Chapter 3 part one wide throat fish

Every morning, Billy spent breakfast interviewing Ryan. Ryan and the others are now concentrating on the topic of regional differences in dolphin language. "Plainly speaking, it is the 'dialect' of dolphins." Facing Billy's interview, Ryan said. "Do dolphins have dialects or something?" "If dolphins have language, they will have dialects. Language is this kind of thing. Language can be said to be a means of communication between certain animals. However, only a limited number of animals have this means." "Humans are representative animals, right?"

"Yes, humans have a bad habit of always treating language as a particularly important thing, thinking that if they can master language, they can judge that the other party is a highly intelligent creature. Therefore, they also try to teach gorillas and chimpanzees sign language." "Are you negative about that research?" "It would be great if a chimpanzee could talk to humans, but it would be wrong to say that it is close to human intelligence. In fact, that chimpanzee is smarter than humans, because so far, no one can speak chimpanzee language. " "Indeed."

"I don't think language is such a good thing. For example, the language changes in different countries. But if the language changes, the communication will be cut off. You must have experienced it when you travel around the world?" "There are often problems due to language barriers." "Yes, language is something of that degree. It is very inconvenient as a means of communication. So other animals don't necessarily choose language as a means of expression." "yes?" "Maybe. Or maybe, human language evolved to cut off communication. Using it as a code between partners and keeping enemies from understanding it is indeed an epoch-making method. But I don't know if there was such a thing. History background."

"Oh." "It's also been suggested that other animals just haven't evolved enough to use language. But if it's inconvenient not to have language, are they living inconveniently? The terns that gather on that cliff slope Do you think it's inconvenient for them to live with such a rattling noise?" "Aren't they even aware of the 'inconvenience'?" "You think so?" "No. Rebuttal so we can continue the conversation." "Maybe it actually is. Maybe they don't know the language defined by humans and don't find it inconvenient. Humans can't fly in the sky, but they don't feel inconvenient. They don't see infrared light, and they don't feel inconvenient. But in From the perspective of animals that usually use those things, for example, from the perspective of bats, how do people live without being able to fly in the air or hear sounds? It may feel incredible.”

"Yes. Animals don't need language, so they live independently of language. Animals that need language use language to live. That's all. It's just that humans don't understand it. Humans have no advantage. Because they don't Understand and investigate, that’s science. Dropping a Coca-Cola can into the ocean, an octopus trying to touch it with its feet—science is nothing more than that.” "Indeed." "In short, to understand the language of animals, we must break the inherent concepts to study, otherwise we will immediately fall into a deadlock."

Not only dolphins, but wild animal studies are all time-consuming and labor-intensive.In particular, the analysis of the "dialect" of dolphins, which Ryan and the others are currently studying with all their strength, is very difficult to operate.They do not study captive dolphins, but wild dolphins.Even when groups of dolphins are found, they never stay in the same place.For the recording, the boat had to turn off its engine and set up underwater microphones, but even with all this kindness, the dolphins might not come. Through years of unremitting efforts, Ryan and the others have successfully made "friends" with several species of dolphins.Several groups were obtained that were able to actively come to the assigned areas on their own...more specifically, they achieved results in the domestication of wild dolphins.

There are two types of dolphin voices.One is the "crack sound". Dolphins emit this high-frequency sound wave to detect objects through echolocation. Bats also use this scanning system.This sound is not like a "squeak" sound, but similar to some kind of teeth grinding sound.The other is whistle, which is used for mutual communication, like a whistle.What Ryan and the others studied was the sound of whistles. They were sorting through the whistle when Billy came to visit.The data are dolphin calls collected three months ago, totaling nearly 100 hours.For two weeks, Billy visited this kind of monotonous work every day. In the third week, he had the opportunity to dive in the sea.

Recording the dolphins is expected to take twenty days.If the recording is not good, the time will be extended.However, Ryan said that if you are lucky, it will only take about two or three days. After two days of preparation, the special yacht loaded with a lot of audio equipment set off. Billy wanted to dive too.For the first four days, he didn't get a diving license, so he had to watch the live action in the sea from the wheelhouse.On the fifth day, he finally got the chance to dive. Initially, as usual, Ryan, Gordon, and Hanuriku dived, and Billy replaced Gordon after two hours. Before the dive, Billy took the pocket camera from Gordon.

