Wednesday
16 November 2022

For today's message, I am going to talk about:

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!

Whales belong to the order cetacea, which means that they are mammals fully adapted to aquatic life. Like all cetaceans, including dolphins and porpoises, whales are descendants of land-living animals which returned to water after living millions of years in land.

Sadly, there are only about 10,000 to 25,000 blue whales left in the world today. Though it may sound like a large number, this is incredibly low.

You may not get to see the Pilot Whale as often as other species. This is because it tends to stick to the deeper waters. They have been praised for their extremely high level of intelligence. They are said to be very easy to train and they are also social creatures. They often form groups of more than 100 in them. They have been found from time to time in large groups on the beaches. It is believed this is due to an infestation of parasites that affects the brain’s ability to stay on course.

Look at this cute guy! 😊 He looks a bit small but he still is eating 31kg of food each day!

Whales can’t sleep for very long. This is because they have to remember to go to the surface for air as needed.

Check out this Humpback Whale coming up for some air in Maui!

You may be surprised when you learn how deep the Narwhale Whale can dive. This is to help regulate the body temperature as the water will be warmer where it is deeper. They can spend a great deal of time underneath thick sheets of ice too before they have to find a crack in it for air or come completely to the surface. They can dive from 800 meters to 1500 meters.

This Narwhal is saying heil og sæl as he passes by. This means "Hello" in Old Norse - where the narwhal gets its name from

Make sure you are ready to get wet though if you are close to a Fin Whale. They love to leap completely out of the water as they come up for a breath. This process allows them to dive back down approximately 250 meters into the water.

This photograph is extremely rare. It is quite hard to catch sight of a Fin Whale breaching, and especially when in front of a camera!

I hope that you enjoyed some of the whales today!