00:00You plunge into the icy and dark waters of the Antarctic.
00:05A bluish darkness, almost supernatural, envelops you, evoking the immensity of space.
00:12In these inhospitable depths, where you would never expect to meet a living soul,
00:18a sudden and strange noise arises.
00:21A cry similar to that of a huge duck quacking in the abyss.
00:26In 1960, researchers captured for the first time this enigmatic sound,
00:31which they named Bioduck.
00:33An ingenious choice.
00:35For decades, they searched to unravel the mystery of its origin.
00:39Was it a kraken, a space ship lost at the bottom of the sea,
00:43an unknown marine creature, or a colossal duck?
00:46The hypotheses, all more fantastic than the others, multiplied.
00:52Oceanographers found similar sounds in other regions.
00:56Not far from the west coast of Australia, and on the shores of New Zealand,
01:00they recorded similar signals, although higher, which they named Biogoose.
01:06With such names, the strange and mysterious atmosphere of this story seems to fade away.
01:12These sounds, however, were not isolated events, but reproduced at regular intervals.
01:17The frequency of emissions suggested a lot of mechanical origin.
01:21However, the study of oceans during the second half of the 20th century
01:26was trapped by the technological limits of the time.
01:29Despite these challenges, researchers continued their research on Bioduck and Biogoose,
01:34driven by an insatiable scientific curiosity.
01:40Over the years, the accumulation of data fueled speculations,
01:44until researchers finally unraveled the mystery.
01:47Bioduck turned out to be a form of biological communication.
01:51By observing these repeated signals, scientists noticed that they never overlapped.
01:56When one source spoke, the others remained silent.
02:00This suggested a structured communication.
02:04The question then remained to know which marine creature used such a system,
02:09based on sound frequency variations.
02:12The answer, as some had guessed, was whales.
02:16Scientists compared the Bioduck sound of the Antarctic to the calls of mink whales,
02:21and found striking similarities.
02:24The Biogoose sounds recorded off the coast of Australia and New Zealand
02:28seemed to come from other species, or from young mink whales.
02:32However, this discovery only amplified the mystery.
02:35What could be the role of these sounds?
02:37Did the whales discuss their meals?
02:40Did they make fun of the humans who recorded their voices?
02:43Or did they exchange philosophical thoughts about the universe?
02:46The possibilities were endless.
02:49But the most fascinating revelation was the idea that humanity could, one day,
02:54communicate with these majestic creatures.
02:57Communicating with whales is no longer a utopia.
03:01Researchers from the University of California have already established a contact with a humpback whale,
03:06named Twain.
03:07During an innovative experiment,
03:09they managed to hold a 20-minute conversation with this marine mammal.
03:14Here are the steps they followed.
03:17The specialists went on an expedition to the Alaskan coast,
03:21where they captured the sounds of a group of humpback whales.
03:24They then broadcasted these recordings via loudspeakers in the ocean.
03:29The sounds were like a kind of greeting,
03:32an equivalent of,
03:33hi, how are you,
03:34in the language of whales.
03:36These exchanges are generally used by whales to call or indicate their position.
03:42Shortly after sending the signals,
03:44the researchers received an answer.
03:46Twain approached the boat,
03:48bypassed it,
03:49and replied with a,
03:51hi,
03:52in his own way.
03:55This was the beginning of the first real conversation between a whale and humans.
04:00For 20 minutes,
04:01the researchers transmitted 36 signals to Twain,
04:04and she answered each time.
04:06She even followed the intervals before answering.
04:09In concrete terms,
04:10the team waited 10 seconds after each answer before sending a new signal.
04:14It seems that Twain was a particularly attentive interlocutor.
04:18Was she a wave of the soul of the oceans?
04:20Who knows?
04:22Or maybe she was simply intrigued by this unusual interaction.
04:27The signals used came from a group of whales to which Twain belonged.
04:32It is likely that the researchers used Twain's own recordings to communicate with her.
04:38In a way,
04:39Twain was talking to herself.
04:42Let's continue our journey and dive into the deepest ocean pit on the globe,
04:47the Marian pit.
04:50This immense gulf,
04:51located in the south of Japan,
04:53extends over 2,400 km
04:55and reaches a vertiginous depth of nearly 11,000 m at its lowest point.
