31430 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS November 9, 1987 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS COMMUNICATING WITH STAFF marine mammal conservation and manage­ DOLPHINS KBMML is directed by Dr. Louis M. ment. Herman, who is also a professor in the De­ The research programs at KBMML have HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN partment of Psychology, an affiliate of the been of interest to local and national maga­ Social Science Research Institute, and a co­ zines and newspapers and to television pro­ OF CALIFORNIA operating faculty in the Department of grams. Articles about KBMML research IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Oceanography. The staff includes several have appeared in National Geographic, Monday, November 9, 1987 postdoctoral researchers, a dozen or so grad­ Smithsonian, National Wildlife, Science uate students pursuing thesis research, and News, in the science sections of Newsweek Mr. DORNAN of California. Mr. Speaker, I administrative personnel. Numerous under­ and the New York Times, in several foreign rise today to bring to the attention of my col­ graduate students apprentice in research at natural history magazines <e.g., Anima and leagues a fascinating project which is occur­ the Laboratory each semester, gaining a Newton in Japan, Horzu in West Germany, ring in our 50th State, Hawaii. On the island of unique experience in working with marine and Science Et Vie in France>. and in vari­ mammals. ous other local and mainland newspapers Oahu, in the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal and magazines. Segments illustrating the Laboratory, every effort is being made to ex­ DOLPHIN AND WHALE RESEARCH PROJECTS work of KBMML have been shown on tele­ plore the intellectual capacity of marine mam­ At KBMML's tanks, studies are underway vision, including NBC Today, PM magazine, mals, like dolphins and whales. Dr. Louis M. examining the cognitive abilities of bottle­ PBS's Nova, NBC Nightly News, National Herman who runs the lab, has made consider­ nosed dolphins. We are currently examining Geographic Explorer, and as part of a spe­ able progress in developing an artificial lan­ the ability of the dolphins to understand cial series aired in Japan. The media cover­ guage which combines acoustic and gestural sentences given to them within artificial age not only draws attention to KBMML as acoustic and gestural languages. The re­ instructions. His research has contributed a unique facility, but also creates favorable search breaks new ground into animal lin­ national and international publicity for the greatly to the scientific community's knowl­ guistic abilities and bears on the enduring University of Hawaii as a center for marine edge about marine mammal behavior, commu­ question of the uniqueness of human lan­ sciences. nication and migratory habits. guage ability and of the continuity of cogni­ I think that it is important for my colleagues tion throughout the animal kingdom. CAN DOLPHINS UNDERSTAND SENTENCES? to know that even as we speak, dolphins are Each winter KBMML carries out studies working for our national security in the Persian of the humpback whales that visit Hawaiian <By Louis M. Herman, Douglas G. Richards, and James P. Wolz) Gulf. Several Navy dolphins have been trained waters for breeding and calving. Humpback whales are an endangered species and are to hunt for underwater mines and to search Notes from the field: Tursiops truncatus designated as the official State of Hawaii teaches us about language acquisition. for enemy frogmen. These dolphins are also marine mammal. The research in Hawaii is The sentence is the cornerstone of human being used as underwater sentries in an effort directed toward an understanding of how language. Both the particular words used in to protect U.S. Navy barges which support our the whales are organized socially for carry­ a sentence <the semantic feature) and how mine-sweeping operations. ing out their reproductive and calf-rearing they are arranged or ordered <the syntactic Tragically, one of the dolphins died "in the functions, and how they communicate with feature) determine the meaning. Human line of duty." Apparently, bacterial infections one another. We also attempt to trace the knowledge of the semantic and syntactic claimed the life of one and others are having movements of individual whales through features of our language allows us, in our waters to understand migration pat­ troubles adjusting to the gulf environment. I theory, to generate an infinite number of terns. In the summer, KBMML personnel sentences and to understand those sen­ am confident however, that our Navy trainers travel to Alaskan waters to follow the tences generated by others. This gives us a will be able to overcome this problem, ena­ humpback whales to their seasonal feeding richness of communication that many think bling the dolphins to stay in the gulf over the grounds. has no parallel or even precursor among long-term. SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS nonhuman animals. