‘It’s like boom, boom, boom!’
High-tech backpacks open the world of humpback whales to deaf students
Every winter, whale-watching excursions take tourists to ride alongside humpbacks frolicking in the Caribbean. One voyage recently pursued whales for their mysterious, multi-octave songs, but with passengers who didn’t hear the grunting and squealing.
The dozens of deaf students wore high-tech backpacks that turn whale songs into vibrations, opening the world of whales to children who gasped and marvelled at feeling the sounds for the first time.
“When I first felt the vibration, I felt it in my heart,” said Nicole Duran, 15, a student at the St. Rose Institute for Deaf Assistance in Santo Domingo. “It reminded me of a heartbeat,” she said through a sign language interpreter.
Nicole was among 47 students on the field trip from Santo Domingo, the capital on the south coast, to Samana province on the north coast, a three-hour bus ride.
In grades 7 through 12, the children used their hands to express the thumps, pings and gentle massage they felt on their skin. Stretching their arms high and low to follow the varying tones they sensed, the students opened and closed their hands rapidly to express strong impacts.
“I feel the pulses — it’s like boom, boom, boom!” Melissa Castillos, 18, said aboard a 48-foot power catamaran in the Bay of Samana. “I’ve seen photos and videos of whales, but this is the real thing.”
The migration of several thousand humpbacks from the northern Gulf of Maine to the Dominican coast brings some 50,000 tourists to the area from January through March annually, the Tourism Ministry says. For three consecutive years, the visitors have included children and teachers from several Dominican schools.
Introducing deaf and hearing impaired students to the whales and their music was the vision of Dominican artist and musician Maria Batlle, 34, who in 2013 founded the Muse Seek Project.
Her non-profit’s goals include using music as an educational tool for deaf children. Batlle said she learned in 2014 of the Subpac technology, developed for music producers and aficionados by a Los Angeles company, and a year later incorporated the devices into a music program she launched for the 500-student National School for the Deaf in Santo Domingo.
Passengers aboard this year’s voyage included teachers, students and guests from four academic institutions.
Eric Quinlan, a teacher of English and sign language at the 200-student St. Rose school, served as interpreter for the deaf passengers.
“Being deaf, the students are never really going to know what sound is, but to experience it this way is just awesome,” Quinlan said as the boat trailed a pod of whales through choppy waters.