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3If you look something over, you examine it for a short period of time.4Flippers are the two flat body parts that stick out from the side of awhale, seal, etc.5A national anthem is a country%u2019s song, chosen to represent itspeople.When swimming with the whale, Chadwick could see that it was aware of him, but not worried by his presence. The 13-meter-long giant looked him overcuriously, but never harmed him. The whale then swam under the boat. It pointed its head down to the ocean floor and, with flippers4 extended out to its sides, began to sing. Up in the boat, Darling recorded the whale%u2019s song. Humpback whale songs can be long and complex, sometimes lasting for 30 minutes or more. They are perhaps the longest songs sung by any animal.Why Do They Sing?Darling says that only male humpbacks sing, but for unknown reasons. One idea is that they sing to attract females. However, when a group of scientists played recordings of whale songs in the ocean, female whales did not respond. Another idea is that male humpbacks use their songs to let other males know they are in the area.Researchers have also found that humpback whale songs are different in different parts of the world, perhaps like whale national anthems.5 They may also be like hit tunes on the radio, changing over time%u2014from one year to the next, or even over a singlebreeding season.There is still so much the scientists don%u2019t know, and years of study lie ahead for whale researchers like Jim Darling. %u201cWhy do I do it?%u201d he wonders aloud. %u201cHuman beings like puzzles. I want to know.%u201dAnother member of the research team, photographer Flip Nicklin, recalls a special moment he had while interacting with a humpback. While he was snorkeling some distance from the huge animal, it approached him until it was just a few meters away. It then gently carried Nicklin toward its eye with a flipper, as if examining him. Apparently, the desire to understand a different species goes both%u00a0ways.CDEFGUnit 2A