Scientists have known for quite a long time that whales communicate through their song, those long sounds that they make when being relatively close to each other. Some of the clicks can even be heard miles away, and picked up by other whales, if noise pollution and sonar sounds don't mask them. Now, scientists have created a new method of eavesdropping on how cetaceans communicate, which relies on using an underwater glider, outfitted with all the necessary sensory equipment.

The solution makes it easier to record and play back the sounds that the marine mammals make, without disturbing them with ships or other forms of human presence, Nature News reports. One of the most efficient observation tools to date is a glider that roams some 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, collecting data through specialized recording equipment. The software that guides the exploration robot was designed by Oregon State University (OSU) Hatfield Marine Science Center whale-acoustics expert Dave Mellinger, who worked together with postdoctoral researcher Holger Klinck, also at the Center.

Neil Bogue and Jim Luby, both engineers at the Washington State University, were in charge with the glider's engineering research. The Arlington, Virginia-based US Office of Naval Research (ONR) is the main funder of the $1.5-million project, which began in 2007. The underwater glider was first submerged on October 27, and has taken about 50 dives this far, some of them even lasting up to six hours each. Currently, the glider is conducted science, and is scheduled for retrieval on November 17. “We believe we have identified beaked whales. It was pretty exciting. You work a couple of years on a project, hope it will succeed, but you don't know until the equipment is wet,” Mellinger explains.

The glider has a length of about two meters (six feet), and is shaped like a torpedo. Rather than being steered from a distance, it has a course programmed into its onboard computer. After being launched, it moves to the first designated location, where it conducts scientific experiments. After this is completed, the machine surfaces, gets its bearings, transmits some data to an Iridium satellite, and then submerges again. It then “swims” to its next location, at a speed of about 0. 25 meters per second. Such a device can now cover the distance between the continental US and Hawaii all by itself, without recharge.