Blue Whaling Research Papers

Do you know what the biggest animal ever to live on Earth is? You would be wrong if you speculated a dinosaur, elephant, or giraffe. You may be surprised to find out that the biggest animal ever to live on Earth is the Blue Whale and it is still alive today. The Blue Whale weighs as much as 33 elephants and consumes about 4 tons of food a day. I bet if you knew of an animal that was as long as 3 school buses you would want to keep this animal in the world forever. Although, the Blue Whale may not stay for long, many things affect the blue whale’s inhabitance, mainly the acts of humans have caused the Blue Whale’s to become endangered. Though, if you know the information about them you can help.

“ The story of the whale is so remarkable, that were there not so many witnesses, I would not venture to tell it, lest I be accused of exaggeration.”

A whale fall is a carcass of a dead whale that has dropped to the bottom of the ocean, providing a massive input of energy where there isn’t a lot of food. As decomposing bacteria increase, smells are emitted and circulate through the deep ocean currents, allowing scavenger and other organisms to pick up and follow the scent. Sharks, hagfish, and anthropoids strip the flesh down to the bone. In time, osedax worms, which live and feed on the bones, and symbiotic bacteria, which break down what’s left, extract organic compounds from the whale skeleton. This organic material is transported via deep ocean currents, providing nutrients in an area that is generally very food-limited.

While you could argue that practically everyone who has gone through the American education system has at least heard of Moby Dick, the whaling industry, a main element of the epic, is not so well known. In order to fully understand and appreciate this great work, it is in my opinion, important to have somewhat of an understanding of the industry which it is centered around. This is especially true because whaling was such a prominent, and important aspect of 19th century culture and although far less popular, still exists today. Throughout this essay I will give a brief history of whaling, discuss why it was such an important industry in the 19th century, talk about whaling in modern times, and lastly, tie it in to the novel.

The Marine Mammal Protection Act was created in 1972, because of the growing concern from scientists and the general public about certain species of marine mammals becoming extinct, due to human activity. The primary objective of this act in 1972 was to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem. When this objective was fulfilled the next focus would be to maintain the ideal population of each species. As you can tell from the graph below there has been a substantial decrease in the percent of maximum population in certain marine mammals.

For Reproducing, the style that the killer whale does it, is quite interesting. For starters the killer whales are completely different than any other whale aside from the fact that they are in the dolphin family they don’t fit the norm of what is to be considered on how a whale should behave. Where as most whales of other breeds have a strict pattern and ways of how its governed in nature in their pods. Where as the killer whale, they follow their rules and no one else’s. For example, where most whales would travel 16,000 miles to mate and feed, the Killer whale are known to only follow the migration patterns that coexist with their food and are far less concern with where they would like to mate. As to how many off springs are made the

Blue Whales are endangered and their numbers are slowly going up but it doesn’t mean that they are also getting killed. This animal is found North Pacific, Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. The blue whale is currently endangered, and it weighs approximately 300,000 pounds or 150 tons! The blue whale is carnivorous and it can eat about 8,000 pounds of krill a day. The blue whale’s life span can be up to 80 to 110 years pretty similar to humans. The blue whale can be up to 100 feet long but they are usually are 60-80 feet long. When baby blue whales are born they are usually 20-25 feet long and can drink up as much as 200 pounds of milk a day. The blue whale is the biggest animal to have ever live on earth. The baby blue whale can be dependant

Beluga whales, known for their white color, are one of the most popular species of whale as well as one of the most threatened. These relatively small whales, only about 14 feet long, are prey for polar bears, killer whales, and humans who hunt them for blubber and skin. White whales are very unique from other whales in that they have flexible necks to allow them to move their head in all directions, no dorsal fin, and are the only whales with all white skin. Aquariums and organizations all over the world have made in effort in protecting these playful whales. Some of the efforts being made include retreiving injured whales and nursing them back to health, breeding belugas in captivity to be released, and housing belugas deemed unfit to return

Whaling is the hunting of whales to obtain meat and blubber. The blubber is brought to a station off the shore designed to boil the blubber into oil (Hacquebord 2001). All these components of a whale are useful to humans, but by extracting these whales at such a high rate may have consequences for the ecosystem they leave behind (Hacquebord 2001;Williams et al. 2004;Baum and Worm 2009). It is important to question the effects mass exploitation has on the environment in order to prevent or predict certain unwanted changes for future removal (Williams et al. 2004;Baum and Worm 2009). Whaling has been studied from various time periods and different places around the world (Hacquebord 2001;Williams et al. 2004;Trites et al. 2007;Baum and Worm 2009).