"Where is the switch?" "You don't have to do anything. It's already started. You can shoot the rest as you like." After Billy attached the walkie-talkie to his head, he put on the tight-fitting mask.The water tank behind is of the type that does not discharge the exhaled air to the outside, and it does not bubble when breathing, which makes people feel very comfortable.This feature has a shark-proof effect, which greatly increases confidence.Sharks are very sensitive to sound. When a weakened fish swims, the sound is unnatural, and the shark can react immediately and come.The bubbling sound of a diver's exhalation can easily attract sharks.

The dolphin show has already begun in the sea.Fully familiar dolphins hovered around Ryan, some clung to his arms. "Lian, can you hear me?" Bill called Ryan on the walkie-talkie. "Yes, the sensitivity is good." The small box in Ryan's hand is a sound sampler.There are dozens of dolphin sounds in this machine, and after Ryan's ingenious manipulation, it can "talk" like a dolphin.At least it seemed to Billy that Ryan was talking to a dolphin. The elegant chat between Ryan and the dolphin was captured by Billy on camera.There are five waterproof microphones submerged in the water, and Hanuriku is holding a retractable microphone in his hand to chase the pod of dolphins.The conversations with the dolphins thus collected were recorded by Jack on board with a multi-channel tape recorder.Its recording data will become an important research material.

