Chapter I: Part 1

WHALE PRIMER

_With Special Attention to_
THE CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE

_by
Theodore J. Walker_

Published by
the
Cabrillo Historical
Association
1962

Produced in cooperation
with the National
Park Service

Copyright© Cabrillo Historical Association
1962

Second Printing 1965
Third Printing 1967
Fourth Printing 1969

Contents

INTRODUCTION 1
TWO GENERAL MIGRATION ROUTES 2
WHALE WATERS--SUMMER AND WINTER 5
FEEDING--FILTER WHALES 6
EVOLUTION OF WHALES 10
Breathing Adaptations 10
Swimming Adaptations 11
WHALE TYPES 15
Porpoises and Dolphins 15
Squid Eaters 18
Filter Whales 18
SIGNIFICANCE OF BLUBBER 19
Heat Conservation 19
Buoyancy 20
Food Storage 20
SEXUAL MATURITY 21
LIFE SPAN 21
WHALE INTELLIGENCE 23
WHALE SENSES 23
Sight 23
Hearing 23
Smell 24
HABITS 24
ENEMIES 25
Killer Whales 25
Parasites 25
WHALE ABNORMALITIES 26
INADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE OF WHALES 26
CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE 28
Evolutionary Place 28
Geographic Distribution 29
Shore Habits 30
Scientific Description 31
Reaction to Whaling 33
How Do They Sleep? 33
Migration Groupings 34
Breaching 35
WHALING 36
Whalers As Explorers 37
Prehistoric Whaling 37
Historic Whaling 39
Modern Whaling 42
EXAMPLE OF UNREGULATED WHALING 47
California Gray Whale 47
GRAY WHALE PROTECTED 48
VALUE OF GRAY WHALE 48
Esthetic 48
Scientific 49
Commercial 49
NATURAL POPULATION CONTROLS 51
CURRENT SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 52
Life Expectancy 52
Age Determination 52
Distribution and Population Rise 53
APPENDIX 55

Introduction

The WHALE PRIMER provides a brief introduction to one of nature's most interesting creations, the whale. The principal star of the handbook is the California gray whale which in recent years has become a major tourist attraction in southern California. Notwithstanding the extreme interest, no concise interpretation of the migration has been prepared. Although there is a tremendous number of technical and popular writings about whales, there is still great mystery about them. Whales carry on practically their entire lives below the surface of the sea out of reach of man, so that most of our knowledge has been pieced together from the study of the bodies of slaughtered whales. The literature abounds in partial truths, misinterpretations and technicalities which confuse even the specialists. Many of the sources of information require translation.

Furthermore, many of these papers were published in journals of limited distribution. Others are long since out of print, and much of the primary historic records can be found by examination of records which exist only in one particular library. In the preparation of this manuscript, hundreds of books and over 4,000 papers were catalogued, of which the most important were available, and examined. The author was particularly fortunate to have Japanese and Russian friends who gave gladly of their time to insure coverage of these important papers.

The author deliberately made an extreme condensation of the facts in order to prevent the reader from being overwhelmed by details that merely obscure the broad picture. It is hoped that the reader will gain an awareness of the extreme mastery by whales of the marine environment. Other basic concepts of biology, which are clearly illustrated by the natural history of whales, are developed.

The intense interest and pleasure which the sight of the migrating whale creates clearly overshadows the brief monetary benefit that the whaling industry might gain from slaughtering it. We hope that you will be stimulated to join forces with those of us who feel that man should preserve those forms of life which add so much interest, beauty, and knowledge to man's awareness.

Two General Migration Routes

The migration of the California gray whale is one of the most remarkable natural history events in the world today. The majority of these whales journey southward just off the shore of southern California and Lower California during January and February. Although a few early migrants may pass San Diego early in December, they are not abundant until Christmas. An occasional straggler can be sighted in March.

Only 20 years ago this species was so rare, that little hope was held that it could ever recover. Today the species appears out of danger, thanks to international cooperation among the whaling nations which stopped the slaughter of this truly unique whale. Now it is not at all unusual to see between 50 and 75 whales a day during the peak of the migration.

One of the finest locations for viewing this migration is the Cabrillo National Monument which commands an almost aerial view of the coastline. Here individual whales can be watched for at least 1 hour, as they hove into view from the north and at last recede to the southeast along the Silver Strand. The first and only public observatory for whales was established at the monument in 1951. The naturalist on duty not only keeps a plot of the whales passing by, but also helps visitors find their first whale. The observatory is one of the most popular wintertime attractions in southern California. With so many pairs of eyes on hand, it is not surprising that the count of whales is remarkably complete. There is no other marine animal which can be seen with such certainty in its natural element.

