Read on Twitter
Roger Payne, legend of whale biology and marine conservation has died. The world has lost a force of nature.
I wrote a book with Roger in it, he took me under his wing and we became friends.
Here is a small part of the story of this wonderful human.
🧵
I wrote a book with Roger in it, he took me under his wing and we became friends.
Here is a small part of the story of this wonderful human.
🧵
2/ Born in 1935, his father worked at Bell labs “the Google of its time”. His mother a viola player filled their house with music. Exploring local woods & streams he “fell completely in love with wildlife and being outdoors”. They moved to NYC and he was crestfallen, hating it
3/ All through Roger’s life run these strands of tools, nature, adventure, family and perhaps above all, shared music and art.
4/ Roger came of age in peak whaling; 700,000 were killed in the 60s. Whalers knew it was unsustainable but would not stop.
Look at this chart of whaling.
See the drop off in the 70s.
What happened?
Roger and a bunch of other determined people did.
ourworldindata.org/grapher/whale-…
Look at this chart of whaling.
See the drop off in the 70s.
What happened?
Roger and a bunch of other determined people did.
ourworldindata.org/grapher/whale-…
5/ At this time he’d been studying hearing in owls,bats&moths.
Alternating his education with stints to earn money as an elevator operator and even shifting rocks for an alaskan goldmine.
One day Roger heard that a whale had washed up nearby, and his life was changed.
Alternating his education with stints to earn money as an elevator operator and even shifting rocks for an alaskan goldmine.
One day Roger heard that a whale had washed up nearby, and his life was changed.
6/ Whaling was already less profitable. It was expensive to find the remaining whales to turn into pet food, road surfacing and fertiliser.
Stats about their imminent doom alone were failing to stop the slaughter.
The problem as Roger saw it was that people didn’t care.
Stats about their imminent doom alone were failing to stop the slaughter.
The problem as Roger saw it was that people didn’t care.
7/ In 1967 Roger heard from a Navy engineer in Bermuda called Frank Watlington (L)
His underwater listening array, designed to eavesdrop on Soviet activity had picked up strange beautiful sounds, he thought his recordings might be whales.
He didn’t want the whalers to find out
His underwater listening array, designed to eavesdrop on Soviet activity had picked up strange beautiful sounds, he thought his recordings might be whales.
He didn’t want the whalers to find out
8/ Roger and his then wife Katy (also a musician) travelled to meet Frank. They listened and were astonished. Katy; “tears flowed from our cheeks”. Frank entrusted his recordings to them ‘go save the whales’ he said
listen to Katy describe the moment;
npr.org/2015/08/06/427…
listen to Katy describe the moment;
npr.org/2015/08/06/427…
9/ Roger felt if he could prove it was a humpback whale it would “speak to the world as no other voice has ever spoken to the world”.
Over the coming years not only did they prove the voices were humpbacks, but they discovered something huge; that they were *songs*.
Over the coming years not only did they prove the voices were humpbacks, but they discovered something huge; that they were *songs*.
10/ Here is one of Frank’s recordings.
Take a moment to listen to a whale. I asked Roger how;
‘Attentively. You should listen silently. You should listen with nothing else to distract you. That's the way to listen.
Take a moment to listen to a whale. I asked Roger how;
‘Attentively. You should listen silently. You should listen with nothing else to distract you. That's the way to listen.
10b/ (When I met Roger in 2019 he sketched his latest scheme. He wanted to dangle a giant set of metal rubberised ears off boat sailing at night off Grand Turk to capture acoustically perfect binaural whalesong. So we could hear it as a whale does. It was not to be.)
11/ Back to 1971; Roger & research partner Scott McVey’s proof that the songs were structured, varied, precise, repeated and constructed like human music made the cover of Science. Katy even discovered that the whales seemed to employ rhyme and rhythm.
This was huge.
This was huge.
12/ Roger realised the nature of the discovery:
“They changed everybody's impressions of, you know, this big blubbery creature.
