A Little Tale about the Great Whales: All About Whales Series, Part 1

Whales have been adapting to change on earth ever since one day, about 55 million years ago, in the ancient Tethys Sea, when a dog-sized, hoofed, four-legged animal began to discover that life in the watery world was a better bet for survival than the struggles it faced on land. 

One good day at a time, these terrestrial-gone aquatic animals splashed around in their new habitat. Initially they had to constantly lift their noses up out of the water to breathe. Evolutionary successes resulted in thousands of different archaic species of whales that have since gone extinct, but eventually, their nostril-placement had migrated to the top of their heads, giving them easier access to breathing air, a particularly fabulous development from the vulnerable perspective of a mammalian life solidly established in water.

For about the past 4.5 million years, earth has been home to the large, modern whale species, or cetaceans, we know today, all of which have distilled the traits and strengths of their ancestors into some of the most unique, complex and long-lived mammals of planet earth.

If we were to choose an animal to represent the earth in the greater community of the universe, the whale comes to mind right away. After all, earth is a blue planet, with 71% of its surface covered in water, so it should be represented by an ocean dweller. 

But which whale?

Certainly, one of the Great Whales.

Wait - what exactly is a Great Whale anyway?

The root of the descriptive term, 'Great Whales', is found in whale hunting references, and as such, is not a scientific term.  The Great Whales were simply the most profitable cetaceans to hunt. They were those that would bring in the most oil from their many inches of body fat, or blubber, which was used to kickstart the industrial revolution with the finest machine oil yet to be discovered. 

Right, Blue, Fin, Humpback and Sperm whales were some of the whalers' favored species, and thus their populations were most decimated by whale hunting. Taking a closer look at these five species listed above, there are two clearly divergent groups, or orders, of whales: Mysticetes, and Odontocetes. 

Mysticetes, of which the Rights, Blues, Humpbacks, Fin, plus Sei, Bowhead, Gray, Brydes and Minkes are members, are all baleen whales, which filter their prey, ranging from tiny krill to mackerel fry depending on species and opportunity, with straight baleen plates of strong keratin hairs or bristles, that grow from their upper jaws. Most of these species have ventral pleats extending from their lower jaws, which allow their mouth cavity to expand to engulf tons of water and food with each mouthful. The water is thoroughly pushed out through the baleen by ventral muscular contractions, leaving the tens of thousands of delectable squirming morsels behind on the inside of the mouth, which are then licked off by the giant tongue, and swallowed. Without hesitation, the whale pops up to grab a few breaths of air, and is usually back down to chase another swarm of krill, school of sardines, or, in the case of gray whales, muddy mass of benthic amphipods, in less than a minute or two.

Baleen whales all have two blowholes, which look very much like human nostrils, side by side at the top of the head above the eyes. Generally, this order of whales produce low-frequency sounds, much of which are below the range of human hearing. Humpbacks are the primary exception to this trait, as their range includes the smaller human range of sound and hearing within its own, much larger one.

Most species of baleen whales largely appear to live in a solitary style, with some species gathering in large groups seasonally for mating and birthing. But this could be the perspective of the diminutive humans who study them - for what's five miles of distance between a couple of 85 foot long, 300,000 pound animals? To these giants, five miles could be a comfortable distance within which to hold a conversation.

Odontocetes are the toothed whales, and the Sperm whale is the only recognised 'Great Whale' of this order. However, it is among other lesser known large toothed whales, such as the Arnoux's and Baird's Beaked whales, and the Northern and Southern Bottlenose whales, as well as smaller, more familiar toothed whales such as the Beluga and Narwhal. All those in the family of dolphins, including Orcas, and  Short and Long finned Pilot whales, as well as the porpoises, are included in the order of Odontocetes. Toothed whales have... teeth or tusks, and feed mainly on fish, squid, or other marine mammals. 

They have one blowhole on the top of the head, usually above the eyes. The Sperm whale is an oddfellow in that regard, with its blowhole offcentered to the left and very much near the tip of its rostrum, or 'snout' area. 

Odontocetes use pneumatically generated sounds within their nasal cavities, projected by the dense fat in their heads, which can include bursts of multiple clicks, whistles, grunts, buzzing, and squeaks, depending on the species and the circumstance. They commonly use high-frequency clicks for hunting. Many species of Odontocetes live in close-knit family groups and are visibly engaged in constant physical and vocal communication. 

Aproximately 36 million years ago, Mysticetes and Odontocetes diverged on their paths of evolution from their common ancestor, with Odontocetes utilizing biosonar communication and hunting techniques, while Mysticetes evolved towards massive body sizes and the utilization of filter feeding.  Their distinctly different approaches to survival reduced competition for resources, and often placed them in different tiers of the food chain.  

Of all the species of whales and dolphins, the so-called 'Great Whales', the unfortunate bearers of valuable oil within their massive bodies, were the most heavily impacted by the ever-industrialized hunting tools created by humans in the 20th century. With the same naivety with which we burn fossil fuels today, despite the known detrimental environmental consequences, we hunted the largest of the whales nearly to their extinction with our comprehensive factory whale hunting ships, knowing their numbers were finite. 

Today at Whale Guardians, we hope to bring salient solutions to one of the latest and greatest threats faced by large whales, by helping to separate marine shipping traffic from the most frequently utilized whale habitats, be they feeding grounds, migration routes, or traditional mating and birthing areas. In learning about the natural history, behavior, and even cultures of each of the species of these giant whales, we hope to help mariners and others involved in marine use and policy to optimize their activities to prevent ship strikes.

Upcoming in this monthly series, we will be exploring individual species and their unique behaviors in that effort.