The '52-hertz whale'
Since 1989 US Navy hydrophones in the North Pacific have tracked the call of a single whale singing at about 52 Hz, far higher than blue or fin whales, earning it the name 'the loneliest whale in the world'.
1989 CE · 45.00, -150.00 · status: unexplained
The account
Researchers at Woods Hole led by William Watkins tracked it every year from 1992 and published in 2004. The call has deepened slightly over time. The animal has never been seen.
The sceptical view
It may be a hybrid or a whale with an unusual voice; it is a real animal, and other whales may well hear it.
The researched reading
A real whale with an unusual song, tracked for decades by hydrophones. The mystery is which kind of whale it is, not whether it exists, and the lonely-whale story is mostly myth.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Watkins and colleagues tracked a single baleen whale whose song pattern resembles blue whale song at an unusual pitch; the simplest reading is an individual of a known species, or a blue–fin hybrid or malformed animal, with an odd voice. |
| A cultural story | 22% | The "loneliest whale" story is a media narrative: there is no evidence the animal is isolated or that other whales cannot hear it. |
| Undetermined | 20% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| An unknown or out-of-place animal | 12% | Calls in a similar band were later recorded at more than one site at once, so a small, undescribed group of whales with this voice cannot be excluded. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | The data come from US Navy hydrophones and a peer-reviewed study. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 2% | It is an acoustic record, not a sighting. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 2% | A whale with an unusual voice needs no new biology. |
Official position: No official verdict; scientists regard it as a real whale with an unusual call.