Gray whales have a hump and a ridge of sharp bumps along their back, instead of a dorsal fin, and can be between 40 and 50 feet long. They are a type of baleen whale, meaning 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 migrations take them between feeding and breeding areas, swimming as much as 12, 000 miles per trip.
Critically endangered western gray whales migrate into their summer feeding grounds near Sahkalin Island, Russia in May or early June and then return to their winter feeding grounds in the the South China Sea in late Autumn.
The eastern population of the gray whale can be found in the Bering and Chukchi Seas between Alaska and Russia during the summer feeding. In the winter, the eastern gray whale migrates south along the west coast of the US to Mexico to breed and have their calves.
The Gulf of California’s San Ignacio Lagoon is one the best places in the world to see gray whales with their calves. The calm, warm waters of the lagoon are a safe place for young whales, free from predators like killer whales. Locals in the area, call gray whales “friendly ones” as they have an unusual tendency to approach whale watching boats and check out the occupants.
Threats: Oil and gas development, entanglement in fishing gear, and collisions with ships threaten gray whales. The western North Pacific gray whale is on the verge of extinction because of such threats. The waters off Russia’s Sakhalin Island, a main feeding habitat for them in the summer, are being targeted for oil and gas development. In the eastern Pacific Ocean, the potential for oil and gas exploration in the Bering and Chukchi Seas also exists. Whales are very sensitive to noise and such industrial activities generate massive underwater booms. The gray whale must get an entire year’s worth of food during those summer months and any disruption could have significant impact on this process.
The fin whale, the second largest living mammal, has been severely impacted worldwide by commercial whaling. Nearly 750,000 animals were killed in areas of the Southern Hemisphere alone between 1904 and 1979, and they are rarely seen there today. Their current status is unknown in most areas outside of the North Atlantic.
The fin whale is the world’s second largest animal after the blue whale. They can dive to depths of 230 metres and make low-frequency noises (infrasound) which can be as loud as 188 decibels. These sounds cannot be heard by humans, but can be detected by other fin whales up to 850 km away. An individual fin whale is identified by the pattern of light-coloured chevrons on its back as well as by the size and shape of its dorsal fin. Records of females have been found with multiple foetuses, but it is unlikely that more than one would survive. The oldest specimen captured in Antarctica was 111 years old. Fin whales have also been known to mate with blue whales and to produce first generation offspring.
Growing up to 27 metres long and weighing as much as 120 tonnes, the slender body of the fin whale is capable of speeds of up to 37km/h, with brief bursts of up to about 47km/h which led to its nickname, ‘greyhound of the sea’. The upper half of the body is dark grey or brownish, while the belly is white. The head has a single medial ridge and has distinctive asymmetrical markings: on the right side the lower lip, mouth cavity and baleen plates are white, whereas on the left these features are dark. The fin whale has a small, falcate dorsal fin and slightly concave trailing edges to its flukes, which are rarely raised out of the water.
The fin whale feeds on animal plankton (including krill) and schooling fishes, lunging to take in great quantities of water and prey, then filtering the water out through its baleen plates leaving the prey trapped inside its mouth. When a fin whale eats it often turns on its side with the right side facing downward; in this position the lighter head colouration makes it less visible to prey. The fin whale generally travels alone or in pairs, and rarely breaches or spyhops. Its exceptionally large size, asymmetrical head colouration and small dorsal fin are probably the best identifying features. Overall range and distribution is not well studied but they are known to inhabit primarily pelagic habitats of both northern and southern hemispheres. Most populations are thought to be migratory whilst several resident populations are known to exist in the Gulf of California, East China Sea and the Mediterranean.
Extinction Risk:
Threats:
With krill reduced, will they go too? Fin whales have been greatly affected by historical hunting, mostly due to their economically valuable blubber, oil and baleen. The recovery of the southern hemisphere fin whale may be undermined by, among other things, a reduction of Southern Ocean krill due to climate change.
Pollution: Fin whales are also threatened by habitat degradation. In some regions they have been shown to carry high levels of pollutants such as heavy metals, PCBs and other organochlorine compounds that accumulate with age and transfer between mother and calf during nursing. These substances can cause health and reproductive problems in cetaceans.
Ship strikes: Boat collisions are another serious cause of fin whale mortality, particularly in areas with high-speed vessel traffic. A dead fin whale that was washed ashore in south-west England in early 2010 is believed to have been the victim of a ship strike.
Bycatch: They are also vulnerable to incidental catches in fishing gear, but less so than many other cetacean species.
Whaling: Whaling remains a threat for this species. In 2006 Iceland resumed commercial whaling and in 2009 set a quota for 150 fin whales over 5 years – to date 125 fin whales have been harvested – despite the species’ status as “Endangered”.
