- From establishing conservation protections to developing tools to understand whale communication, the work of marine biologist David Gruber and oceanographer Sylvia Earle is grounded in the same belief: understanding leads to connection and care.
- While there have been remarkable conservation successes across the five decades of their efforts, the overall trend is clear: the health of the ocean is declining faster than efforts to protect it.
- “We still have an opportunity to leave future generations an ocean filled with life, wonder, and possibility. But this window is closing. The choices we make in the next decade will firmly shape the future of marine ecosystems,” the co-authors argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Seventy years ago, Le Monde du Silence, a film by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle, depicted the ocean as silent. Today, we know that the ocean is filled with the melodies of millions of vocalizing sea creatures, from the crisp snapping of shrimps to the complex singing and speaking of whales. In fact, the first life to vocalize with intent likely began in the sea. It is far from silent.
Together, our careers span generations of ocean exploration. Sylvia has spent more than seven decades advancing ocean exploration and conservation, helping inspire the protection of critical marine ecosystems. And David has worked for more than three decades to better understand how marine life perceive their world, which has led him to a current focus with Project CETI translating the communication of whales. This is uncovering a vast depth and complexity in whale voices, which we are just beginning to understand.
While there have been remarkable conservation successes, the overall trend is clear: the health of the ocean is declining faster than our efforts to protect it. Throughout our careers, we have witnessed extraordinary discoveries about marine life as well as humans’ ability to access even its deepest reaches, alongside dramatic changes to the ocean itself. We have celebrated conservation victories and scientific and technological breakthroughs. But we have also watched habitats disappear, species decline, and human impacts reach even the most remote corners of our oceans.
We have seen the ocean impacted by climate change in recent decades. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where Sylvia served as chief scientist, “more than 90% of the warming that has happened on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the ocean.”
The scale of change is staggering. In the span of a single human lifetime, humanity has grown from roughly 2 billion people to more than 8 billion. This human population growth has put visible pressure on the ocean: coral reefs, kelp forests, mangroves, and seagrass meadows have declined by half, and ocean wildlife — from tuna to sharks, krill to crabs — are sharply decreasing.
Yet, the future of the ocean is still being written. The decisions we make today will determine what future generations inherit.
Whales offer a remarkable contrast and reason for hope: with protection, most whale species are increasing. Humans and whales shared a common ancestor roughly 92 million years ago. Modern whales have navigated Earth’s oceans for tens of millions of years, evolving into some of the largest and most intelligent animals to ever exist.
Yet, they have done so without exhausting the ecosystem that sustains them. Increasingly, we are discovering that whale societies are more sophisticated than we imagined. We are finding evidence of cultural transmission, collective care, and complex communication among kin and non-kin.
Whether establishing protection or developing tools to understand whale communication, our work is grounded in the same belief: understanding leads to deeper connections, which leads to care. We know technology and conservation are often seen as having opposing objectives, with the tech sector portrayed as exploiting the natural resources conservationists seek to protect. But our work serves as an example that when handled responsibly and ethically, technology can enable us to become better stewards of the world around us.
Earlier this year, Sylvia swam alongside sperm whales in Mauritius for the first time, nearly 50 years after first witnessing humpbacks underwater. That event was chronicled by the article “Humpback: The Gentle Whales” in a 1979 issue of National Geographic, in which the famous “Songs of the Humpback Whale” produced by Roger Payne was inserted as a 45 rpm “flexi-disc” compatible with record players.
On March 26, David’s team at CETI shared tandem scientific studies of a sperm whale birth, with 11 female whales assisting, showing this species has one of the most collaborative and community-driven social structures across all species. Experiences like these remind us that despite the decades of scientific progress, we are still only beginning to understand the lives unfolding beneath the ocean’s surface.
In this episode of Mongabay Sessions, host Romi Castagnino interviews ‘Her Deepness’ Sylvia Earle, who is an oceanographer, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, and the founder of Mission Blue.
Yet advances in science and technology are opening doors that once seemed unimaginable. Through Project CETI, researchers are beginning to decode the structure and meaning behind sperm whale communication, bringing us closer than ever to understanding another intelligent species on its own terms.
If we succeed in understanding whale communication, we may gain something unprecedented: the ability to learn from another intelligent earthling whose history stretches back millions of years before the existence of humans. What might whales teach us about coexistence, resilience, family, or stewardship?
We still have an opportunity to leave future generations an ocean filled with life, wonder, and possibility. But this window is closing. The choices we make in the next decade will firmly shape the future of marine ecosystems.
We therefore urge people to move toward action: support marine protected areas, reduce the pressures driving climate change, back science and conservation efforts, and demand policies and actions that safeguard the ocean.
David Gruber is the CEO and founder of Project CETI, a distinguished professor of biology for City University of New York/Baruch College, and a National Geographic Explorer. Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, founder of Mission Blue and a National Geographic Explorer at Large.
Banner image: Humpback whales in French Polynesian waters. Image by Toby Matthews / Ocean Image Bank.
See related coverage:
Our responsibility for cetacean conservation grows with proof of their intelligence (commentary)
Family and friends help sperm whale mother and newborn during birth
Citations:
Beguš, G., Dąbkowski, M., Sprouse, R. L., Gruber, D. F., & Gero, S. (2026). The phonology of sperm whale coda vowels. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 293(2069). doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.2994
Maalouf, A., DelPreto, J., Lucas, M., Poetto, S., Andreas, J., Torralba, A., … Gruber, D. F. (2026). Cooperation by non-kin during birth underpins sperm whale social complexity. Science, 391(6792), 1355-1360. doi:10.1126/science.ady9280
Aluma, Y., Baron, Z., Barrett, R., Baumgartner, C., Beguš, G., Bhattacharya, S., … Wood, R. J. (2026). Description of a collaborative sperm whale birth and shifts in coda vocal styles during key events. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 9206. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-27438-3
Cite this article
David Gruber, Sylvia Earle (2026). Listen to whales to improve connection, care & ocean health (commentary). Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322579Credits