Bluefin are the largest species of tuna and can live up to 40 years. They migrate across oceans and can dive more than 4,000 feet. As an Apex predator Bluefin tuna are made for speed: built like torpedoes, they have retractable fins and their eyes are set flush to their body. They are tremendous predators from the moment they hatch, seeking out schools of fish like herring, mackerel and even eels. They hunt by sight and have the sharpest vision of any bony fish. There are three species of Bluefin. The Atlantic Bluefin is the largest and most endangered of the three.

The blue whales are found in all waters worldwide. They are found in both polar and tropical waters worldwide. The blue whale eats small fish due to the fact they don’t have teeth. One fact that is very interesting is that their heart is around the same size as a small car. Also they can hold their breath as much as air can fit in 2,000 balloons. Right now they are very populated by around 20,000 but numbers will be growing over time. But at one time they were in danger because people were hunting them. Their skin is smooth and it helps them get faster threw the water to sometimes catch food or run away from those who want to eat them.

The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth; it is larger than any of the dinosaurs. The biggest recorded blue whale was a female in the Antarctic Ocean that was 30.5 m long (more than 3.5 times the length of a double-decker bus and as long as a Boeing 737 plane) with an estimated weight of 144 tonnes (almost the same as 2,000 men). The tongue alone of a blue whale can weigh as much as an elephant and an entire football team could stand on it!

Countries should be permitted to hunt some species of whales. Hunting whales is a tradition that has been around for hundreds of years. The problem now is that Japan, Norway and even Iceland are are hunting whales under the pretense of scientific purposes. (The Truth about 'Scientific’, 2016) There should be an exemption that also has regulation in order to protect the whale population. Each nation is setting their own standards of how many they can hunt, and if the rest of the world is concerned with their practices, then coming to a compromise should be something to visualize for the future. Since Norway and Japan are not cooperation in stopping the hunting of whales, a compromise should be reached. Not only for the sake of the whales, but

Blue Whales are affected by both humans and ecological impacts as I stated before. Humans can be described as one of the most threatening species to whales. When looking at the impacts on these species, we can come to 2 main conclusions. According the the International Whaling Commission they claim that there are short term deaths that are purposeful and then there are threats that are more difficult to identify and quantify and these are related to environmental degradation. (International Whaling Commission, N.D). Short term deaths are normally described as direct hunting or whaling. Short term deaths can also include accidental mortality, which are being caught in fishing gear or collision with ships. Those impacts which affect the environment as a whole are normally due to, “chemical pollution, noise pollution, overexploitation of prey, disturbance, and climate change” (International Whaling Commision, N.D). While it is understood that death happens and that danger is normal, the impacts on the whales and the Blue Whale in specific is threatened. Luckily some actions have been taken to ensure that Blue Whales are

There are a few positives that come from the whaling. There is different cultures that influence eating different kinds of foods. Some cultures do not understand the importance of whaling, many countries do not whale. Many cultures think that whaling is part of their countries way of life (Skare). People in many U.S states hunt for many different animals, how is hunting any worse than killing whales. Media plays a big role in making whaling out to be a very evil practice. Whale Wars sabotage the Japanese ships that are whaling. Whale Wars throws stuff onto the ships deck. Whale meat consists of very high amounts of nutrients. For many countries that eat a lot of whale it is easy access to nutrients. Whale is very high in protein. It is also very low in saturated fats which is really good to not have(Nutrition Facts). They do not just kill whales they also do research on the whales and the populations. They evaluate the deep sea roles of whales and the food chains (Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs).