Thursday, July 3, 2008

Doin' it


The Blue Whale trip with CB is a go. I'm very excited, especially since I've been hearing about him seeing whales up in Nova Scotia the last few days. OK, some fun facts:

1. Blue Whales are the largest animal that's ever lived. I find that fascinating, given humans' propensity to obliterate life forms.

2. Another name for the Blue Whale is the Sulfur-Bottomed Whale, due to a coating of diatoms (small algae with elaborate silica shells) on their bellies sometimes.

3. A Blue Whale's lung capacity is 5,000 liters (1320 gallons) - phew!

4. A Blue Whale's top speed is about 30 miles per hour, but they'll go about 3 miles an hour when feeding and cruise at about 12 mph.

5. Ooh, here's that 1320 number again. A Blue Whale's heart weighs 1,320 lbs.

6. They eat mainly krill, small aquatic arthropods. Each one is small, but a Blue Whale can eat 40 million in a day.

7. A Blue Whale can hold its breath for 30 minutes.

8. Scientists estimate that Blue Whales can live up to 80 years, but it's really an unknown, they could live longer.
As the saying goes, it's for trips like going to see Blue Whales that we put in our time at work and endure some of the drudgery of day to day life, right?

Whale bones picture from here. Size comparison from here. Water shot from here.

2 comments:

Hi, sorry to make the humans do an extra step.