Migrating animals have always fascinated man who considered them harbingers of the seasons. Man continues to puzzle over the mysteries of how these animals are able to navigate so precisely and how they are able to maintain such timetables. Whereas other migrating animals pass broadly through an area, the California gray whales, at least on the final part of the route, are passing along just outside the surf zone, virtually single file! It is hard to realize that 3 months earlier these whales started off from their summer quarters in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea, as well as along the shore of Siberia and Kamchatka en route to their winter quarters in the lagoons and harbors along the outer coast of Lower California. Between these two areas lie 6,000 miles of seemingly trackless ocean. With the advent of spring the whales must be on their way back again to their summer grounds.

Although all the large whales make such extensive travels, except the bowhead, only the gray whale spends so much time in sight of land. The other species are truly oceanic at all times, and never seem abundant because of the vastness of the oceans. Like the gray whale they congregate in polar seas during the summer months, moving into temperate and subtropical waters for the winter months. To this day, much of the migration route is unknown. Perhaps some day a scientist will attempt to trail a group of whales along the entire route. The tendency of the gray whale to hug the coast is manifest only within 600 miles of the destination. This may be a precautionary routing which prevents the whales from making their landfall south of the lagoons. Such an error in navigation would not only prolong the migration, but leave the whales on the horns of a dilemma--to swim on south or turn back?

Whale Waters--Summer and Winter

One cannot help but be impressed with the remarkable utilization of time by the whales whose lives seem to be divided into two principal seasons, a summer feeding period and a winter period of reproduction. Each of these major activities is preceded by a tremendously long migration. Nearly half of every year must be devoted to this activity. Considering the extreme length of the migration, whales cannot wander aimlessly or carelessly. Whales which summer in the Antarctic continue to do so as do the whales in the Arctic waters, and only rarely does one pass through the wide belt of equatorial water to venture into the other hemisphere.

Once on the summer grounds the whales occupy themselves with feeding almost continuously during the long polar day. Even though the food is patchy, the whales seem to find it quickly, spending a minimum of time in search. By the onset of autumn, they are fat, and all the babies are weaned.

It is uncanny that the various species all manifest the instinctive reaction to vacate this region at the proper time, thus avoiding almost certain death by the freezing of the sea's surface. Again the seeming miracle of aptness is evident, for the whales swim unerringly out of the dangerous areas toward warmer and calmer seas. Because of the extremely wide band of winter storms, whales must move at least below 30° latitude to be clear of the areas of stormy seas. Migration stops as soon as they are sufficiently clear of these. Whales then undertake the other essential link in the chain of life, reproduction. By spring the babies are strong enough and fat enough to accompany their mothers.

Feeding--Filter Whales

Whales do not feed extensively while migrating. For the most part there is not time enough, nor is the food plentiful enough to make it worth the effort. However, in the polar seas the whale's food is plentiful enough to discolor the water. On close examination, the discoloration proves to be caused by thousands of tiny shrimps which are very slender and less than one-half inch in length. These creatures congregate in swarms near the surface to feed on microscopic plants known as diatoms. The whales need only swim back and forth through these cloudlike aggregations to fill their mouths quickly with water and shrimp. With each mouthful, the water is expelled between the jaws through a mat of fibers which hangs down from the upper jaw. The shrimps, which are retained on the mat, fall down onto the tongue and are swallowed. The work of pushing out several tons of water with each feeding is done by the tremendous tongue.

The fiber mats are the frayed inner side of enormous hornlike plates which grow down from the palate. The main body of each plate is placed edgewise to the outgoing water so that many plates are required to complete the mat which runs from the tip of the jaw to the corner of the mouth. These plates vary in size and stiffness from species to species. Some of the plates from the mouth of the bowhead whale are 12-14 feet in length, whereas in the finback whale the plates are 2-4 feet. There can be over 200 plates per side in the filtering structure. The frayed inner edge is constantly breaking off and the plates keep growing and fraying to provide the necessary thickness for the mat. Technically, these plates are called _baleen_. They were called whalebone by the whalers, and that is the name which is still used in commerce. The plates have no relationship to bones, nor could they be mistaken for them. The whalebone was assiduously collected and sold to be made into a variety of objects such as umbrella stays, corset stays, buggy whips and other articles which today are made of steel or plastic. There was a great demand for the product and a bowhead whale produced over a ton and one-half of whalebone valued back in the 17th century at over 400 English pounds, equivalent to about $10,000 today.

