Bit of info about whales
Whales are the largest animals on Earth and they live in every ocean. The massive mammals range from the 600-pound dwarf sperm whale to the colossal blue whale, which can weigh more than 200 tons and stretch up to 100 feet long—almost as long as a professional basketball court.Despite living in the water, whales breathe air. And like humans, they are warm-blooded mammals who nurse their young. A thick layer of fat called blubber insulates them from cold ocean waters.
Some whales are known as baleen whales, including blue, right, bowhead, sei, and gray whales. This refers to the fact that they have special bristle-like structures in their mouths (called baleen) that strain food from the water. Other whales, such as beluga or sperm whales, have teeth.
The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet,
weighing as much as 200 tons.
The blue
whale has a heart
the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.
Its stomach can hold one ton of krill
and it needs to eat about four
tons of krill each day.
They are the loudest animals on Earth.
Their calls reach
188 decibels.
Their low frequency whistle can be heard
for hundreds of miles and is
probably
used to attract other blue whales.
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Gray whales have a hump and a ridge of sharp
bumps along their backs,
instead of a dorsal fin.
They are a type of baleen
whale,
which means they filter food from the water through
special bristly structures in their mouths.
Gray whales stay
close to shore and
feed in shallow water.
Their well-known migrations take them
between feeding and breeding areas,
swimming as much as 12,000 miles round trip.
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Killer whale, or orca, A species of toothed
whale found in all seas from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
Largest of the dolphins,
the male may be 30 ft long and weigh over 10,000 lbs.
The killer whale is
black,
with white on the underparts, above each eye, and on each flank.
The snout is blunt, and the strong jaws
have
40-50 large, sharp, conical teeth.
Killer whales live in groups of a few to about 50 individuals.
They feed on fishes,
cephalopods, penguins, and marine mammals.
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Belugas are extremely sociable mammals that live, hunt and
migrate together in pods, ranging from a few individuals to
hundreds
of whales. Their bulbous forehead, called a "melon”,
is flexible and capable of changing shape.
This allows
them to make different facial expressions.
Belugas can produce a series of chirps, clicks, whistles
and squeals, which
give the beluga its other name,
"the canary of the sea." They may sound like music or even nonsense to us,
but to fellow
belugas they convey important information.
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The sperm whale or cachalot is the
largest of the toothed whales
and the largest toothed predator.
It is the only living
member
of the genus Physeter and
one of three extant species in the
sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale
and
dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
The sperm whale is a pelagic mammal with a worldwide range,
and will migrate
seasonally for feeding and breeding.
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🐋 Why Whales Matter?
Whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment.
Whales play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere; each great whale sequesters an estimated 33 tons
of CO2 on average, thus playing their part in the fight against climate change.
Unfortunately, their large size and mythical aura does not protect them; six out of the 13 great whale species are
classified as endangered or vulnerable, even after decades of protection. An estimated minimum of 300,000 whales and
dolphins are killed each year as a result of fisheries bycatch, while others succumb to a myriad of threats including
shipping and habitat loss.