Majestic Giants of the Animal Kingdom

Whales are among the most delightful creatures on planet Earth. They spend all their lives in the sea. Of course, they are masters in their watery habitat. Is it a fish? Kind of, but unlike fish, they breathe air, have warm blood and suckle their young which spotlights that they are more closely related to human beings as they are mammals. Many whales are enormous; some are as big and as heavy as an airbus full of passengers. There are huge varieties of whales present in the aquatic environment. Among them, the Rorquals are a family of baleen whales that includes the magnificent creature that has ever lived on Earth, rulers of the ocean, the blue whale.

Blue whale conjures up a picture of a huge creature of about 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. According to marine biologists, the tongue of these blue giants can weigh as much as a tusker. Heart of them as much as an automobile. Blue whales are known to be blue but they are more a mottled blue-grey. As they are in the deep sea, looks true blue. Underneath their giant body, provides accommodation for a vast range of microorganisms which results in a yellowish hue on that area. Over many million years’ blue whales have developed quite distinct features that suit them to a life spent mostly underwater. Long rounded bodies and smooth, almost hairless skin depicts it. Fins help for locomotion on the inside it is similar to land mammals. They have the same body organs, such as the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, kidneys and sex organs. The main difference is that the body organs are much larger than in land mammals.

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In our daily lives, we meet, work, play and communicate with many other people. Usually, whales are also very sociable and live together in groups. But it is not the same for blue whales. They tend to move about singly or in small family groups; mostly in pairs. This is probably because of their enormous appetite. They couldn’t find enough food if they lived close together all the time. Whales of one kind or another are found in all the oceans of the world. Same for blue whales but except the Arctic. Blue whales feed in the rich waters of the polar region during the summer months and seem to undergo migrations from cold-water feeding grounds to the equator as winter arrives. Usually, blue whale feeds in Californian waters. It takes a mouthful of water containing thousands of tiny shrimps called krill it feeds on and gulps.

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Sound travels easily in water, and sounds are vital to blue whales. They use sounds to communicate with others and also use sounds to find food. They use low-pitched soundS for communication. Underwater microphones have picked these sounds as moans, grunts, snores and pulses. Also, these sounds can reach up to 1000 miles.       

Like most other mammals, whales court one another and mate at a certain time of the year. For blue whales, it is during the late autumn after they migrated to warm-water breeding grounds. After successful mating, the female whale gets pregnant and a baby whale starts to grow inside her body. After about a year the baby, in other words, the calf is ready to be born. By now it can weigh, in the case of blue whales, up to 3 tons. After the calf gets out of the mother’s womb, it starts to suck the thick, rich milk in her mammary glands. The calf will continue to suckle for several months until it learns to take solid food.

Unfortunately, these magnificent marine creatures are listed as endangered species. This is an ultimate result of different types of human activities. When we take all the threats into account, environmental changes come first as it not only results in habitat loss but also it affects the population of shrimps; the main diet of blue whales. They also are harmed by ship striking and by entangling in fishing gears. On the other hand, whale slaughter was a huge threat to this species. Blue whales are so big that they do not have natural predators, although killer whales may occasionally attack them. Humans had hunted them for centuries but didn’t take enough to affect the whale population. Then in the 15th and 16th-century whaling grew into a huge industry and whale slaughter began on a large scale. Blue whales were killed mainly for their blubber, which could be rendered down into oils.

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If full-scale whaling had continued to the present day, there is no doubt that blue whales would now be extinct. Even today, only a few thousands of these giants remain. Because they are slow breeders, it will take a long time for their numbers to recover. Therefore, authorities have taken necessary steps to protect this valuable creature with the 1966 International Whaling Commission. But it has managed only on minor recovery since then. Furthermore, there are some blue whale recovery plans that have been invented with these objectives.

• Coordinate federal and international measures to maintain international regulation of whaling for blue whales
• Determine blue whale taxonomy, population structure, occurrence, distribution, and range
• Estimate population size and monitor trends in abundance
• Identify, characterize, protect, and monitor habitat important to blue whale populations
• Investigate human-caused potential threats and, should they be determined to be limiting blue whale recovery, take steps to minimize their occurrence and severity
• Maximize efforts to acquire scientific information from dead, stranded, and entangled or entrapped blue whales

The responsible authorities’ conduct awareness programs and also they have taken steps to reduce vessel strikes, ocean noise and etc.

At last not least, I would like to emphasize that as the leading and most intelligent living creature on Earth, let us join forces to save these precious marine mammals from extinction and ensure their survival.

By Rtr. Sudasi Siriwardane

Image Credits:

• https://bit.ly/30f0ZoX
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• https://bit.ly/2WXMX9N
• https://bit.ly/3Dnai4c
• https://bit.ly/3uWC44A
• https://bit.ly/3FBAzO6
• https://bit.ly/3AyqKNb
• https://bit.ly/3FAPqbG
• https://bit.ly/3mCLYEN
• Infographic post by: Rtr. Muditha Nelumi

References:

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/blue-whale
• https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/blue-whale#:~:text=Threats,-Population%2010%2C000%2D25%2C000&text=Like%20other%20large%20whales%2C%20blue,becoming%20entangled%20in%20fishing%20gear.
• https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/blue-whale#conservation-management