Pilot whales are already 'shouting' at full volume, but one busy waterway is pushing them to the edge

Phys · May 07, 2026 · 673 words · By The Company

Anthropogenic Impact Environmental Conservation Marine Biology

Researchers from Aarhus University and other institutions studied the vocalizations of long-finned pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar. The study found that while whales increase the volume of some calls to compensate for shipping noise, they have reached a maximum volume for the low-frequency calls essential for pod reunification.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-whales-shouting-full-volume-busy.html

analyticsAnalysis

20%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Minor concerns. Some persuasive language detected, but largely factual.

psychologyDetected Techniques

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Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

9 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

info Single Source 4

verified Verified By Reference 3

cancel Disputed 1

help Insufficient Evidence 1

verified

“With over 60,000 ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar each year”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence includes general definitions of 'over' and general descriptions of the Strait of Gibraltar, but no specific data regarding the annual number of ships passing through the strait.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone mountain 426 m (1,398 ft) high dominating the western entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated near the end of a narrow 9-kilometre-long (5.6 m…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Gibraltar

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Strait of Gibraltar, also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are s…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Strait of Gibraltar tunnel (Spanish: Túnel del estrecho de Gibraltar, Arabic: نفق جبل طارق) is a proposed rail tunnel spanning the Strait of Gibraltar that would connect Europe and Africa. If buil…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Gibraltar_Tunnel

+ 3 more evidence sources

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“This narrow strip of water is also home to a critically endangered population of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas).”

DISPUTED

Sources conflict on the conservation status of the long-finned pilot whale. One source lists the IUCN Red List status as 'Least Concern' (LC) globally, while another states the Mediterranean population is 'Data Deficient'. The claim describes them as 'critically endangered', which is not supported by the provided IUCN references.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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“Milou Hegeman and Frants Jensen of Aarhus University, Denmark, and colleagues from Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the U.S. publish their discovery... in Journal of Experimental Biology.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While there is a mention of Frants Jensen as a researcher and a mention of the Journal of Experimental Biology in a different context (short-finned pilot whales), there is no evidence provided that confirms a specific study by Hegeman and Jensen on pilot whales in that journal.

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web search NEUTRAL — new study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10937404.2023.2…

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web search NEUTRAL — Frants H. Jensen Postdoctoral Fellow Biology Department Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 266 Woods Hole Road, MS#50 Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA phone: (508) 524-8436 email: frants.jensen@gmail.com.
https://archive.org/stream/DTIC_AD1014238/DTIC_AD1014238_djv…

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web search NEUTRAL — The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, highlights that these whales consume between 82 and 202 squid daily, resulting in an estimated annual intake of about 88,000 tonnes of squi…
https://news.ssbcrack.com/study-reveals-short-finned-pilot-w…

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“From 2012 to 2015, Frants Jensen and colleagues... used a 6-meter-long pole to attach recorders to the backs of 23 pilot whales with suction cups.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence discusses the general use of suction-cup tags and poles for tracking whales, but does not provide the specific details of the 2012-2015 study involving 23 pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

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“After listening to 1,432 whale calls, the team divided them up into four categories: low-frequency calls, short, pulsed calls, high-frequency calls and two-component calls.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The evidence provided discusses whale frequencies in general (e.g., the 52-hertz whale) but contains no information regarding a dataset of 1,432 calls divided into these four specific categories.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Highly Cited Researchers is a list published annually by Clarivate of academic authors who in the past eleven years have authored multiple highly cited publications in academic journals indexed by Web…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_Cited_Researchers

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, charact…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

“The levels of background noise ranged from 79 to 144 dB”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence lists noise levels for gyms and wheat factories, but provides no data on background noise levels in the Strait of Gibraltar or the specific study area.

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web search NEUTRAL — In the new study, the researchers selected a gym in the local Baltimore area and conducted surveys on participants aged 31 on average, who signed up for one-hour spinning classes. Music volumes in the…
https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/research-calls-att…

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web search NEUTRAL — The noise levels ranged from 78.0 dB recorded at the food processing to 108.5 dB also from the same place.4. Conclusion This study revealed that the noise levels in some points in the wheat processing…
https://www.academia.edu/114453320/INDUSTRIAL_NOISE_LEVEL_ST…

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web search NEUTRAL — The background noise level (L 90) has the highest and lowest values at passengers loading parks (73 dBA) and low density residential areas (34 dBA) respectively. The result of this study shows that th…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269472385_A_Statist…

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“the pilot whales make their calls a bit louder as the background noise increases.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence mentions a study titled 'Diving apart together' regarding call propagation and social groups, but the provided snippets do not explicitly confirm the 'Lombard effect' (increasing volume in response to noise) for these whales.

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web search NEUTRAL — In long-finned pilot whales, there is a trade-off between the benefits of foraging individually at depth and the formation of tight social groups at the surface.
https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/publications/div…

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web search NEUTRAL — In long-finned pilot whales, there is a trade-off between the benefits of foraging individually at depth and the formation of tight social groups at the surface.
https://publications.tno.nl/publication/34637967/V5bmnl/kok-…

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web search NEUTRAL — We demonstrate that two long-finned pilot whales surfaced in synchrony with 27 consecutive arrivals of multiple sonar pulses. We then assess the effect of surfacing and other 28 behavioural response s…
https://www.academia.edu/130175104/How_effectively_do_horizo…

info

“the pilot whales are already shouting as loud as possible when making their low-frequency and two-component calls”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence discusses the types of calls (whistles, pulsed calls) but does not mention whether low-frequency and two-component calls are produced at maximum volume.

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web search NEUTRAL — Pilot whale. social calls are typically composed of frequency modulated tonal calls with harmonics, also. termed whistles (Visser et al., 2017). Individuals therefore can potentially perceive calls th…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340854659_Diving_ap…

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web search NEUTRAL — Long-finned pilot whales in the northwest atlantic produce typical dolphin sounds, such as clicks, buzzes, grunts, and a variety of pulsed calls including whis- tles 14,15 .
https://www.academia.edu/111603554/Bag_of_calls_analysis_rev…

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web search NEUTRAL — Long-finned pilot whales produce more social calls during foraging bouts, when individuals are dispersed, than during non-foraging periods, when individuals are several body lengths apart (Visser et a…
https://publications.tno.nl/publication/34637967/V5bmnl/kok-…

help

“the pilot whale population in the Straits of Gibraltar is only 250”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to confirm or deny the population size of pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.

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Pilot whales are already 'shouting' at full volume, but one busy waterway is pushing them to the edge

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