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I Through its publications in professional But is language ability fully reserved for submit to the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD an ar­ journals, and presentations at scientific humans, or might there be some language­ ticle written by Dr. Herman which more fully meetings, KBMML research has contributed like competencies among other animals? If explains the practical applications of his re­ animals do not exhibit such capability in to basic knowledge about dolphin hearing, their natural world, might it still be the case search: vision, learning, memory, communication, that we can tutor animals in languages to KEWALO BASIN MARINE MAMMAL LABORATORY and cognition. Our research with the whales has made important contributions to the reveal at least some latent capability for The Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Labo­ understanding of whale behavior, communi­ language learning? If so, it would help us to ratory <KBMML> was founded in 1970; it is cation, and migration. The major develop­ understand better the nature of language, dedicated to the laboratory and field study ments of the past decade in scientific knowl­ its evolution, and what cognitive or intellec­ of the behaviors of dolphins and whales. edge of dolphin and whale behavior have tucal abilities may be necessary for lan­ The University of Hawaii is unique among been summarized and synthesized in the guage. universities in having its own facility for the book edited by Dr. Herman: "Cetacean Be­ At the University of Hawaii's Kewalo study of these intriguing animals. The stud­ havior: Mechanisms and Functions" <New Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory, two ies of dolphins and whales play an impor­ York: Wiley Interscience, 1980). female bottlenosed dolphins <Tursiops trun­ tant role in furthering our appreciation of catus> named Phoenix and Akeakamai have these animals, and in developing measures EDUCATIONAL AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTIONS been subjects since 1979 of a study to deter­ to protect them and to promote their recov­ In addition to the training in research on mine whether they can learn to understand ery. Additionally, we stand to learn a great marine mammals provided to graduate and sentences expressed in artificial languages. deal about how to survive in the underwater undergraduate students of the University of Sentence-processing ability has been world. Hawaii, lectures and demonstrations are claimed, in several studies, for apes tutored Research at KBMML is supported by provided to elementary and secondary in languages. But challengers have pointed grants from the National Science Founda­ schools and the general public. Additionally, to flaws in experimental design, poor data tion, the National Park Service, the Office a few selected undergraduate students from reporting and analysis, and overly rich in­ of Naval Research, the Center for Field Re­ mainland universities apprentice in research terpretations of results, greatly weakening search, and by private contributions. In this each semester at KBMML. the claims. What we need, therefore, are period of limited Federal support for many The expertise of laboratory personnel in different, more systematic, better-controlled types of research, private contributions play marine mammal science results in many re­ approaches to studying the sentence-proc­ an increasingly vital role in helping to fur­ quests from Federal agencies for consulta­ essing abilities of animals. At Kewalo Basin, ther research at KBMML. tion and support in their programs of we use an innovative approach that exam- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. November 9, 1987 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 31431 ines comprehension to study the sentence­ that can be easily identified by observers tactic forms. We introduced new vocabulary processing abilities of bottlenosed dolphins. and are substantially different from one an­ items and new semantic entities, such as the Phoenix and · Akeakamai were collected other. Some gestures, such as those for modifier, as necessary to accomplish the from the wild on the same day in June 1978, person and speaker, are modified versions of progression. We directed later efforts in the shallow coastal waters near Gulfport, signs from American Sign Language <ASL>, toward expanding the semantic and syntac­ Mississippi, and were brought to Kewalo but most of the gestures are not related to tic categories and toward increasing the Basin a month later. The dolphins were cap­ ASL. All signs denoting actions are made complexity of the syntactic structure. This tured within about 2 kilometers of each with one arm, while signs denoting objects allowed us to create new types of sentences other, so they probably were members of or object modifiers are made with symmetri­ and longer and more complex sentences. For the same seasonally resident school. At the cal or alternating movements of both arms. example, by adding modifiers we could con­ time of their caputure, they were juveniles, Figure 1 shows the current vocabulary of struct a four-word sentence for Akeakamai, about 2 to 3 years old.