Ryan teaches Billy how to operate the sampler.The sampler is the size of a paperback book and has three large buttons on the body.It looks simple, but it is difficult to operate because you have to use these three buttons to control all functions. Ryan explained to him through the headset: "The top two buttons change channels. The bottom one is the play button." As soon as the channel button is pressed, the small screen located in the center of the fuselage displays the stored dolphin sounds one by one. "Then, put this first." Billy played the voice Ryan had chosen.The dolphins responded with the exact same sound.Billy couldn't help but smile. "What did this mean just now?" "What dolphins often say when they want to play. The equivalent of saying: 'Let's play.'" Ryan chose a different sound and asked Billy to play it.The dolphins suddenly fell silent. "what about this?" "An opinion to stop certain actions. The equivalent of saying 'wait a minute,' or 'not the time to play.'" Billy pressed the next voice.The machine made a high-pitched, high-pitched sound.The dolphin rammed into Billy with a sudden hilarity. "It's the sound of excitement, which means 'I'm so happy'. The next one is the opposite, and it's a warning sound that announces danger." No sooner had Billy pressed the button than the dolphin swam away and disappeared from the area. "That...they escaped." "It's okay, I'll be right back." Ryan played "Let's play" again, and after a while, all the dolphins came back. "Then I'll teach you the easiest way." After speaking, Ryan changed the channel again.As soon as you press the play button, there will be a "creaking" sound. "It's a crackling sound." "Yeah, the clack is the sound used for echolocation, but if you make that sound, they'll come and play." "Did you mistook us for companions?" "Do people find it funny when a parrot says 'good morning'? Same as that." "Are we parrots?" "To them it is." Looking back, you can see the dolphins making clacking noises while looking at them.Billy clacked back, and the dolphin croaked happily and swam around in circles. "Look!" Gordon's voice came from the intercom. "Look south." Looking at the direction indicated by Gordon, I saw a huge school of fish forming a wide strip. "School of sardines," Ryan said. "Hahahaha!" Gordon clapped his hands and laughed happily on the intercom. "Today is Sailfish Day!" Following the school of sardines must be sailfish.Sardines are a delicacy for sailfish, and Gordon is an avid sailfish fisherman.Although it was working hours, he was already on the boat and ready to go fishing. "Ready? Time to go." When Jack's voice came, Ryan replied with the GO sign. By the time the multitrack recorder kicks into gear again, the dolphins are enjoying a slightly early lunch.Insert the long mouth into the sand, roll up the hidden fish, and hunt.At this time dolphins use special sounds.Unlike the usual clacking, the sound was sharper.It looks like the fish jumped out of the sand after hearing it, but in fact the fish was "victimized" by the sound.The dolphins stun the fish with sound waves, and when they fly out of the sand, the fish are already in convulsions and can easily be eaten by the dolphins.What a masterful skill. Bill lifted a fish in his hand.Sure enough, the fish was unconscious and could be caught easily. "It's 'shooting sound'." Ryan said. "Great! It's the first time I've seen this." "This 'shooting sound' is harmless to humans and only works on fish. Because dolphins know what kind of sound can knock down fish. This may be the reason why these guys have not evolved as much as humans. Imagine if humans also have such a convenient If it is functional, there is no need to invent fishing rods and hooks.” "These guys...are ideal evolutions." "Then it's the inherent concept of human beings. Dolphins are so smart that they are willing to be the bait of sharks. In this point, they are equal to fish. What would happen to humans? If humans live in the ocean, they will Fear of being silently eaten by sharks, which will smash the coral and build a huge fortress, live in it." "Is that due to the so-called human habit?" Bill said in an interview tone. "yes." In fact, dolphins are very talkative. They swim around the two of them, talking about this and that.Billy thought how much fun it would be to understand their language. "What are they saying? Is it 'today's fish is delicious'?" "Eh? How do you know?" "Hahaha. I lied to you." Billy frantically turned his pocket camera on the approaching dolphin.Because I was too focused, I didn't notice the voice at first.Ryan suddenly said: "whale." "what?" Billy came back to his senses and looked around. "Where?" "Can't you hear? That voice." Listening to him, Billy listened.Indeed, although the sound is small, it can indeed be heard.Unlike the voice of a dolphin, it was deep and strangely sad. "Is it a right whale?" Hanuriku said, slowly turning the telescoping microphone 360 ​​degrees.In water, it is difficult to confirm the directionality of sound by ear.Hajiri monitored the highly directional microphone, trying to find the direction, but couldn't find it. Ryan called to Jack on the boat. "Hey, Jack. Can you hear that too?" "what?" "There's the sound of a whale." "what?" Jack turned the volume on the microphone to the max, but he couldn't hear anything. "Can you still hear me?" "Ah. The voice is very small..." As Ryan listened intently again, the voice stopped. "Disappeared……" The surroundings once again became the laughter of dolphins. "Jack, how's the sensor?" "Nothing came out. Just schools of sardines." "Hey, Jack, you're too noisy." "Ah, sorry." Jack threw away the gum he was chewing, then glanced casually at the recorder's levels, and saw the seven microphones in the water swing wildly for a split second. "!" The meter swings violently from side to side.But the dolphins' hilarity can still be heard over the loudspeakers. "Gordon! Come here!" Gordon, who was on the deck preparing to fish, came. "What's wrong?" "Look, this." Lion from the sea said: "Jack! You are too noisy!" Jack and Gordon looked at each other.Jack's mouth didn't move at all. "Hey! Jack! That's too loud. Are you chewing gum?" The sound of chewing gum still lingered in Ryan's ears. "Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji Guji......" "Ryan, is that 'frying oil noise'?" The so-called fried oil noise is often heard in the sea, like the sound of hot oil crackling and splashing.The sound of shrimp