Wednesday 30.08.2023 Whales and Politics of the seas.

Today we went to a very interesting talk about Whales, given by Karen. We learnt many fun facts about them. Firstly there are two types of whale, Baleen and Toothed. There are more than 80 different species of Whale. They can use 90% of the oxygen they take in, and they are protected from the cold of the oceans by a thick layer of fat called Blubber. The Baleen Whales are an interesting group, Baleen is made of Keratin and has a stiff layer of ribs on the outside and hair on the inside. They also have a very large tongue for licking off the food they catch on the inside hairs and usually a fairly small throat. This means they can extract the water they take in very quickly. They feed in 3 different ways. The Gray Whale that feeds on the muds at the bottom, so they tend to feed in shallow water. They also feed one sided so their Baleen is shorter one side than the other. Usually the right hand side. Humpback whales however feed on larger prey e.g. Herring, they blow bubbles to surround the herring shoal and then come up underneath, and can take in large quantities at a time. Also these whales have been seen hunting in packs. The other Baleen Whales are Right Whales and Bowhead whales. These whales are surface feeders and skim the surface of the sea for things like Plankton and Krill. Sadly these types of Whales are the most endangered, as their surface feeding leads them into conflict with large tankers and bulk carrier ships as they cannot be seen because of the placement of the ships Bridge. Therefore the whales get hit by the front of the ship. Also these species were/are also easy prey for the Whaling ships. Fun Fact,  the Bowhead Whale has the longest Baleen at 14ft. Baleen was used in Ladies corsets and Crinoline dresses. The Missus says that she can remember seeing stays in ladies corsets made from Baleen when she was young! There are probably only 300 large surface feeding Baleen Whales left in the North Atlantic.

The other type of Whales are the toothed Whales. These include all Dolphins and Porpoise sp. Orca, Narwhal that only have two teeth. Usually in the male Narwhal one tooth erupts through the lip to form the distinctive  tusk that can growth to 10ft. over a life time. I am not sure what purpose this serves. 

A fun fact about Whales is they come to the surface to poo and therefore add to the growth of Phytoplankton! Scientists think that all the artificial noise polluting the seas and oceans these days is having a detrimental effect in the Whales and Dolphins and giving them a kind of 'Bends' and this is possibly one reason they wash up dead on beaches.

Later on I tried to listen to a talk by Ulrich the geologist on board as he covered a very tricky subject called 'Who Owns the North Pole' Phew, it was too hard for me to follow, very political, too complicated for me. Even the Missus had difficulty so we'll leave it there.

There is an Inuit word of the day and the missus forgets to write it down. Todays word is 'Sila' meaning weather it is pronounced See-lah.

There was going to be another nature walk at Pasley bay today, but master and missus decided not to go. In the end nobody went as it was too foggy and we are in Polar Bear territory now.

Master trying out Whale Blubber, a hand in the Ice cold water and a hand in a blubber glove. He was determined to keep his hand in the water for as long as he could. He did quit eventually.