whales2



"Our government has got to sit up and take notice." -Deborah Tobin The northern right whale is one of the world's rarest whales. We were interested in this topic because, the reason the right whales are endangered is because of us. Ship strikes are the largest known cause of death for the right whales. In our opinion, money is the driving force in why the companies do not take into consideration where the whales live. They want to keep as much profit as possible. If going around their habitat costs them more time and money, they don't want anything to do with it. If we want this species of whale to survive, we will have to change our ways.

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Why do people hunt them?- Oil, whalebone, meat and various products have been desired as early as prehistoric times. The correct name for this practice is "whaling." Traditionally, whales were killed with hand held lances and hand thrown harpoons. With improved weapons, as well as the development of steamships and factory-ship fleets, made the world wide depletion of whales inevitable. The peak year for American whaling was in 1846. Right whales swim close to the shoreline, so are easier to kill. The whaler's pay was actually determined by the amount of resources derived from the whale's body. This created the incentive on killing as many whales as they possibly could. The more whales killed, the more money you got. The Basque people (between Spain and France) were the first to commercially hunt right whales. =====

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How human activity affects them- In the 21st century, many extinction rates are due to the climate change (global warming.) But, for the right whales it's a little different. Unfortunately, the right whales seem blissfully unconcerned about ship traffic. They are being rammed and killed by commercial ships plying busy shipping channels near Nova Scotia. Up to half of the 30 right whale deaths since 1987 are thought to be from run ins with ships. Other current conservation problems include conflicts with fishing activites, habitat destruction, and oil drilling. Increase in efforts to save the whales are taking charge finally.

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Habitat- The right whales live in various places such as: the arctic, australia/new zealand, and both the western and eastern north atlantic. Right whales live in temperature and cool seas in both hemispheres at the surface of the ocean. They feed on planktonic organisms, ending up eating abound 4,400 pounds of plankton each day! The Cape Cod Bay serves as a feeding and nusery area for them. The right whales very much prefer large bays and coastlines. ======

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Appearance- The right whales have tail fins and two flippers, but no dorsal fin. Right whales grow a head and tail length of about 45 feet, and weigh about 50 tons. They are very fish like, and are mammals. They are among the slowest swimming whales. Females right whales are larger than the males.Their bodies are very dark gray or black with white or brown patches and round in shape. 40% of their body weight consists of blubber. They have a life expectancy of about 60 years, although not alot of information is known about them because they are so few of them are alive today. =====  Background- They were so named by whalers, who for centuries considered them the right whales to hunt, because they float when killed making it very easy to handle, they are very slow swimmers, and they swim very close to the shoreline. They yield enormous quantities of oil and of baleen. The oil and baleen from the whales were then used for corsets, buggy whips and other contrivances. The oil produced from the blubber was also used in lamps. Today, on the North American coastline there are only about 300 to 350 right whales still remaining. Before the fifteenth century, the was a population of over one hundred thousand.

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__Encyclopedia of Animals__, 2006 __Funk and Wagnalls New Work Encyclopedia__ __Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia__, 6th edition, 7/1/2010 p 1-1, 1p __National Geographic__; Oct 2008, Vol. 214 Issue 4, p100-11, 12p __Christian Science Moniter__; 4/16/96, Vol. 88 Issue 98, p1 __ Journal of Experimental Marine Biology & Ecology ; Aug2010, Vol. 391 Issue 1/2, p10-19, 10p __