Blue Whales

The Largest Whale

By: Tony Nguyen

 WOW! They are humongous!

The blue whales are the largest whales and animals that have been known to exist.  They can weigh up to 180 tons (WOW!), which makes them the heaviest known animal as well.  The blue whales are part of the rorqual family, which is a family that consist of baleen whales that have pleated throat grooves. These throat grooves expand when the whales are eating.  Blue whales grow up to be this ridiculously large size just from eating krill, which are small animals that look like shrimp.  It’s surprising that these whales can reach with a diet that is much smaller than them.  The pleated throat grooves above actually help these whales consume a large amount of krill.  The blue whales take in a large amount of water into their mouth with the help of their pleated throat grooves, and then afterwards force all the water out using their tongue.  This process leaves behind lots of krill, which allows the blue whales to sustain its life.  The blue whales normally have a life span of 80 to 90 years, which is a pretty long time for most animals.  The blue whale gives birth to an offspring every 2 to 3 years, which adds to why they are currently endangered.  Though they do not have many predators the occasional shark attacks (Ouch!) and collisions with ships have greatly affected their numbers.

Where do these large animals even fit on this planet?

The blue whales are located in every ocean of this planet.  This can make it a bit difficult to protect since the location in which they can be found is so large.  These large animals mainly travel either by themselves or as a pair.  They swim towards the polar waters during the summer to feed and then back to the equator during winter, which is pretty far.  This may be due to the temperature change throughout the year.  The blue whales' location can be seen in the yellow region marked on the map.                                          

When did the blue whale become listed?

Blue whales have been around on this planet for the longest time, but when did they become endangered?  In 1970, the blue whale was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Conservation Act, and in 1973 the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Even with the Endangered Species Act the blue whale are still threatened because of their low reproduction rate.  Also, shark attacks and ships are a problem to the blue whale’s existence.

 How could such a large animal be endangered?

Blue whales have become greatly endangered because of their large size. Their large size makes them easy targets for sailors back in the 1800s and the 1900s.  The blue whales were driven to near extinction due to sailors hunting them for their oil.  With the help of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) this issue has diminished, but the blue whales are still endangered.  This is due to whales getting injured from ships and shark attacks.  The blue whales occasionally get stuck in fishing gear as well.

What is being done to save these whales?

There is a recovery plan to help the blue whale recover its numbers.  The hunting of whales have been banned, which has greatly helped them to recover.  There are also regulations on whale watching now as well, which has sort of helped the blue whale.  Regulations on whale watching helps to prevent collision with ships.  Although there are regulations and banning on the hunting of whales, it is very difficult to protect them as they travel throughout many oceans.  Therefore, this must become a multi-national issue.  Also their large size makes them very hard to protect.  The actions that are being taken to protect these whales is by monitoring human impacts on the whales.  By reducing human-caused injury and mortality of blue whales, the recovery of blue whales may be possible.  This reduction of human-caused injury and mortality includes collision of ship vessels.  Scientist are also maximizing their efforts to study and gain information of dead blue whales in order to implement further recovery actions.

How can I help such a large animal?

Though the blue whale is very large and located in the ocean, there are many ways in which you can help save them.  Writing a simple letter to a person within the government can greatly help them without actually having to go into the ocean.  You can also adopt a blue whale (you don’t actually get to take it home) by going to us.whales.org or pacificwhale.org and donating to them.  With your help we can protect blue whales, the largest animal in the world, from becoming extinct.

References

http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale/

http://www.worldanimalfoundation.net/f/whale.pdf

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=specialstatus.fedsummary&species=bluewhale

Pictures

www.wildlifeextra.com

adventure-journal.com

serendivus.com

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PbcFJUG-65E/hqdefault.jpg