Thursday, December 24, 2015

The Endangered Beauties under the Sea

                                               

             The majestic giants under the sea used to live 
              in an amazing peace but, once discovered, the whales' 
                   population dropped. We'll tell you all about the fascinating whale and how they became near extinction.



                                                         Sperm Whale 


This image is a monstrous sperm whale which can weigh up to as much as 32,000
pounds!  Its length is, for an adult, up to 40 ft.  This whale has over twelve inches of  subcutaneous blubber which
is why whalers wanted to hunt this creature.  When the sperm whale was butchered, the whalers got
a double reward because inside of its head, the whale had up to 500 gallons of spermaceti surrounding it's 17 lb brain.
Spermaceti is special oil in the head that was prized because it burned more cleanly than regular whale oil.  Do you want to  get thousands of dollars easily?? Well, here's how!
Search for ambergris along the beaches. Ambergris is a rare substance that comes from a sick whale's stomach in the form of
feces haha!!! Funny right? You could earn $180,000 depending on it's size and quality. Ambergris is so valuable because it is a fragrance and preservative that is used in perfume.



Southern Right Whale

Weighing 88,000 to 150,000 pounds, the southern right whale is a baleen whale
which means it does not have teeth but instead, has long wiry strands of a substance like cartilage that filter the krill from the water. The baleen was used for women's clothing in corsets in olden times and was also used for men's hat bands and collars.  It was also used to make buggy whips. The right whale got its name by being the correct whale to hunt for using its blubber and baleen.
                                                      Bowhead Whale
The bowhead whale can weigh up to 150,00 to 200,00 pounds and has a length of 45 to 60 feet.

It can have a blubber thickness up to 20 inches! The bowhead got its name by having a curved  lower jaw that represents the shape of a bow.  The bowhead is also a baleen whale and surprisingly, its baleen can grow up to 15 feet long!
The oldest mammal recorded is the bowhead whale, living up to 245 years old!  The female bowhead is slightly larger than the male whale.
   


                        A POEM OF THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES UNDER THE SEA.

   Drifting silently though the sea,
a beautiful creature without a noise
except an occasional call,
piercing the depths of the
ocean, almost extinct
but having survived the humans
beastly ways. 
                                     -Karis



                                  A WHALING VOYAGE 

                                                               

                                         A whaling adventure would always be dangerous and scary but men would go on them because it would provide them and their families with money even though sometimes they didn't earn any money at all!

When a whale is spotted the first man to discover it  shouts "There she blows!" Immediately the crew lowers the whaling boats (which are small boats with whaling equipment inside) and charges after the whale silently. Once in striking distance, the first mate harpoons the whale. The harpoon is attached to a rope and aggravates the whale which makes it dive and try to swim away.  The crew is pulled along on a "Nantucket sleigh ride." This is the action of an angry whale schlepping the crew along in their small boats at VERY high rates of speed.  While on its sleigh ride, the whale is gradually tired out and then slows down. The whalers then lance the whale in one of its organs until blood gushes from its blowhole.  This is the signal that the whale has died.  Depending on the whale species, its carcass will float making it much easier to drag back to the main boat.  After they drag the whale back, everyone starts to dismantle the large creature. This is a stinky, gory. and greasy process. Surprisingly, the blubber strips off really easily and is called blanket pieces. After the blubber is peeled away, it is thrown into trying pots in which it is boiled into oil.  The remains of the blubber are skimmed away from the top and are tossed into the fire as fuel. The oil is then put into barrels which are kept under deck until the whaling vessel arrives at its destination to sell the oil. The oil sold for $1.77 a gallon which, in 1845 to 1855, was a huge amount of money.
After returning back to their homes, the sailors got a sad 1/400th of the ship's earnings and the
voyage usually lasted several years.

 Over all, whaling voyages over the sea were scary and exciting trips for all the sailors that went on them and lastly they got to see what the ocean was like.
                                                              
                                                               THE END