Note: Japan is also set to return to a full-scale commercial whaling on the high seas, a move currently blocked by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). But the Japan government has consistently ignored objections and resolutions from the IWC against its scientific whaling and has even ignored a decision by the International Court of Justice that they close down their whaling activities as undermining the IWC. The new Japanese legislation includes funding to repair the aging whale ships being used for the current bogus “scientific” whaling and guarantees funding for whale “research” in the future. Furthermore, the new legislation allows Japan to send vessels to Antarctica with the fleet specifically to deal with harassment from such organizations as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which seeks to interfere with whaling activities they contend violate international law. (Memo to Japan government: Sea Shepherd is right.)
Japan has also moved to stop interference with their illegal whaling operations by declaring that anyone who opposes whaling and the killing of dolphins is a terrorist.
Apparently, simply witnessing and documenting the slaughter of dolphins in Japan will now be a crime and classified as terrorism.
The narwhal looks like a cross between a whale and a unicorn with its long, spiraled tusk jutting from its head. Males most commonly have tusks, and some may even have two. The tusk, which can grow as long as 10 feet, is actually an enlarged tooth. The tusk may also play a role in the ways males exert dominance.
Narwhals are related to bottlenose dolphins, belugas, harbor porpoises, and orcas. Like some other porpoises, they travel in groups and feed on fish, shrimp, squid, and other aquatic fare. They are often sighted swimming in groups of 15 to 20, but gatherings of hundreds—or even several thousand—narwhals have been reported. Sometimes these groups become trapped by shifting pack ice and fall victim to Inuit hunters, polar bears, or walruses.
Whales, like the narwhal, are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in the overall health of the marine environment. Narwhals are also culturally important to indigenous communities in the Arctic. Like polar bears, the narwhal depends on sea ice for its existence and can be directly impacted by climate change.
Extinction Risk
Threats faced by Narwhals:
Oil and Gas Development – Vessels that support oil and gas development mean increased shipping in sensitive areas. Increased shipping means more noise that can mask communications for many Arctic marine species and it increases the potential for collisions with marine mammals, especially whales. It also brings more pollution and a greater possibility of oil or fuel spills.
Ocean Noise – Shipping, industrial extraction, marine construction and military activities cause underwater noise pollution. Since whales depend on sound to communicate, any interference by noise pollution can negatively affect their ability to find food and mates, navigate, avoid predators and take care of their young.
Climate Change – Thousands of years of evolution have prepared Arctic species like the polar bear, walrus and narwhal for life on and around the sea ice. Because of climate change, that ice cover has been changing rapidly, in both extent and thickness, and shrinking far too quickly for these species to adapt. A narwhal’s entire life is connected to sea ice, both as a place to feed and a place to take refuge. Slow swimming whales rely on sea ice as a place to hide from predators like killer whales.
The blue whale is the largest animal to ever live, in the entire history of Earth. Reaching lengths of at least 110 feet (33 meters) and weights of 209 tons (190 tonnes), these animals are only slightly smaller than the United States Space Shuttle. Their incredible size is only possible because of their aquatic lifestyles and the buoyancy provided by seawater. On land, an animal as large as the blue whale would almost certainly be crushed under its own weight.
Interestingly, though they are enormous, blue whales are not predatory. They filter feed for tiny krill and are totally harmless to people (other than through accidental collisions). This life history strategy is common among several large animals in the ocean, including the whale shark, the basking shark, and the other great whales. Like all whales, blue whales are mammals and give live birth to very large calves that they nurse for six or seven months. Because the female is responsible for providing milk for its babies, she must store extra energy reserves and is consequentially larger than males. All of the record blue whales (by size) are females. Males do not provide parental care and do not seem to live near the females/young for most of the year.
Blue whales have a truly global distribution and live in every ocean except the parts of the Arctic that remain covered with ice throughout most of the year (including summer). There are three distinct populations of blue whales (North Atlantic, North Pacific, and southern hemisphere), and individuals are known to undergo very long migrations between feeding grounds near the poles and calving grounds in the tropics. Their very large size may help blue whales (and other migrating animals) survive such long trips through waters that may provide relatively little food.
Unfortunately, blue whales were one of the hardest hit species by commercial whaling, and they have been slow to recover since their worldwide protection in 1966. Experts continue to view them as endangered (highly vulnerable to extinction) and estimate their numbers to be only three to ten percent of what they were before whaling. Today, a primary threat to blue whale recovery is accidental interactions with fishing gear and with ships, but their numbers are slowly increasing. To compound their trouble, however, blue whales’ preferred food source – krill – is now fished commercially. Their recovery from commercial whaling is in direct competition with commercial fishers in the Southern Ocean. As that fishery takes more and more krill, the slow increase in numbers of blue whales may stop or even be reversed.
Voice For The Blue 