first contact

You keep on using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

I asked Gruber himself what he would say to the whales. He said that he has been taking requests. Most people tell him that we should start by saying “Sorry,” for the bloody rampage that was industrial whaling. He agrees. “We pulled the oil out of these animals’ heads,” he said. “We used it to make lipstick.”

Paywall, but I think the orca research is much much further than the sperm whale one (this is the first time I've heard about the sperm whale research).

They've been recording sounds and orca actions near Vancouver Island for 50 years already. The audio decoding is already done, they can group the individual orcas into family groups based on pronunciation alone. Last time I checked they were working on deciphering the decades old log books. Because without any connection to the actions orcas take in response to their sounds we will never know what the sounds mean.

This should be the website of the research station: https://orcalab.org/research/
on scholar.google.com you should be able to find papers that use their data.

Embarrassing AI wish fulfillment article from The Atlantic, but I admire this project immensely. Please just figure out what they're saying and lurk before even thinking about posting. What a ridiculous idea.

The CETI and NASA aliens stuff is really just worthless to me. This is a way better use for such resources IMHO; understanding the "aliens" which are right next to us. We need to go beyond humanity and inhumanity if we are to survive. Who cares if aliens exist right now? How could we ever hope to meet them?

“What is the first thing we would say to sperm whales?”

Gonna be one akward conversation once they ask what their human name means.