"Peace Notes" Series: Whalesong;Warsong: Cetaceans, Conflict, and Cooperation (A Path to Ottawa Event)

Sep 1, 2025 | Environmental Peacebuilding Association's Arts Initiative
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As part of the Path to Ottawa series, join the Environmental Peacebuilding Association's Arts Initiative for a series of co-learning sessions about the intersections between environmental peacebuilding, climate justice, and ecological education -- and how music can be a tool and partner in related activism.

Each session will include informal teaching, art sharing, and collaborative brainstorming-- session topics and registration links will be shared in subsequent event postings.

No prior knowledge is necessary, participants can join for just one session or the entire series, and there is no expectation of follow-up: All are welcome to join the discussion!

This virtual event will be held on September 1st at 10:00 am EST / 4:00 pm CET.

Session Specifics:

Whalesong, Warsong: Cetaceans, Conflict, and Cooperation

Our third session of the "Peace Notes" series will focus on whales. Marine mammals have fascinated and delighted people for centuries. Once treated as an economic commodity, large-scale international cooperation has led to regulatory protections in many jurisdictions for whales...but questions remain about how we see and interact with them. Ongoing human activity drastically affects their underwater home, with both peacetime exploration and military action creating harm. Tensions surround Indigenous subsistence whaling, the remaining commercial operations, and whale watching tourism. 

Underpinning all of this is sound. The sperm whale is the loudest animal on the planet, able to make noise up to 230 decibels. Yet it's not just noise: the clicks, whistles, and coos that whales make seem connected to a variety of intentional social interactions that we don't truly understand. Recent headlines have questioned whether AI might be able to 'decode' whalesong, while noise pollution from cruises and seafloor mining continues to disrupt whale communication, literally muddying the waters.

How does music interact with issues of whale-centric conservation, conflict, and cooperation? Come along as Marie Comuzzo shares highlights from ongoing research about how sound mediates human-whale relations. We'll also listen to some particularly powerful whalesong excerpts...and think about how we might protect their chorus.

Registration is available here