A female humpback whale named Twain, representing her community, approached the boat where the researchers were and communicated with them for about 20 minutes in this mode: the scientists duplicated the call at different intervals and listened as Twain responded in the same rhythm.
The dialogue consisted of three phases: engagement – a call and a quick response; arousal – “hoarse sounds” during surfacing, perhaps expressing excitement and frustration; and disengagement – when the twain swam away.
Perhaps, such a dialogue will be considered by many as a failure of scientists, but in their opinion, mankind became one step closer to understanding how to communicate with representatives of other civilizations.
