Blue Whale
Endangered Animals of Antarctica
Physical Features
http://www.arkive.org/blue-whale/balaenoptera-musculus/video-00.html
- Blue whale-mammal
- Is 88 feet long, weighs 420,000 pounds
- Because of its long flippers, it swims very fast
- Their skin is made of blubber
- Life span-110 years
- Live in small groups or pairs
- Speak to each other across the ocean
- Breathes air every 20 minutes
Save the blue whales!
Food Chain
- Mainly eat krill, almost 8,000 pounds a day
- Predators-Killer whales
- They are carnivores
- Prey-Krill (1 to 2 centimeters)
- To eat, they filter feed-
- This is when they swim towards a group of their prey (krill) with mouth open eat the krill with water too
- Then they push water out of their mouths while keeping the krill inside the baleen bristles
- Usually found where large groups of krill are
Habitat
- In most oceans around the world
- terrain-open ocean
- Live in the water but breathe air every 20 minutes
- Feeds at the surface or 100 meters deep
- During the summer- near ice or the surface
- Before winter begins- start migrating towards the equator
Adaptation
- Teeth are baleen plates that filter krill
- Eyesight is good in and out of water
- Have great hearing
- Communicate by vocolization- since water is denser than air, sound transfers longer and faster
- Usually swims where krill are located (near the surface)
- Often swim alone, if not then in pairs or small groups
Reasons for endangerment and critical info.
- Hunted for blubber and oil
- 1900s/1960s- 360,000 whales were killed
- 1966 International Whaling Commission(IWC) have protected the blue whales
- IWC has banned the hunting of blue whales nationwide
- There are currently 4,500 blue whales on the planet
- They are hunted for their...
- Blubber, which is used for soap making and oil
- Keratin plates, which are used for umbrella ribs, carriage springs, and were used as plastic or steel before we had them
- Pollution, oil spills, ship crashes, and noise pollution are all things that threatens blue whales
- Noise pollution- when there is a lot of noise around blue whales and they can't hear the other blue whales trying to call them
- The NOAA fishery is helping by...
- Protecting their habitat
- reducing ship collisions
- Keeping in mind that pollution is bad
- Making rules for whale watching boats
- Encouraging the ban on hunting the blue whales