It was actually a mind in the ocean. It was something that had an effect on humans that was profound. It's a form I think of emotional communication”
“They changed everybody's impressions of, you know, this big blubbery creature.
It was actually a mind in the ocean. It was something that had an effect on humans that was profound. It's a form I think of emotional communication”
13/ Simultaneously he turned record producer, in ‘71 releasing “Songs of The Humpback Whale”. Whale listening parties spread across the world, Judy Collins sang duets with them on her album, Bob Dylan played them at his shows. Whales went viral.
14/ The beauty of the songs and the cultural moment they created helped the nascent ‘Save The Whales’ movement. In 1972 Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act - protecting whales in US waters: fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/…
15/ Roger then persuaded @NatGeo to include a flexidisc of whale songs in the magazine. In 1979, with their circulation over 10million, this was *the biggest music album order ever*. It was a smash hit.
And with this human culture shifted, we no longer saw whales the same way.
And with this human culture shifted, we no longer saw whales the same way.
16/ They starred in Star Trek Movies (image). Their songs were on the news, in the legislature and taken to the frontlines of whaling. Roger worked tirelessly to stop the slaughter & push for global protections for whales. In 1986 a moratorium on whaling was passed.
17/ This saved many species from near-certain extinction.
Although some whaling continues today, it is no longer the primary threat to cetaceans.
Some species like humpbacks have staged remarkable recoveries, now returning to their old seas.
falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/23577454.…
Although some whaling continues today, it is no longer the primary threat to cetaceans.
Some species like humpbacks have staged remarkable recoveries, now returning to their old seas.
falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/23577454.…
18/ The record, played in schools and tv docs around the world fired the minds of a new young generation of marine biologists.
As a cetacean scientist over 40 how they got started and this record is often the answer
It hangs above my desk reminding me what is possible.
As a cetacean scientist over 40 how they got started and this record is often the answer
It hangs above my desk reminding me what is possible.
19/ Roger’s palCarl Sagan even put whalesong on the Voyager Space Probes’ Golden Discs - listen underneath the greetings to aliens from UN ambassadors section(!) (after 1:27).
Travelling at 38,000mph, the whales voices are now in interstellar space.
open.spotify.com/track/5SnnD9Ea…
Travelling at 38,000mph, the whales voices are now in interstellar space.
open.spotify.com/track/5SnnD9Ea…
19b/ Roger actually felt it was a ligtle pathetic we’d included so few other species; any aliens finding it would assume we were an uncivilised planet and arrogant species. He called it a “shabby little image of what we are”. I feel he has a point.
20/ Through this period Roger and Katy took their FOUR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF SIX to a remote peninsula in Argentina to raise them while they studied Right whales from the shore.
The stories from the Payne kids of this time are *wild* and enough for a book of their own.
The stories from the Payne kids of this time are *wild* and enough for a book of their own.
21/ One story; His son John told me Roger hatched for him and his brother Sam (young teenagers) to find and customise a truck & mount a paraglider on a long rope off it and then drive along a remote beach to film Right whales.
Fortunately it broke down before the test flight!
Fortunately it broke down before the test flight!
22/ Roger described this time as some of the happiest.
Above his bed at the end of his life was a painting of the coastline in Peninsula Valdes where they lived.
Growing up without TV, they’d play music and read plays. They still get together to sing madrigals & read poems.
Above his bed at the end of his life was a painting of the coastline in Peninsula Valdes where they lived.
Growing up without TV, they’d play music and read plays. They still get together to sing madrigals & read poems.
23/ [As well as her lifelong research into whales, Katy moved onto the giants of the land, elephants] discovering they use infrasound to communicate over vast distances. This and others were watershed discoveries for animals we thought were quiet.]
24/ Roger dedicated the rest of his life to whales. He went on great voyages to monitor the buildup of toxic chemicals in whales and marine ecosystems.
He founded @Ocean_Alliance, a research, education& arts charity (here’s their whale drone in action).
He founded @Ocean_Alliance, a research, education& arts charity (here’s their whale drone in action).