It has been observed that the coarseness and thickness of the baleen is suited to the size of the food which is filtered. For example, the rorqual or Sei whale, which feeds on tiny shrimp species, has a filtering surface which resembles fine wool. The blue whale, which feeds on the largest of shrimps and on fish, has the coarsest filter. Generally, fish occur only in the diets of the blue, finback and other rorqual which swim fast enough to engulf them. Here, the fish are weak-swimming, schooling fishes. The gray whale, unlike the other filter feeders, feeds on bottom-frequenting crustaceans known technically as amphipods. These organisms, occurring principally in shallow water, keep the gray whales close to the shores of Siberia and Kamchatka.

In order for a whale to be able to exist on a 3 to 4 month feeding period, it must have not only ample food, but time in which to collect it. Although the whales may not all be far enough north to have a 24-hour day, there is enough twilight to let them feed the clock around. In order to take advantage of the prodigious amounts of food available, whales have a huge four-chambered stomach. It is not at all uncommon to find 5 to 10 wheelbarrow loads of shrimp in the stomach. No one yet knows how fast the food passes through the alimentary tract.

The shrimps on which the whales thrive are not uniformly concentrated, but occur at special places where oceanographic processes have enriched the surface waters with cold, nutrient-rich, subsurface water. The principal oceanographic action which enriches the water at the surface is called upwelling. It can be induced by a number of physical conditions. One of the best places to look for upwelling is along the edge of the polar icecaps and along the junction of strong currents. Upwelling is one of the ways nature refertilizes the surface waters which are otherwise deficient in nutrients. Whenever the ocean surface is fertilized, the microscopic plants begin to grow and multiply, discoloring the water to a brownish or reddish color. If the subsurface waters continue to be pumped to the surface, the growth continues and a rich ocean pasture results. The animals which begin to crop this are the shrimps, and when they have thrived and reproduced, there are enough for the whales. The other all-important factor in the fertility of the polar seas is the length of day, which provides ample time for the sun's energy to be entrapped by plants. By autumn, the days have shortened and night begins to predominate. At this time the microscopic plants stop growing and form resting stages which protect them through the long winter.

The whale has made such efficient use of its summer feeding period that it is fat enough to live the other 8 months without danger of starvation. Whales might be thought of as huge natural tankers carrying enough oil to provide for long periods of active fasting. Unlike those mammals which avoid starvation by winter hibernation, the whale is able to migrate away from inhospitable seas into warmer waters where they can then reproduce and care for the new young. The strain on the mother at this time must be considerable for her baby grows at a prodigious rate. It has been calculated that a blue whale baby grows about 10 pounds per hour, gaining a ton every 9 days.

Although there are at least nine species of filtering whales, each seems to be dependent on a different kind of shrimp which are seldom found together. This prevents the various species of whales from being in constant competition with each other. However, no one altogether understands why there is no competition. Of course, structurally a species may be more suited to feeding on one kind of food. The porosity of the filter plate, which varies, may account for this. The actual shape and size of the head varies from species to species and this may be related to improving the efficiency of feeding. Right whales have heads which are very large, permitting a large intake of water and the accommodation of a tremendous set of filters. These whales have heads which are enlarged both in width and length. In fact, the head may account for nearly one-third of the total body. The rorqual group are more streamlined and have proportionately smaller heads. To make up for this limitation, the floor of the mouth is pleated on the outside which permits the floor to balloon out like a huge scoop each time the mouth is filled.

The right whales, incidentally, were so named by the early whalers to apply to those species which were suitable for whaling. The majority of whales were not molested because they sank as they died, or they were fast-moving, wary species which could not be approached with the whaler's lance.

Evolution of Whales

To appreciate fully the biology of whales, one must know that their ancestors were terrestrial mammals. It is indeed impossible to account for all the steps which were necessary for this difficult reentry of the oceans. However, the fossil records for whales are numerous and permit at least a partial reconstruction of the evolutionary steps. Whales have obtained not only complete mastery of this difficult habitat, but also they have spread out to crop a variety of marine foods. Biologists have generally dramatized the earlier conquest of land by marine organisms, leaving the more recent and perhaps more difficult reentry of the marine world by whales to go unnoticed.

_Breathing Adaptations_

Not only have whales become completely aquatic, but they have been able to eliminate nearly all the design features which were necessary for life on land. Only the retention of air breathing remains, and this does not seem to be much of a hardship. There has been a great improvement in the conservation of oxygen so that really long dives are possible. The subtlety of this accomplishment is only partially understood by scientists. Apparently, diving mammals are able to shut down those bodily activities which contribute little to the diving mission. These activities can go on later when oxygen is available. It is also normal to incur an oxygen debt by borrowing from stockpiles present in the tissue fluids and muscles. After a long dive a whale will idle at the surface in order to completely free the body of the excess carbon dioxide, and to pay back the oxygen debt. The greater the debt the longer the surfacing, and the greater the number of breaths which must be taken.

