Thursday, September 20, 2012

Whalers


Fisherman that hunt whales are called whalers. As time went on whalers figured out that whales tend to travel along the same paths in the oceans during certain times of the year. Whalers kill whales for their blubber ( blub ur ) and to make lots of money. Do you know how much money a whale is worth? Tons of dollars! Did you know blubber is whale fat? It was used for oil in machines, oil lamps, and lots of other things like makeup. The whalers killed so many whales that they almost became extinct.Laws were passed to not kill whales. This is called conservation. 

Until next time,
 This is Reagan & Robyn helping you see the seas!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Top Six Whale Watching Destinations Worldwide

To answer my dad's question there are 6 really good places to find whales:

New Zealand

Hawaii

South Africa

Canada

Portugal

Massachusetts, USA


What Whales Do

Today we are going talk about how whales breathe, what is beaching, and how you may see whales in the water. 
Whales breathe from their blowhole. The blowhole is their nose. The blowhole is on top of their head. Scientists can tell what kind of whale they see from the size, shape and height of the whale's spout. A spout is warm air that comes out of their blowhole. Just like when it's really cold outside we sneeze and our air turns to steam.The Blue whale's spout can be 35 feet tall.
Sometimes a whale gets stranded on a beach. If a whale is sick or loses its direction it will get beached on the shore. If someone doesn't get there fast enough the whale can die. If one whale gets beached then other whales will sometimes follow and get beached too.If you are on a whale watching trip you might see it spyhopping, breaching, logging, or lobtailing.
We are very sad that whales get beached but that is how God made them. But hopefully you'll get to see whales on the move.

Until next time,

This is Reagan and Robyn bringing the sea to you!



 Spyhopping is when whales stick their heads out of the water.

 Lobtailing is when a whale sticks its fluke out of the water and slaps the water.

 Logging is when a whale sits on the top of the water and it looks like a log in the water.

Breaching is when a whale is jumping out of the water.



Monday, September 17, 2012

I Love Whales

We are learning new things about whales. They are fun to study. We have learned that whales are mammals, they make cool sounds, and there are different types of whales. Blue whales are the biggest animals in the world!
Whales are marine mammals. Marine means water.  Mammal means that they have live babies.
Whales can't breathe under water so very often they have to come up to the surface.
Whales make so many different sounds. Some click, some chirp, and some moan or even sound like a gunshot. They use their sounds to communicate with other whales.
There are different types of whales.Some whales have teeth but some don't. The ones that do are called Toothed whales. Baleen whales don't have teeth. They have bristles that catch plankton to eat. A whale's tail is called a fluke. Their tails move up & down but fish move their tails from side to side.
Whales are cool. We will type more tomorrow when we learn more about them.

You can hear sounds of whales here--->   Beautiful Whale Song on Youtube

You can see pictures and hear sounds of the Humpback Whale here -----> National Geographic Humpback Whale


Until next time,

This is Reagan & Robyn helping you see the seas!