A Tribute to Roger Payne

By Mark J. Palmer

The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute and our colleagues have lost a dear friend and trusted expert on whales.

The New York Times titled its obituary for Dr. Roger Payne as the “…Biologist Who Heard the Whales Singing.”

Not only did Roger hear them singing – he recorded the amazing sounds and brought them to the world. An expert on bioacoustics, Roger showed that the complex sounds emanating from humpback whales were in cycles that ran as long as 20 minutes or more. And then repeated, note for note, over and over again.

A compilation of his whale song recordings became a best-selling record and helped inspire the “Save the Whale” movement in the early 1970s that ultimately halted most commercial whaling around the world. (Today, only three nations still kill whales for commercial purposes, one of which, Iceland, has recently halted its whaling industry.)

Whales and redwoods both make us feel small, and I think that's an important experience for humans to have at the hands of nature. We need to recognize that we are not the stars of the show. We're just another pretty face, just one species among millions more. – Roger Payne

Both David Phillips, Director of IMMP, and I had the good fortune to know Roger for many decades. Dave and I often interacted with Roger at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), where we worked together for whale conservation. Roger often represented a nation at the IWC, where he’d speak out against whaling.

Dave Phillips stated: “Roger Is way up there in the pantheon of whale savers. As a pioneer, a scientist and an activist he rolled up his sleeves at International Whaling Commission meetings, worked closely with our successful effort to free the orca whale Keiko, and so much more. He loved nothing more than working in the company of whales.”

Roger further contributed substantially to scientific information on whales and sponsored others in their whale research, forming the research and conservation organization Ocean Alliance. And Roger continued to speak out for whale preservation and protection.

Roger was a major consultant on IMMP’s Keiko effort to return the orca star of Free Willy to his home waters in Iceland. He has also been a consultant with the Whale Sanctuary Project, working to build a seaside sanctuary in Nova Scotia for captive and stranded whales.

His seminal book, Among Whales, is sadly out of print, but is available online and possibly at local independent used book stores. The book recounts many of his adventures in studying whales, including recording humpback whale songs and studying the rare Southern right whale along the coast of Argentina. He received many awards and honors throughout his life, including a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

At a pivotal moment, Roger’s discovery of whale songs galvanized a generation of activists to work to protect whales from whaling. He brought the mysterious humpback whale songs to an amazed public in his landmark album, Songs of the Humpback Whale. And, that wonder still remains.