In Senegal, recorded whale sounds are being used to engage children in environmental protection efforts. This innovative initiative is led by the association Germes d’Écocitoyens à travers les sciences et les traditions dans les univers d’apprentissage (Gestu). Recently, the organization facilitated three workshops in primary schools across Dakar, featuring Professor Olivier Adam, a renowned cetacean specialist. One such educational session, focused on understanding whale communication, took place at the Alieu Samb primary school in the Ngor district of Dakar.
Eyes wide and mouths agape, the thirty fifth-grade students sat at their desks, captivated by the sounds of a humpback whale. These recordings were captured off the coast of Ouakam, Dakar, in 2018 and 2022.
“These songs, the sounds you just heard, belong to humpback whales, and these whales come to Dakar to give birth. Their calves are truly Dakarois,” explained Olivier Adam, a professor from the Sorbonne, during the session.
For Professor Adam, a leading expert in cetacean acoustics, it is crucial to popularize the understanding that whales possess a complex language. “I was initially astonished when I first recorded whales and realized they emitted intentional, structured sounds, akin to a language,” shared the professor, who traveled from Paris specifically for these educational outreach events. “Every time I meet students, children, I feel it’s absolutely vital for them to know this. We need to comprehend our oceans today, and we can only do so by understanding the living species within them.”
The curious young learners eagerly posed a flurry of questions: “How many stomachs does a whale have? How many types of whales are there? How do whales give birth? What do they eat?”
For Fanta, a 12-year-old student, what impressed her most was “their song and their way of communicating.”
Thierry, the fifth-grade teacher at Alieu Samb school in Ngor, Dakar, emphasized the vital importance of this education about the living world. He recounted his own learning experience: “Without this knowledge, you wouldn’t know, for instance, what I just discovered—that a whale can only have one calf per birth. This means it’s a species that, if not protected, could face extinction.”
Babacar Sy, an experienced underwater hunter of over 30 years and the individual responsible for the original whale recordings in Dakar, also participated in the workshop. He stressed the urgent need to combat ignorance, noting his own daily struggle with dwindling fish catches. “I was fortunate enough to experience nature as it was, and now I’ve witnessed it change radically. Last year, I caught only five thiofs all year. If we continue on this path, one day we’ll speak of thiof to our children, and they’ll ask what it is because it no longer exists,” the fisherman lamented. “We are heading into a deep hole. For me, it’s time for people to wake up!”
Beyond the Alieu Samb school, two other Dakar institutions also welcomed Olivier Adam and his whale recordings. In addition to these unique awareness sessions, the Gestu association actively organizes waste collection initiatives, striving to foster a shift in environmental attitudes and practices.
