How long could a person be declared dead after being missing?
Each country had different regulations on this issue. Generally speaking, it was about three to five years, and it was not impossible for it to be shorter or longer.
So, how long could a whale be missing before it could be declared dead?
It was hard to say.
The whale, which was called "52 Hertz" because of its unique sound frequency band, had been discovered in 1989 for almost 30 years. It was at least 30 years old.
The lifespan of a whale was generally very long, much longer than 30 years, but too many things could happen in 30 years.
And as early as 2004, which was 15 years after its discovery, no one had heard its voice again.
Thinking back to some countries in the world that were still out in the sea to catch whales, the whalers would not first identify the target's voice before shooting the harpoon. For them, a whale was a whale. It was nothing more than a huge mass of flesh and blood. There was no difference.
This could not help but make people worry about the fate of 52 Hertz.
Zhang Zian had read its story before, but when he learned that it had not appeared for many years, he was also inclined to think that it was already dead. It could have died of old age, or it could have died of natural causes, such as encountering a large group of killer whales in the sea, or encountering health problems. Of course, it could also have died under the hands of the whalers.
When he encountered the mysterious giant whale, he had long forgotten the story in the corner of his memory. He did not immediately realize that the other party might be 52 Hertz. After all, the ocean was too big, and there were many giant whales in the ocean. How could it be so coincidental to encounter it? How could it be possible to see a giant whale and think that it was 52 Hertz?
In the past, people had only heard its voice, and no one had ever seen its real body. They could not even be completely sure what kind of whale it was.
The only way to determine the identity of 52 Hertz was through its voice. Other methods were unreliable.
Just now, when Zhang Zian played the voice of the giant whale on his laptop, he found that its sound frequency band was very unique, between 45 and 50 Hertz. He did not immediately associate it with 52 Hertz, but thought that he had mistakenly recorded the voice of another whale nearby. Fortunately, he immediately denied his own guess, and then recalled the related rumor on the other side. 52 Hertz's voice was 52 Hertz when it was first discovered, but then it slowly became lower, just in line with the 45 to 50 Hertz range.
Before that, 52 Hertz often wandered around the West Coast of the United States to the waters of Alaska, which was the northeast Pacific Ocean. Could it be that after searching for its own kind but to no avail, it had actually taken the risk to come to the completely unfamiliar western Pacific Ocean, which was near northeast Asia?
This possibility existed. After all, it was different.
Ever since it arrived in the Western Pacific, scientists on the West Coast of the United States had lost track of it.
On the long coastline of Northeast Asia, many places were desolate and backward. There was no accurate underwater listening system, so it was normal that its voice was not recorded.
Maybe it was due to some kind of opportunity. For example, it heard Sihwa's song. Although it might not understand it, it also felt the loneliness in the song, so it followed the song to the outer sea of Binhai City and lingered nearby.
The closest route between the pet shop and the sea was the beach that Zhang Zian often went to, so it always appeared there and bumped into Zhang Zian.
What was it waiting for?
What was it expecting?
After thinking it through, Zhang Zian didn't have time to think about how to deal with this discovery before he was tormented by Sihwa's crying …
Sihwa, Fina, Old Time Tea, and Pi were all listening very attentively. It was as if with Zhang Zian's narration, they had also followed the loneliest whale to travel the entire vast Pacific Ocean. They had witnessed countless magnificent scenery, witnessed countless times the law of the jungle in the ocean, and countless times they had called out to their own kind but had never received a response.
It was swallowed by the bottomless loneliness, as if it had been abandoned by the whole world, but it was not disheartened.
In particular, Sihwa's feelings were the deepest. She and it were truly unique, and there was no one else like them in the world.
She silently shed tears again.
She did not know how many times she had shed tears today. This time, it was not for herself, but for the fate of 52 Hertz, for its 30 years of tireless search, and for its courage to cross the ocean.
No one could imagine how it had spent 30 years alone.
Old Time Tea sighed. "It can be said that 30 years of fame and dust, 8,000 miles of road, clouds and moon … It has only had the clouds and the moon as its companion. Who can understand the hardships it has faced?"
Even Fina, who usually did not pretend to speak, nodded in approval.
"That …" Sihwa raised her head, sparkling tears swirling in her eyes. She choked and said, "What can we do for it?"
Zhang Zian said, "Some people have speculated that 52 Hertz may be the offspring of a cross between a blue whale and a fin whale. After I saw it with my own eyes, I think this speculation is very reasonable. Its biggest wish should be to find another whale that is similar to it, but this is very difficult. Even if there is another whale that is also a hybrid, it may not use the 45 to 50 Hertz frequency band. "
Whales' courtship and mating were quite unscrupulous, and there was no moral principle. As long as the body size was relatively close, even whales of different species could have sparks of passion.
Rumors of hybridization between different species of whales had been around for a long time, but due to the vastness and depth of the sea, confirmed examples were extremely rare.
The Discovery Channel had once told an example. Researchers had come to Japan and bought whale meat from the Japanese market. Their original intention was to study the DNA of the whale meat to trace its origin. In the end, they found that the DNA of this piece of whale meat showed that it was a hybrid, from a blue whale and a fin whale.
A rare hybrid whale had been sent to Japan's dining table just like that. It was quite a pity.
However, blue whales and fin whales could mate and give birth to hybrids. In addition to their similar body size, another reason might be that their sound frequency band was around 20 Hertz, so they could find and communicate with each other.
It was not that there were no whales that could make a sound of 45 to 50 Hertz, but the body size of those whales was far from 52 Hertz … If they had to mate, the scene would be too beautiful to imagine.
Zhang Zian continued, "It is almost impossible for 52 Hertz to find its own kind, and we can't help it find it … But this does not mean that we can't do anything. Although we can't help it find its own kind, we can rekindle its hope. If you want to help it, there is only one way. "
"What is it?" Sihwa asked impatiently.
Zhang Zian did not keep her in suspense. He answered directly, "You can learn its song, and then use the same sound frequency band to tell it: Don't be afraid, you are not alone."
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