waving their claws, the sound of plankton hitting the microphone, it sounds like this. "Which column of the fader is turned up too high?" Before Ryan finished speaking, Jack had already confirmed that all the volume bars on the table with the volume adjustment device were correct.But Ryan still complained that the noise of chewing gum and fried oil was still going on, and the level meter was still shaking violently.Jack turned to the back of the installed table and checked the cable connectors one by one. There was no problem. He went back to the table and looked at the level meter. The pointer had already reached the top of the red warning zone and could not come back.Jack was puzzled, and said to the two in the water: "Hey, the measuring instrument is not working properly. How is your side?" "Huh? Nothing?" Bill answered on the walkie-talkie. However, their respective voices echoed repeatedly in Billy's ears. "Hey, the measuring instrument is not normal. How is your side? Ah? Nothing? Hey, the measuring instrument is not normal. How is your side?  …" "What's the matter? Is it replaying? Jack." Ryan shook his head. "What?" Jack's voice said. "Hey, the measuring instrument is not working. How is your side? What? Ah? Nothing? What's going on? Hey, the measuring instrument is not working. How are you doing? Is it replaying? Jack... huh? Nothing ?how?……" Their words were repeated one after another.Ryan couldn't bear it anymore and called out: "Oh shit!" "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Hey, the measuring instrument is not working properly. Damn! Damn! How are you doing? What?...Damn!... Ah? Nothing? What's the matter? ...Damn! Damn! Damn... Hey, the measuring instrument is not working properly. Damn! How are you doing? Is it replaying? Jack....Ah? Nothing? What's wrong? What?... Oh shit……" The repeated sounds overlapped, and the volume became louder and louder.Coupled with the chirping and clacking of the dolphins, Ryan and the others immediately fell into a state of panic. "What? What happened?" Jack's voice came from inside the boat, triggering another round of repetitions. "What? What happened? Damn! Damn! What? What happened? Hey, what's wrong with the measuring instrument. What's up with you? What? Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Ah Nothing? What's the matter? Fuck! Hey Fuck! Measuring equipment is not normal. How are you? Are you replaying? Jack... What? What happened? Fuck! Fuck!..." "Jack! Please stop!" "What did you say?" "Stop talking!" "why?" "Do not talk!" "Why exactly?" "Do not talk--!" "Tch, I understand. Anyway, you guys come up first!" "OK!" "can you hear?" "OK!" "Can't you hear me? Hi!" "Stop talking, Jack!" "That's why I asked you why I couldn't talk." The innocent Jack chattered, making Ryan's brains explode.Ryan wanted to take off the walkie-talkie, but his hand was blocked by the mask and he couldn't pass.If you want to remove the microphone, you can only remove the mask first.Ryan signaled the other two to surface with his fingers. Haluku saw his signal, but Billy didn't care about it.In his panic, he couldn't even tell which side was the surface of the sea, and when he realized it, he was kicking his flippers towards the bottom of the sea.I wanted to go to the surface of the sea, but what unfolded in front of my eyes was the dark abyss of the seabed.This prompted further panic, and Billy pulled off the mask.The seawater suddenly flowed into the trachea, and Billy passed out in pain.Ryan and Hanuri stood behind him, reaching under his armpits, and forced the mask onto his face. "Cheer up!" With that said, Ryan pressed Billy's stabilizer cleaning button to pressurize the mask.But there was still a gap in the mask, and air bubbles overflowed from the side.The air bubbles blocked the view, preventing Ryan from properly securing the mask on Billy's face.Even though he was not safe, Ryan had no choice but to give up, holding Billy in his arms to search for the surface of the sea.The air escaping from Billy's mask swelled and rose like a jellyfish.Its direction is the sea.Ryan followed behind the "jellyfish", when suddenly something blocked their way.At first glance, countless fish swim past at a very fast speed. Like swimming into a school of sardines.Ryan and Haruku kicked their flippers nonchalantly, and around the three of them, fish swam back and forth dizzyingly, flying into view with the momentum that they were about to hit the mask. Seeing the shapes of those fish clearly, Ryan was astonished. "Is there such a thing?" Ryan muttered in a low voice. "what?" "...It's a wide-swallowed fish." Hearing what he said, Yu Lu finally realized that the fish in front of him was not a sardine, but the fish with a wonderful black body was exactly the deep-sea fish raised in the Ryan Research Institute, the wide-swallowed fish. "how so……" Haluku shuddered all over. Ryan was calling on the walkie-talkie. "Record it!" "record?" Haruhiro looked around.The camera is chained to Billy's belt and is floating in the water.Hajiri hastily zoomed in on it and pointed the camera at the school of fish.But the wide-pharynx swims away in an instant.Hajiri turned the camera until the school of fish could no longer be seen.During this period, Ryan dragged Billy to the side of the cruise ship.Jack and Gordon dragged Billy into the boat and gave him mouth-to-mouth respiration, making him spit out seawater. Jack pressed on to Ryan who went up to the deck: "Tell me, what happened?" "What happened? I was about to ask you." Ryan was excited. "The vibration is loud. Can you confirm each group of sound lines, is there any channel that caused the echo?" "Is it my fault? The wiring and faders are all fine!" "Anyway, make sure again. Let's not talk about this, we saw something good. It's a school of squidfish, and there are a lot of them." "……What did you say?" A little later, Hajiri also surfaced. "How? Have you recorded it?" Ryan asked.Haruku took off his mask, listless. "I think it might not be recorded very well." "Really? Forget it, come up." Jack and Gordon are still confused about the situation, but getting Billy to the hospital first is the priority. After the boat started, Ryan explained to Jack and the others what had happened. Wrapped in a blanket, Billy heard their conversation dimly, but he couldn't remember it when he was carried into the small hospital in El Fati. The incident occurred about four miles offshore, south-southwest of St. Lawrence Island.