The sweet sound of music could be the key to communicating with dolphins.
Australian National University researchers led an experiment with the highly intelligent creatures in waters off the NSW Central Coastal town of Port Stephens in December.
They found dolphins are attracted to the high-pitched frequencies of several instruments including the flute, piccolo and the Indian wooden recorder.
High-pitched singing also seemed to attract them.
Flautist Sally Walker from the ANU School of Music, says a pod of bottlenose dolphins approached the boat within minutes of her playing the flute.
"One dolphin glided directly underneath me at the same speed as the boat, and the rest of the pod danced around it," she said.
"High frequencies and particular intervallic distances between notes seemed to draw the dolphins in and excite them," she said.
The sounds of the dolphins were recorded using an underwater microphone, known as a hydrophone.
Dolphin expert Olivia De Bergerac, who is part of the pilot study, says little is known about how dolphins react and respond to live music, even though they live in a world of sounds.
"They communicate with one another by sending a sound which is a hologram of information reflected in their melon - a mass of adipose tissue found in their forehead.
"So I know we as humans can communicate with dolphins through music," she said.
Head of the ANU School of Music Professor Kim Cunio says sound travels through water in a very different manner to air, particularly low frequencies, but dolphin frequencies are very high.
"This means that we are not easily hearing the nuance in their calls," he said.
"Having the flute, piccolo and a coloratura voice were really important as they are some of the highest instruments we have and are well above our speech."
The researchers' plan to investigate the possibility of directly interacting with the dolphins via the hydrophone and seeing what kind of sounds they prefer.
They will play music via an underwater speaker to test whether it influences how the dolphins interact with and respond to music and the musicians, compared to the musicians performing above water.
