Roger Payne, biologist who discovered whales could sing, passes away at 88

Roger Payne, the scientist who discovered a worldwide environmental conservation movement with his discovery that whales could sing, passed away at the age of 88 on a weekend. Payne passed away due to pelvic cancer.

He was living in South Woodstock, Vermont, with his wife Lisa Harrow. The funeral arrangements have not been made yet.

After his demise, the chief executive officer, Lian Kerr of his organisation Ocean Alliance said that the world has lost a giant of environmental conservation with Payne's death, CBS News reported.

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"He had a presence and a way of connecting to people that led them to dedicate their lives to protecting whales and our planet Earth," Kerr said.

Roger Payne was born on 29 January 1935 in New York City's Manhattan. He received BA degrees at Harvard University and his PhD at Cornell University.

Payne married actress Lisa Harrow and the couple sharefour kids.

Payne made history in the world of science in 1967 during his research in Bermuda in which a Navy engineer provided him with some recordings of curious underwater sounds documented while listening for Russian submarines.

In 1970 he released "Songs of the Humpback Whale," which was a surprise hit and it galvanised a global movement to end the commercial practice of whale hunting and save the whales from extinction.

During a magazine interview, Payne said, "In spite of the racket, what I heard blew my mind. It seemed obvious that here, finally, was a chance to get the world interested in preventing the extinction of whales."

He described the song as an "exuberant, uninterrupted river of sound" with long repeated "themes." He added that each song lasted up to 30 minutes and was sung by an entire group of male humpbacks at once.

In 1975, a second LP was released and in 1987 Payne collaborated with musician Paul Winter putting whalesong to human music.

Four-year later, Frank Watlington released whale recordings with Roger's commentary on a Flexi disc sound sheet inside the National Geographic magazine. It has 10.5 million copies and became the largest single press run of any record at that time.

In 1971, he founded Ocean Alliance, a 501 (c)3 organisation working with whale and ocean conservation. The organisation is based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Payne retired two years ago.

(With inputs from agencies)

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