When a whale surfaces to breathe, the act of exhaling is called "blowing." Whenever a whale has been submerged for a normal dive, the air in the lungs becomes saturated with moisture from the blood. The exhalation of this spent air is accomplished very quickly by forcing the air out under pressure by the diaphragm, and the sudden expansion of the expelled air produces sufficient cooling to condense the moisture. This cloud or fog is the most conspicuous feature of a surfaced whale, particularly when the spout is 10 to 15 feet in height. Within a minute's time the fog is usually scattered and heated enough to disappear. The duration of the spout depends principally on the temperature of the surrounding air, the amount of moisture condensed from the breath and the local surface wind. At the higher latitudes air temperatures are low enough that the spout may persist for several minutes. It is possible to recognize some of the whale species by the form and size of the spout.

Inhalation is accomplished very quickly. The breathing act is generally both visible and audible. The release of air produces a very loud "whoosh" which can be heard for quite a distance on a quiet day. The nostrils are called blowholes. In order to facilitate breathing, they have been moved from the tip of the snout to the top of the head (with the exception of the sperm whale), to prevent waves from flooding the lungs. During diving, the pressure of the water operates on the nostril in such a way as to close the nostril from the outside so that regardless of depth there can be no leak. The natural buoyancy of the animal exposes enough of the head to keep the nostrils clear of the waves.

The nostrils communicate directly to the lungs rather than share a portion of the throat as is customary in other air-breathing vertebrates. This means that the whale's mouth and throat can be full of water without danger of flooding the lungs, and that it is unnecessary to empty such a spacious cavern prior to breathing. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a whale could keep his mouth closed enough to prevent flooding through the baleen because there is no upper lip over this device.

Although a whale can be sighted by the telltale spout, a frightened whale may elude detection by exhaling just before surfacing, so that nothing more than a foamy patch is produced. Under these situations the whale does not expose the usual amount of buoyant head, but only the nostrils. A disturbed whale can dive, and then surface a mile or two away, or it may not move at all, preferring to hide on the bottom or among rocky reefs or in the kelp. The California gray whale was judged by whalers to be the most wary and elusive of them all.

_Swimming Adaptations_

The most essential features needed for the successful invasion of the marine habitat were those necessary for efficient propulsion. Fish, eons before, had solved the hydrodynamic equations necessary for movement through such a resistive medium. This solution required a streamlined form with a tail for propulsion, placed at the very end of the body. Extra fins were employed for maneuvering and for balancing. Whales, too, have reached the same solution, and man, when he finally develops sufficient highspeed submarines, will employ the same solution, namely streamlining. As a consequence, all whales look alike, differing principally in the degree of streamlining, color or size. In a whale's streamlined body there can be no sharp discontinuities to accommodate the head, the neck, the trunk, and lastly the tail. Instead these features must grade imperceptibly one into the other. The only allowable discontinuity is the end of the tail which is expanded into fanshaped lobes to function like a propeller.

These features, called tail flukes, are driven up and down in contrast to the tail of a fish which is driven sidewise. Whales have long banks of muscle along either side of the backbone which attach to the tail flukes by means of tendons. This makes it unnecessary to disturb the streamlined form by bending the hind part of the trunk as is necessary when fish drive with their tails. It also makes it possible to devote a great deal more muscle to the task. The power developed by these muscles is prodigious, capable of driving a 100-ton body through the water at speeds up to 20 knots. Wounded whales can smash a 20-foot whaleboat to bits with a single slap of the tail.

The hind limbs which were useful on land have been eliminated and all that persists are vestigial bones or cartilages which are buried deep below the surface of the body. The forelimbs have undergone reduction and modification into flippers which assist in the turning and diving. The flippers are useful in other ways, providing a platform on which the baby may stay when danger threatens. They are also useful during courtship and mating, but not for combat. The toothless whales do not have too much to fight with. They may strike an adversary with the powerful tail flukes, and during courtship the males jostle and bump each other.

Whales are almost completely hairless, save for a few bristles on their heads. Certainly the elimination of hair has improved streamlining, and has reduced the frictional drag. Furthermore, continuously wet hair could not have been of much value in keeping the whale warm. It is also possible that a hairy whale would have been very much bothered by skin parasites which would have flourished in the quiet water between the hairs. However, if this prompted the loss of hair, it was in vain for now the streamlined bodies of humpbacks and right whales are marred by large encrusting barnacles. It is surprising that the barnacles do not completely cover the whales. Perhaps they are scraped off on the bottom, or they cannot flourish during the long migration or in plankton-impoverished waters of the winter quarters. At any rate the parasites are kept partially under control so that much of the streamlined surface is unblemished.

