TPO49

Both the passage and the lecture are about whether humpback whales apply stars and constellations to navigate while migrating. In this line of thought, the author brings up 3 reasons to support the claim that humpback whales use stars. The professor, on the other hand, believes that the mentioned notion is not convincing and refutes all of the mentioned reasons.
First, the author points out that since the whales' brains possess complexity, they can use stars to find their route of migration. However, the professor rebuts this concept and states that even though the cognitive and intellectual abilities of ducks are restricted, they use stars to find their way. Accordingly, there is not a significant bond or connection between the brain's processing skills and navigation with stars. To be more specific, star navigation seems to be a natural trait.
Second, the author describes that analogous to immigrating birds, which use landmarks to navigate, whales take an object in the ocean to keep moving in a straight line; which is a constellation. The professor, conversely, opposes this issue and explains that whales take advantage of biomagnetite, a natural ability to sense the electromagnetic field, to distinguish their direction by sensing the earth's magnetic field. This natural feature seems more likely and feasible to be exploited by whales to find their path.
Third, the author proposes that spy-hopping, the strange behavior of some marine animals in which they float upward for a short time, may be implemented by whales to look at the sky and search for stars. In contrast, the professor counters this idea and says that this behavior has been observed in other marine creatures, such as sharks, which have nothing to do with long-distance navigation and immigration. Besides, whales engage in spy-hopping in the daytime, when stars shine in the sky, not at night. Hence, the theory of whales exerting spy-hopping for seeing stars is exclusively speculation.