A Beluga whale named NOC who could make human like vocalizations was discovered in 1980's.
NOC was captured by the Inuit in 1977 from Manitoba. NOC was the first-ever whale to have been recorded making human-like voices. Researchers from National Marine Mammal Foundation first discovered the unusual ability of NOC to mimic the tone of human speech in 1984. NOC was in captive for 30 years until his death in 2007.
"You could hear there was a conversation, but you couldn't make out what they were saying," Sam Ridgway, study co-author of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego said.
Other Beluga whales could also make human-like sounds like one at the Vancouver Aquarium, Lugosi, could also say his name. But NOC presented the first opportunity to study how a whale could make such sounds.
Researchers in San Diego put pressure sensors just above NOC's nasal cavity to study the human-like voices made by whale. It was discovered that the whale varied the air pressure inside the nasal tract and expelling air through vibrating phonic lips to imitate human voices.
"We do not claim that our whale was a good mimic compared to such well-known mimics as parrots or mynah birds," the report said. "However, the sonic behavior we observed is an example of vocal learning by the white whale. It seems likely that NOC's close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his human voice, as well as in its quality."
Later NOC stopped talking or imitating human speech when he became sexually mature. Ridgway studied the unique behavior of the beluga whales insists on having a further research conducted. He said they could not get the best speech recorded on tape but the existing recording gave more reasons to believe in belugas potential.
"Whether or not the whale knows what he's saying, other than mimicking what he heard, probably should be explored further," Ridgway said, according to a report in Cosmic Log. "Certainly I think there's a lot we could learn about their sound production. What we'd like, primarily, is for them to tell us how they interact with their ocean environment. How deep can you dive? How long can you stay underwater? What frequencies can you hear? Can you hear the same sounds at the surface and at depth? Describe what you observe with your sonar."
