.
Some whales will avoid key feeding or breeding grounds if human noise is too loud.
And humpback whales have been observed to reduce their singing in response to noise 200 kilometers away.
Limiting human activity along migratory routes and in other critical habitats, and reducing noise pollution throughout the ocean would help ensure whales continued survival.
If the whales can keep singing and we can keep listening, maybe one day we'll truly understand what they're saying.
When I graduated UCLA, I moved to Northern California, and I lived in a little town called Elk, on the Mendocino coast.
And I didn't have a phone or TV, but I had US mail.
And life was good back then -- if you could remember it.
I'd go to the general store for a cup of coffee and a brownie, I'd ship my film to San Francisco, and lo and behold, two days later, it would end up on my front door, which was way better than having to fight the traffic of Hollywood.
I didn't have much money, (Music) but I had time and a sense of wonder.
So I started shooting time-lapse photography.
It would take me a month to shoot a four-minute roll of film, because that's all I could afford.
I've been shooting time-lapse flowers continuously, nonstop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for over 30 years.
And to see them move is a dance I'll never get tired of.
Their beauty immerses us with color, taste, touch.
It also provides a third of the food we eat.
(Music) Beauty and seduction are nature's tools for survival, because we protect what we fall in love with.
It opens our hearts and makes us realize we are a part of nature, and we're not separate from it.
When we see ourselves in nature, it also connects us to every one of us, because it's clear that it's all connected in one.
When people see my images, a lot of times they'll say, "Oh my God."
Have you ever wondered what that meant?
The "oh" means it caught your attention; it makes you present, makes you mindful.
The "my" means it connects with something deep inside your soul.
It creates a gateway for your inner voice to rise up and be heard.
And "God"?
God is that personal journey we all want to be on, to be inspired, to feel like we're connected to a universe that celebrates life.
Did you know that 80 percent of the information we receive comes through our eyes, and if you compare light energy to musical scales, it would only be one octave that the naked eye could see, which is right in the middle?
And aren't we grateful for our brains, that can take this electrical impulse that comes from light energy to create images in order for us to explore our world?
And aren't we grateful that we have hearts that can feel these vibrations in order for us to allow ourselves to feel the pleasure and the beauty of nature?
Nature's beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude.
So, I have a gift I want to share with you today, a project I'm working on called "Happiness Revealed."
And it'll give us a glimpse into that perspective -- from the point of view of a child and an elderly man -- of that world.
Little girl: When I watch TV, it's just some shows that you just -- that are pretend.
And when you explore, you get more imagination than you already had, and when you get more imagination, it makes you want to go deeper in so you can get more and see beautifuller things, like the path, if it's a path, it could lead you to a beach or something, and it could be beautiful.
(Music) (Narrator) Brother David Steindl-Rast: Do you think this is just another day in your life?
It's not just another day.
It's the one day that is given to you: today.
(Music) It's given to you.
It's a gift.
It's the only gift that you have right now.
And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.
(Music) If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.
(Music) Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for our pure enjoyment.
Look at the sky.
We so rarely look at the sky.
We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment, with clouds coming and going.
We just think of the weather, and even with the weather, we don't think of all the many nuances of weather.
We just think of "good weather" and "bad weather."
This day, right now, has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly, in that form, come again.
The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same as it is right now.
Open your eyes.
goldenmary@example.net.
(Music) Look at the faces of people whom you meet.
Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors.
We all go back so far, and in this present moment, on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world flows together and meets you here, like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.
(Music) Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us.
You flip a switch, and there is electric light.
You turn a faucet, and there is warm water and cold water, and drinkable water.
It's a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.
So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which we can open your heart.
And so I wish you that you will open your heart to all these blessings, and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch, just by your presence.
Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.
(Music) And then, it will really be a good day.
(Applause) Louie Schwartzberg: Thank you.
(Applause) Thank you very much.
(Applause)