 Beluga whales have been called "canaries of the sea", and anecdotes of their capacity for mimicry have been reported in the past.For example, the first two scientists to study the calls of wild Belugas wrote that "occasionally the calls would suggest a crowd of children shouting in the distance", and keepers at the Vancouver Aquarium said that a 15-year-old Beluga named "Lagosi" was able to speak his own name.However, NOC's human-like calls were the first of their kind to be recorded.