Dakar’s schoolchildren learn marine conservation through the songs of whales
In Senegal, an innovative initiative is captivating young minds, using the captivating songs of whales to educate children on vital environmental protection. This inspiring project, spearheaded by the Gestu association (Germes d’Écocitoyens à travers les sciences et les traditions dans les univers d’apprentissage), recently brought a series of engaging workshops to primary schools across Dakar. These sessions featured Professor Olivier Adam, a distinguished specialist in cetaceans, who traveled from Paris to share his expertise. We visited the Alieu Samb primary school in Dakar’s Ngor district to witness one of these unique introductions to the fascinating world of whale communication.
The classroom of CM2 students, numbering around thirty, sat spellbound, absorbing the recorded sounds of a humpback whale. These particular recordings were captured off the coast of Ouakam, near Dakar, in both 2018 and 2022.
Professor Olivier Adam, from Sorbonne University, explained to the attentive children: “These songs, the sounds you just heard, belong to humpback whales. Humpbacks actually come to Dakar to give birth. Their calves are truly Dakarois!”
For this expert in cetacean vocalizations, making the concept of whale language accessible to everyone is incredibly important. “I was initially astonished when I first recorded whales and realized they emitted intentional, structured sounds that form a language,” shared Professor Adam, who made a special trip from Paris to engage with these young learners. “Whenever I meet students, children, I feel it’s absolutely essential they know this. We need to understand our oceans, and we achieve that by knowing the living species within them.”
The curious youngsters eagerly posed a barrage 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 12-year-old Fanta, it was “their song and their way of communicating” that left the deepest impression.
Thierry, the CM2 teacher at Alieu Samb school in Ngor, Dakar, emphasized the critical nature of this education about the living world. He recounted his own learning: “Without this knowledge, you wouldn’t know, for example, 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 vanish.”
Babacar Sy, a spearfisherman with over 30 years of experience, who originally recorded these whales in Dakar and co-led the workshop, underscored the urgent need to combat ignorance. He himself observes a daily decline in his fish catch. “I was fortunate enough to experience nature as it was, and now I’ve watched it change radically. Last year, I caught only five thiofs the entire year. If we continue on this path, one day we’ll tell our children about thiofs, and they’ll ask us what they are, because they’ll no longer exist,” the fisherman lamented. “We are heading into a deep hole. And for me, it’s time for people to wake up!”
Beyond the Alieu Samb school, two other Dakar institutions also hosted Professor Adam and his whale recordings. Through such initiatives, coupled with awareness days for waste collection, the Gestu association is actively working to foster a crucial shift in environmental attitudes and promote marine conservation in Senegal.