Whales Spotted Behaving Strangely: Blowing Bubbles at People

Humpback whales have been observed to exhibit unusual behavior: they blow bubbles directly in the direction of people. Previously, whales used these "bubble nets" only during hunting or mating season. However, now whales are blowing these rings in the direction of boats and divers, as if trying to attract attention.

The journal Marine Mammal Science reports on the results of a study conducted by an international team led by scientists from the University of California and the SETI Institute. The study recorded 12 cases of unusual whale behavior in different regions of the world. In most of these episodes, no prey or other representatives of their species were observed - only people.

The whales were active, creating air rings and freezing to observe the observers' reactions, or moving parallel to them. These actions can be interpreted as an attempt to establish communicative contact. The researchers suggest that this may be a form of interspecies communication.

"Whales want to understand us, or they want us to understand them," says researcher Lawrence Doyle, who believes that studying such forms of communication could play an important role in the search for extraterrestrial life.

In the future, experts plan to conduct more detailed observations and analysis of the whales' auditory and visual behavior in order to find out whether a genuine dialogue between humans and these marine mammals is possible.

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