answered my own question thanks to google. i can't believe this. it's used for interspecies communication!!
'Shortly after I invented the waterphone, Jim Nollman, a drummer working for Greenpeace, took a Bass Waterphone to Hawaii where he called a pod of whales which circled him as he played and was kept afloat by the waterphone. Since that time, several whale conservation groups both here and abroad have utilized waterphones for interspecies communication with whales and other cetaceans.'
from http://www.pas.org/Museum/objects/1097.cfm
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ps while i'm on the subject, ron carter's percussionist had this instrument that looked like something out of fantastic planet. it was made of copper or some kind of brassy looking metal. shaped like a gourd without about a 2 foot stem and a 1 foot diameter bowl. the bowl was sealed and had water inside of it. and it had spokes running up the sides, tangent to the bowl and parallel to the stem. and he played the spokes with a bow!! what the hell is this that thing?!
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