BIO227Fall2015.06: The Blue Whale

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, Who's the Largest of Them All?

http://haydensanimalfacts.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/blue-whale.jpg?w=300&h=225

The blue whale is a long-bodied and slender marine mammal who contrary to its name is not blue. Their mottled gray color pattern presents as light blue when seen through the water. Their underbellies adopt a yellow shade from the millions of microorganisms that inhabit them. Blue whales are the largest animal ever known to have lived on Earth. Adult whales in the Antarctic are reported to have reached a maximum body length of 33m and can weigh more than 150,000 kg.

http://vancouverisawesome.com/2009/04/16/blue-whales-in-our-backyard/

The hearts of blue whales alone are the size of a small car. The beating of their enormous hearts circulating blood can be detected from two miles away. Blue whales can also add loudest animal on earth to their repertoire. Their calls are louder than a jet engine with sounds traveling in deep water over hundreds, even thousands of miles. Want to take a guess which species the largest baby on earth stems from? Not too surprisingly, a blue whale calf is the largest baby on earth at about 8m long and an average of 4 tonnes. Blue whales have the fastest growth rate in the animal kingdom, growing at 10 pounds per hour until they reach sexual maturity at 5-10 years. For the first year of their lives blue whale calves drink about 110 gallons of milk a day. Their main diet after the first year consists almost exclusively of tiny shrimp-like animals called krill. Blue whales will expand their baleen (throat) plates to take in water and krill, the water is then expelled through its baleen plates, swallowing -- because they don't have teeth -- the krill left in their mouth. On average, an adult blue whale consumes four tons of krill each day. Practically nothing is known about the mating system of blue whales aside from the fact that one calf is born every two to three years. Blue whales typically have an 80-90 year life span in the wild.

Row, Row, Row, As Fast As You Can! You Can't Catch Me --

Prior to the whaling frenzy of the 20th century, more than 250,000 blue whales swam throughout the oceans. Blue whales were rarely pursued by whalers because they could not compete with the blue whales' speed and power. Svend Foyn created the harpoon gun in 1864 and the once unattainable blue whales fell victim to relentless hunting. Blue whales were highly sought after for their large amounts of blubber, baleen, and meat. Approximately 360,000 whales were killed in the Antarctic alone. Blue whales were nearly exterminated before acquiring worldwide protection in 1970. Blue whales were classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Conservation Act (the predecessor of the Endangered Species Act) as well as the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List.

http://www.arcticwebsite.com/WhaleHarpGun.html

Currently blue whales are globally distributed throughout all oceans with the exception of the Arctic. The population has remained low at 10,000-25,000, making blue whales one of the rarest of whales. Blue whales travel in small groups of 2-3 if not alone and in the summer, migrate towards the poles, into cooler waters to feed. During the winter, they migrate back towards the equator to warmer waters to breed.

Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum!

Blue whales face a number of current threats ranging from sound pollution to habitat loss, overfishing of krill, and commercial ship strikes. As aforementioned, blue whales are the loudest animals on earth, a feature that they use to communicate with each other from far distances. As other senses have restricted effectiveness in water, marine mammals are much more dependent on them. Increasing sonar and ocean noise drowns out vocalizations making it harder for them to communicate.

Frontal zones are boundaries between separate water masses where water can ascend from the depths, transporting with it, large amounts of nutrients that prompt the production of phytoplankton and support significant populations of prey species for blue whales. These frontal zones are known to be critical blue whale habitats and are forecast to move further south and closer together due to climate change. To accommodate, blue whales would have to migrate further to reach these essential zones inducing longer migration paths which could increase energy expenditures of migration and shorten the duration of the main feeding season.

http://antarcticalife.weebly.com/overfishing.html

Krill is part of the main diet of blue whales. Climate change could have a significant effect on blue whales as global warming and correlated ocean acidification may impact krill populations.

Blue whales can be fatally injured after colliding with ocean vessels such as large commercial ships off the coast of California.

Devoting Full Time to Floating, Under The Sea

The recovery plan for blue whales was concocted in 1998 through the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The objective of the recovery plan is to promote restoration of blue whale populations to standards at which it becomes appropriate to down-list them from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife. In order to accomplish this goal the recovery plan details the need to identify an array of actions that will reduce or eradicate the ramifications from human activities, identify other factors that may be restricting blue whale populations and plans to allow the population to inflate. The recovery plan also specifies the reduction and elimination of human-caused injury and mortality through identifying areas where ship collisions with blue whales synchronize with compelling levels of maritime traffic or pollution, establish and implement techniques to reduce ship collisions, injuries caused by fishing gear, and areas with significant environmental pollution. A large component of the recovery plan specified the promotion of actions to protect areas of importance in U.S. waters and notorious areas of concern in foreign waters.

... And They Lived Happily Ever After?

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/blue-whale

While there is a full recovery plan to guide the rehabilitation of the blue whale, there are actions that you can take to help save the whales!

You can send a letter to Honorable Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy through the NRDC website in an effort to stop endangered blue whales from unnecessary and detrimental collisions with commercial ships off the coast of California.

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3029

You can also adopt a blue whale at World Wild Life to support further research and aid in WWF's goals in recovering blue whale populations.

http://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Species-Adoptions/Blue-Whale.aspx?sc=AWY1302WC922&_ga=1.263082380.185262550.1449034403