05:00To give you an idea of this scale,
05:02the height of the Burj Khalifa,
05:04the highest skyscraper in the world,
05:06represents just a tenth of this depth.
05:09Now imagine this.
05:11In this abyssal darkness,
05:13researchers captured a singular sound.
05:22Contrary to the biodeck,
05:23this sound evoked a science fiction atmosphere.
05:27With a deafening rumble followed by a metallic ping,
05:34similar to the sounds of spaceships in the movies.
05:38Scientists have nicknamed this mysterious phenomenon
05:41the Biot-Wang sounds.
05:43This unusual sound was detected for the first time in 2014
05:47during an acoustic study carried out in the Marian pit.
05:50The researchers quickly located its origin.
05:53Whales,
05:54more precisely, the Bride's orcas.
05:57Thanks to artificial intelligence,
05:59they analyzed nearly 200,000 hours of marine recording
06:02and identified correspondences with a group of these orcas.
06:07Like many animal species,
06:09these whales use sounds to communicate.
06:12But guess what we also discovered at the bottom of the Marian pit?
06:16A plastic bottle.
06:18No need to accuse a Kraken, a whale or any mythical creature.
06:22This bottle is, unsurprisingly, the fruit of human activity.
06:26But this subject deserves a full video.
06:30Now let's move on to another intriguing sound.
06:33This time, it is not a whale,
06:35but a mysterious sound recorded in the most isolated corner of the planet.
06:40This site is called Point Nemo,
06:42and its solitude is legendary.
06:44Located in the South Pacific Ocean,
06:46Point Nemo is the most remote place on Earth.
06:49The closest island, located at 2,700 km.
06:52No matter the direction, this distance remains about the same.
06:56In addition, this isolation is accentuated by the almost total absence of marine life,
07:01because the marine currents, and therefore the nutrients, are extremely rare there.
07:05In a way, Point Nemo is a real aquatic desert.
07:09Thus, in 1997,
07:11oceanographers captured a strange and disturbing sound
07:14coming from the depths on board Point Nemo.
07:20This sound, as colossal as disturbing,
07:23was nicknamed the Bloop.
07:26When journalists learned of the phenomenon,
07:29extravagant theories emerged around the world.
07:33The most popular suggested that a gigantic sea monster,
07:36perhaps a Kraken or another mythical creature,
07:40was at the origin of this sound.
07:42However, the craze for the Bloop did not last,
07:45because scientists eventually elucidated the cause.
07:49It turned out that the origin of the Bloop was an iceberg.
07:53When these masses of ice crack and collapse,
07:56they produce sounds at very low frequencies,
07:59which can be detected at great distances.
08:02To verify this hypothesis,
08:04researchers recorded other icebergs,
08:07and heard similar sounds.
08:10By the way, Point Nemo is so isolated
08:13that space agencies abandon their satellites there at the end of their lives.
08:17These objects simply fall into the ocean,
08:20with a 99% chance that no human or animal
08:23is affected by the debris.
08:26This is why this place is nicknamed the Satellite Cemetery.
08:30But what would happen if an alien ship
08:33fell into Point Nemo one day?
08:35And if it had already fallen there
08:37and sometimes sent distress signals across the ocean?
08:43All the mysteries mentioned so far have been resolved.
08:46What would you say to end this video with an unexplained phenomenon?
08:51Here is Upsweep,
08:53one of the most enigmatic sounds ever recorded in the ocean.
08:58This noise is made up of a series of ascending and short tones,
09:01repeated at intervals of a few seconds.
09:05The sound was detected for the first time in 1991
09:08thanks to hydrophones deployed in the Pacific Ocean.
09:13Initially, oceanographers assumed
09:16that it could be linked to a volcanic activity
09:19or to underwater earthquakes.
09:21However, the seasonal nature of the sound
09:24and the variations in its intensity depending on the period of the year
09:27quickly invalidated these hypotheses.
09:30Researchers then explored biological theories
09:33and reported their attention to the migrations
09:36and behaviors of marine animals over the seasons.
09:40Despite all these attempts,
09:42the origin of Upsweep remains unknown.
09:45Some studies emit the hypothesis
09:47that it could be linked to species of fish
09:50or other marine creatures using these sounds
09:53to communicate or navigate.
09:55But no proof has yet been provided to this day.
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