Moby Doll, who in 1964 in British Columbia became the second ever captive orca, was the first orca (killer whale) to be studied scientifically at close quarters alive. Ken Balcomb, the founder of the Center for Whale Research, became one of the main researchers on Moby Doll's population, the southern resident orcas. He recalled that at the time of Moby Doll's captivity, "Whale research was done postmortem." It was "the shoot-and-dissect school of biology." The Marine Mammal Biological Laboratory in Seattle was hunting and killing orcas for its research. Moby Doll began the transformation of the species' image, followed by the next few captive orcas. They initiated "an immense amount of science," Balcomb reflected.
Sounds Orca sounds had been recorded five times in the years 1956-1961, but their production had never been scientifically studied before Moby Doll's captivity.
First recordings, 17 July 1964 Using hydrophones, scientists began recording Moby Doll's vocalizations immediately he was brought to Vancouver, British Columbia by his captors, the Vancouver Aquarium. He talked "almost non-stop," as is usual for his type of orca (southern resident). The scientists listening to Moby Doll found that in the busy port "at the sound of approaching vessels the voice registers signs of panic, but this dies away as the vessel moves on." The day after arriving at Burrard Dry Dock, the juvenile orca made long-distance pulsed calls answered by an orca two miles away. University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher Harold Fisher said, "The captive became very excited and sent out louder, rapid chatter sound when it heard the calls from outside." A tape of Moby Doll kept by Fisher would years later have great significance for the pivotal orca scientist John Ford (see below).
Schevill and Watkins Schevill and Watkins' pioneering study of Moby Doll created the fundamental basis for understanding orca sounds. William E. Schevill (1906-1994) was a paleontologist who first heard the underwater sounds of whales while working for the US Navy during World War II, in the fight against U-boats. He was inspired to become a cetologist and leading pioneer in the study of whale sounds, working at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The orca Moby Doll represented the 21st species of cetacean that he studied. In August 1964, he traveled from Woods Hole to Vancouver with his associate William A. Watkins to study Moby Doll for two days. They carried with them a hydrophone and their portable custom "Rowboat Recorder". In their scientific paper, Schevill and Watkins wrote that Moby Doll's seapen at Jericho Beach (where he had been moved) proved to be an exceptionally good, quiet site for their study. They did not have to deal with noisy pumps and noisy echoes coming from the walls of a tank, as in some previous studies of cetaceans, and the location had very little traffic of any kind, especially at night, when Moby Doll was most vocal and they did their most crucial work.
Echolocation clicks Part of Schevill's research involved discoveries about animal echolocation. Following Donald Griffin's pioneering work with bats, Schevill was the first to describe echolocation in whales, in his 1956 paper, Evidence for echolocation by cetaceans. In captivity, Moby Doll did not produce echolocation clicks in daylight. In the dark, when he could not rely on eyesight, the scientists moved the hydrophone around as an obstacle in the water to test the orca. They found that without exceptions he would crash into the hydrophone when not producing clicks if it was in a new spot; and avoid it when either he was clicking, or when it was placed in a repeated spot that he could remember. Through this experiment, Moby Doll was the first to give proof of the use of echolocation by orcas. Furthermore, by comparing Moby Doll's orientation with the sound characteristics of the click recordings, the scientists demonstrated the sharp, directional nature of his echolocation, giving support to Kenneth Norris's new hypothesis that the fatty melon of a delphinid might function as an acoustic lens. Compared to those recorded of other delphinids, the orca's clicks were characteristically produced at a slower rate: either at a steady 2 to 6 per second, or in short, slow bursts separated by a few seconds. The bursts were of 10-15 clicks, starting at a rate of 18 per second, and slowing to 6 per second, with the fundamental (resonant) frequency falling from 500 cps (Hz) to 350 cps. The duration of a click was between 10 and 25 milliseconds. These clicks were narrower-band and lower-frequency than those of other delphinids.
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