Thanks to Leo, Adrian Grenier has reached his kickstarter goal to search for the loneliest whale in the world

IT HAS eluded researchers and explorers alike but one Hollywood actor is embarking on an unlikely expedition. Now thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio he can begin his search.

2014 MTV Movie Awards - Arrivals

IT’S been heard but never seen. It’s been dubbed the loneliest creature in the sea. It has eluded researchers and explorers alike. Now two of Hollywood’s biggest stars are trying to do something that’s never been done: Find the whale.

Adrian Grenier who is known for his lead role in HBO’s hit show Entourage teamed up with filmmaker, Josh Zeman to start a crowd sourcing campaign to raise funds for a mission to find the whale.

The campaign asked for help in “the quest to heed the call” of the solitary creature and reached its goal this week after Leonardo DiCaprio kicked in $US50,000.

While there is no doubt untold numbers of both women and men wishing Leo could alleviate their loneliness, he has decided to focus on the whale.

The elusive creature has been nicknamed 52 Hertz, or 52 for short, after the extremely rare frequency at which he or she emits calls. Sadly, such a frequency is out of the range of other whales who typically emit calls between 17 and 18 Hertz. So the sonic yearnings of 52 have fallen on deaf ears as the mammal patrols the Pacific Ocean on its lonesome. But that could all change.

The whale was first heard in 1989 when the US Navy picked up the mysterious sound on a set of secret microphones used to track Russian submarines. Scientists eventually identified it as the calls of a solitary whale.

Between 1992 and 2004 a researcher The New York Times called a pioneer in marine mammal acoustics, William Watkins, tracked the 52 Hz recordings to determine the migration pattern of the creature.

His findings were eventually published in the journal Deep Sea Research and the story soon took on a life of its own as “the loneliest whale in the world” captured the public’s imagination. The human reaction picqued the interest of filmmaker Josh Zeman who will document the imminent expedition.

Despite all the attention, the whale has never been identified. In a heartfelt plea in the kickstarter video, Adrian Grenier implores, “we need to give science the resources they need to find this lonely whale once again.”

The team will use tracking equipment which includes sonar buoys but one of the major obstacles they will face is ocean noise pollution. The acoustic pollution created by human activity has been linked to whale deafness, tissue damage and even mass beachings.

Now that Leo has got the Kickstarter to the $300,000 target, the nearly 4,000 contributors will receive their gifts including signed backings of a director’s chair from the upcoming Entourage movie, as well as posters and T-shirts designed by Shepard Fairey.

The quest has just begun for Mr. Grenier, Mr. Zerman and their team of researchers but only time will tell if Hollywood will be the first to successfully respond to the calls of 52.

If not, it might make for a rather anticlimactic film.

Help fight Ocean Noise Pollution & find the elusive '52 Hertz @lonelywhale. We're supporting - Join Us. #52Hz http://t.co/jWQfIucYqk

— SubPac (@SubPac) March 3, 2015