927 30 Year Search (1/2)

How long did a person have to be missing before they could be declared dead? Different countries had different regulations on the issue. Generally speaking, it was around three or five years, though there were some that had a shorter, or longer, time frame.

So, how long until a missing whale could be declared dead? It was hard to say.

The whale, known as ”52 Hertz” because of its unique sound frequency band, had been discovered in 1989. That meant it was at least 30 years old.

Generally, the lifespan of whales was very long, much longer than 30 years, but too many things could happen in that timeframe.

People had not heard its sound since 2004, which was 15 years after it was first discovered.

There were still some countries in the world that were whaling out in the open sea. Whalers did not discern their target's voice before they fired off their harpoon; for them, whales were just whales––nothing more than a huge block of meat. To them, there was no difference between the two. With such thoughts in mind, people couldn't help but worry about 52 Hertz and its fate.

Zhang Zian had read its story before, but when he learned that it had not appeared for many years, he also leaned towards the belief that it was dead. It could've been through old age, or through a health issue, or even by natural causes, such as encountering a large group of killer whales. But of course, it could've also lost its life to whalers.

When Zian encountered the mysterious whale, he had thrown its story into the corner of his memory. He hadn't realized the possibility that it could've been 52 Hertz. After all, the ocean was too big, and there were many whales in the ocean… How could there have been such a coincidence? And how could he have thought that the giant whale was 52 Hertz?

People had only ever heard its sound; no one had ever seen its physical body before. They weren't even certain what kind of whale it was. The only way to determine the identity of 52 Hertz was to judge by its sound. Any other methods were unreliable.

Earlier, when Zhang Zian played the sound of the giant whale on the laptop, he found that its sound frequency band was very unique; it was between 45 and 50 Hz. Therefore, he hadn't associated the giant whale with 52 Hertz immediately and had mistakenly thought that he had recorded the sound of another whale nearby. Fortunately, he immediately negated that guess, and then recalled a related rumor: The sound frequency band of 52 Hertz when it was just discovered was 52 Hz, but it had slowly gone lower over time. Eventually, it fell between the 45 to 50 Hz range.

52 Hertz had often lingered on the west coast of the United States all the way up to Alaska, which was the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Had it ventured into the completely unfamiliar waters of the western Pacific Ocean, near northeast Asia, after many fruitless results of searching for its own kind?

The possibility existed… After all, it was a special whale.

Ever since it came to the western Pacific Ocean, scientists on the west coast of the United States had lost its trace.

On the long coastline of northeast Asia, there were many places that were desolated regions, and they did not have precise underwater listening systems. It was normal that its sound went undetected and unrecorded.

It could have been due to some kind of juncture… For example, it heard Sihwa's song and, although it might not have understand the song, it felt the loneliness in the it. It followed the song all the way to the sea just outside of Binhai City, then loitered around the surrounding areas.

The nearest route from the pet shop to the sea was the beach where Zhang Zian often went, and so it always appeared there and met Zhang Zian unexpectedly.

What was it waiting for? What was it expecting?