25/ But most of all he believed this;
“the great movements in human history have been based not on data but on emotion and passion and a dream…
unless people connect emotionally with a problem they won’t connect with the numbers..”
rogerpayne.com/final-voyage/
“the great movements in human history have been based not on data but on emotion and passion and a dream…
unless people connect emotionally with a problem they won’t connect with the numbers..”
rogerpayne.com/final-voyage/
26/ With his second wife, the great actress Lisa Harrow, he wrote and performed ‘Sea Change’ a play telling the story of the earth’s crisis in poetry and drama which they took and performed across the US and beyond. Always Roger was looking for a way of connecting.
27/ For the last decade of his life Lisa and Roger lived in the woods of Vermont, where sometimes a bear would come and sit on their veranda and reach up to drink from their hummingbird feeder.
Lisa would race to pick apples to make breakfast puree before the bears got them.
Lisa would race to pick apples to make breakfast puree before the bears got them.
28/ Roger had some of the greatest curiosity and joy in life of anyone I’ve met.
I’ve never seen anyone over 8yo get as visibly excited about ice cream.
He was generous and loved to laugh and joke. Observing him listen to Bach was to see someone taken to a different plane.
I’ve never seen anyone over 8yo get as visibly excited about ice cream.
He was generous and loved to laugh and joke. Observing him listen to Bach was to see someone taken to a different plane.
29/ This is unsurprising given his views on what music is. For Roger music and song are ancient, older than language and older than humans. This was he thought why we care about and listen to music but can’t explain why.
30/For his bonhomie he didn’t suffer fools gladly&could be very direct:He called me Xmas eve as I was handing in ‘How To Speak Whale’& said ‘it needs months more work (yep). He learnt this from his pal Cormac McCarthy,who took an axe mercilessly to Roger’s draft of ‘Among Whales’
31/ The book follows Roger’s story& last unfinished mission; @ProjectCETI is working to translate the communications of Sperm whales using AI. Underway right now in Dominica, Roger was the Principle Advisor.
His dresm was that learning to speak whale-ish (as he called it) would draw us closer to them, and transform our culture and compassion, as listening to whale songs did.
His last writing in @TIME laid this out beautifully;
time.com/6284884/whale-…
His last writing in @TIME laid this out beautifully;
time.com/6284884/whale-…
32/ At the very end, I asked him about the future. This was a bleak moment.
He felt our species had not understood yet that we depend on other life, that his grandchildren would live through
‘an ever-decreasing world and that breaks my heart, because I won’t be there to help’.
He felt our species had not understood yet that we depend on other life, that his grandchildren would live through
‘an ever-decreasing world and that breaks my heart, because I won’t be there to help’.
33/ But despite this he had hope. Not in technology, but in human nature. That when we humans do connect enough to realise something new, if we change our minds “it can change so fast that you just can’t keep up with it”.
And few have witnessed this more than he.
And few have witnessed this more than he.
34/ Looking back at his story, it seems a done deal now that we saved the whales by listening to them. But it seemed insane when Roger set out. They were doomed, no one cared.
Who would have bet on him?
He told me he had no idea if it would work, but he had to try.
Who would have bet on him?
He told me he had no idea if it would work, but he had to try.
35/ This is what I have taken from Roger:
To not give up on human nature, but work with it to forge emotional connections to the more-than-human-world.
Go to the sea, be curious, try your damnedest. Rejoice along the way.
This is what he did, this is what we can do.
To not give up on human nature, but work with it to forge emotional connections to the more-than-human-world.
Go to the sea, be curious, try your damnedest. Rejoice along the way.
This is what he did, this is what we can do.
#rogerpayne #life #whales #conservation @whalesorg @ProjectCETI @WorldCetacean @CetaceanSociety @seashepherd @HugoSAS @NatGeo @BBCEarth @cerysmatthews @carlsafina @Whale_Sanctuary @awhalefact @JoyReidenberg @cosmosheldrake @LalinePaull @oceana #howtospeakwhale
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
