Blue Whales

Blue Whales 

By: Joy Lomax

Description and Ecology

There is said to be about 5,416 different mammal species throughout the world. Out of all these different species, the gray whale has been known to be the largest mammal ever to roam the earth. These creatures are magnificent in their size, intelligence and way of communication. 

These whales can grow up to 100 feet long and end up weighing up to 200 tons which is equivalent to about 4 million pounds. In order to survive, these mammals eat tons and tons of krill every day. While these sea creatures may be called the “Blue Whales”, they truly only look blue under water, and on the surface they actually resemble more of a grayish tone. These whales usually cruise through the ocean at approximately 5 miles per hour and when aggravated, they can bring up their speed to about 20 miles per hour! 

Geographic and Population Changes

Blue whales can be found in the Southern Hemisphere, Northern Pacific, and Northern Atlantic. They also tend to migrate throughout the seasons so it is not rare for you to find these whales up north during the summer and farther down south toward the tropic, during the winter time. When they migrate and move thought the ocean that can travel alone, in pairs and even up to  groups of 60 whales together. 

They can be found anywhere from in the Southern Indian Ocean,  the coast off of Madagascar and all the way over to the Coast of Australia. They also can be found on the other side of the world close to Chile and up the coast of California as they migrate up north for the summer season. 

Listing Date and Type of Listing

Blue whales were protected from commercial killing in 1966 and then were finally listed in the Endangered Species Conservation Act before the Endangered Species Act was passed. When the ESA was passed in 1973, then blue whales were listed as endangered in the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 

Cause of listing and Main threats to its continued existence

There are several things in which blue whales are threatened by. Some of the main reasons why they are listed as endangered species is because the threats presented by the environment and by humans is causing a degradation for the livelihood of blue whales.  These mammals are threatened by chemicals, sounds pollution, habitat loss, loss of krill, ship strikes, and getting trapped in fishing nets. One main environmental problem that threatens blue whales is the climate change because it easily effects the the krill in the ocean by the global warming and also the increased amount of acidity in the ocean water. 

Lastly, some of the other main threats is that the frontal zones which is the area to which blue whales habitat and migrate is seen to be moving farther down south because of the climate change and result of global warming. In moving the frontal zones father south this creates complications to the blue whale species. They would have to move further in order to receive proper nutrient and sustain  themselves for years to come. Since multiple whales are moving south, this causes the whales to have to migrate farther down south to feed on krill. This in result cases more whales to move together down south which later affects the overall habitat value and creates competition amongst whales as they all search for food in order to survive. 

Description of Recovery Plan 

Since there are only about 5,000 blue whales left on the planet, it is important to consider what the recovery plan is and how to help the blue whales survive. One simple way is to limit the amount of human interaction that happens out in the ocean. This may include limiting the amount of whale watching amongst humans. We need to figure out how much whale watching affects the animals, and then limit our time spend out on the water. In addition to whale watching, we need to consider how much we are at rick of injuring the whales while fishing. The nets can be easily get caught on the whales allowing them to be trapped and potentially hurt. We need to determine where ship collisions occur with whale so that we can prevent it occurring in the future and also to track where the whales are so that the ships that we use do not pollute the environment surrounding the whales. 

Personal Action

We need to be aware at how we are all personally affecting the lives of blue whales. What can I personally do about the issue? While I may feel small in this world, I can still make a difference. Honestly, creating conversation with other people is going to be a huge contribution to getting the word out about blue whales. There are only 5,000 here left on earth and it would be amazing if we could help these giant mammals of the sea recover. So start a conversation with your classmates, your professors, family and friends. If you are a fisher, be aware of where you are fishing and keep into account where whales are during that season. Another big problem is that blue whales are being killed by commercial ships and one way to fix this is to open Navy Waters for commercial boats to sail through. The Navy has disagreed, and multiple people are writing a letter to Obama to encourage him to lead a movement to make an end to this tragedy. The link to write your letter is  https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3029  These creatures have so much to offer and we need to respect them and their intrinsic value to live freely in their own environment. 

References

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3029 

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/recovery/whale_blue.pdf 

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/cetaceans/about/blue_whale/ 

http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/mmp/blue07.html 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale/