Before we take a look at whale watching, we should take a moment to get to know these magnificent animals…
What is a cetacean?
Cetaceans are mammals that live their entire lives in the water and include whales, dolphins, and porpoises. They have hair, breathe air, are warm-blooded, and give birth to live young that drink their mother’s milk.
There are two types of cetaceans: toothed whales, which (obviously) have teeth, and include all porpoises, and dolphins. (Dolphins and porpoises have different types of teeth: dolphins’ teeth are sharp, while porpoises have flatter, spade-shaped teeth.)
And baleen whales, which have giant comb-like structures in their jaws that are used to sift food, like shrimp-like krill, from the water. Humpback whales (which pass through my neighborhood) and blue whales are baleen whales.
Baleen whales can eat up to 9,000 pounds of fish and krill a day. This hearty appetite is due to the fact that they do not eat year-round, typically feeding about half the year in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of their summer feeding grounds. They store large amounts of fat or fat to get them through the breeding season.
The largest whale is the blue whale, which can grow up to 100 feet long and weigh up to 190 tons, and the deep-plunging sperm whale can descend 5,000 feet and stay submerged for over an hour.
whale songs
In the late 1960s, whale biologist Roger Payne discovered that humpback whales “sing” to each other and to themselves. After investigating this phenomenon, scientists now know that while both male and female humpbacks can produce sounds, only males appear to produce organized songs with distinct themes and melodies, and almost always in breeding areas.
Males appear to often sing while suspended deep below the surface, their long front flippers sticking stiffly out of their sides. Songs can be up to 20 minutes long and can be heard over 20 miles away. The male can repeat the same song dozens of times over several hours, and whales in the same geographic area sing in very similar “dialects.” Song patterns can gradually change over time, so new songs emerge every few years.
Researchers aren’t yet sure how whales make sounds, and since whales don’t have vocal cords, they probably sing by circulating air through the tubes and chambers of their respiratory system. But no air escapes during concerts, and their mouths don’t move!
There are a few theories as to why whales sing, and while scientists originally believed it was a mating call, used to announce the male’s availability to passing females, another theory has since occurred to them. Some researchers now believe that singer humpbacks actually issue threats, not love songs, because many of the whales that approached the singers were other males and the meeting often ended in a fight.
We may never know exactly why these whales produce their creaking, moaning, and wailing songs.
This is an excellent place to start getting familiar with whales and has links to sites from around the world: http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/whale/
The southeast coast of New South Wales offers one of the best places to watch whales during their northward migration:
[http://www.sapphirecoast.com.au/whales/default.htm] This region was once the center of whaling operations that took hundreds of mammals each season to be turned into oil, perfume, and corsets for wealthy ladies. (Read about ambergris and perfume here: http://www.write101.com/W.Tips374.htm)
Queensland (Australia’s northeast coast) has information on the behavior and habitat of the humpback whale (the most common whale in this part of the world): [http://www.dkd.net/whales/]
You can sign up for a free newsletter that gives you weekly updates on the movement of whales around the world: http://www.whales-online.org/ You’ll also discover all the ways our modern way of life threatens survival. of these wonderful mammals.