If the physical properties of water forced upon whales a common shape, they did at least, by the buoyant effect, free the animals of the need for structural and muscular developments to support themselves against the pull of gravity. Free of this structural problem, whales were able to evolve into the largest mammals which the world has ever known. As they became larger, they had to shift in their feeding to slower and less maneuverable prey. It would appear that the porpoises, which feed on the rapid-swimming, elusive fishes, are small in order to catch their prey. The whales, which have specialized to feed on the jet propelled squids, were able to evolve into much larger whales because they could capture the squid either by stealthy approach or by sucking the squid into the mouth, thus counteracting its jet.

Whale Types

_Porpoises and Dolphins_

Whales are known technically as cetaceans (pronounced seh-TAY-shuns); so also are the various porpoises and dolphins which are mostly eaters of fish. These are certainly the most numerous of all the cetaceans, making up in numbers for their small size (6 to 8 feet). A few species range between 20 and 30 feet. Porpoises and dolphins congregate around schools of fish. Therefore fishermen are constantly on the lookout for a sight of them. Since not infrequently the porpoises break the surface of the water, leaping completely clear as if for a look around, they are not difficult to locate. Porpoises and dolphins can be seen most frequently in coastal waters where fish are most abundant. The porpoise and dolphin families contain a great many species and it is beyond the scope of this treatise to differentiate or name them all. However, these families include such unique forms as the killer whale, narwhal, white whale (or beluga as it is known to the Eskimos), and the pilot or black whale. Generally one associates cetaceans with the ocean, so it may come as a surprise to find that four dolphin species live in such major rivers as the Amazon, La Plata, Ganges, and the Yangtze.

In dolphins, the mouth protrudes beyond the head as a beak or snout, and in porpoises, the front of the head is blunt or gently rounded. It is impossible to avoid confusion if one uses common names to separate the various whales. Even though the word whale properly covers all the kinds, to some it connotes only the larger species. Such a distinction is wholly arbitrary, and cannot properly differentiate the natural groupings of whales to which zoologists have assigned technical names. It would be impossible to summarize the variety of common names which many of the species have acquired through the centuries. The only solution to this is to refer to the whales by the technical names which connote relationship. (For readers who desire this differentiation, a brief listing of the groups and representatives of each are provided in an appendix.)

BLUE WHALE (SULPHUR-BOTTOM WHALE)
FIN-BACK WHALE (COMMON RORQUAL)
GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE (BOWHEAD WHALE)
BLACK RIGHT WHALE
SEI WHALE
HUMP-BACKED WHALE (unlabelled in picture)
CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE
LITTLE PIKED WHALE (LESSER RORQUAL)
PYGMY RIGHT WHALE
The Sperm Whale is given here for size comparison only.

SPERM WHALE
BOTTLE-NOSE WHALE
KILLER WHALE
PILOT WHALE (BLACKFISH)
CUVIER'S BEAKED WHALE
FALSE KILLER WHALE
TRUE'S BEAKED WHALE
NARWAL
WHITE WHALE (BELUGA)
PYGMY SPERM WHALE
BOTTLE-NOSE DOLPHIN
COMMON DOLPHIN
COMMON PORPOISE

_Squid Eaters_

The bottlenose whales are nearly toothless, feeding on squid like their close relatives, the sperm whales. Porpoises and dolphins possess many sharp conical teeth on both the upper and lower jaws, although the narwhal which is related to them, breaks the rule by being toothless save for the tusklike canine of the male. In this instance either the right or left tooth elongates to produce an 8-foot spear. The other tooth does not break the gum, and this is the condition found in the female where both are rudimentary and not evident. The bottlenose whales have but a single pair of teeth in the lower jaw, and their relatives, the sperm whales, have 18-28 conical teeth per side on the lower jaw, and these when fully grown may be 8 inches in length. Pockets are provided in the toothless gum of the upper jaw to accommodate the teeth when the mouth is closed.

The decline in the number of teeth in the sperm and bottlenose whales is thought to be the elimination of structures which are no longer useful. Whereas a porpoise's long mouth, bristling with sharp teeth, insures the hooking and retention of a slippery active fish, a small mouth with a few teeth is adequate to crush and slurp down the squid and the weak-swimming fishes of the abyssal depths.

The sperm whale is the largest of the squid feeders, reaching 60 feet. There is a diminutive counterpart, the pygmy sperm whale, which reaches 13 feet. It is exceedingly rare, whereas the sperm whale is abundant in temperate and tropical seas. The beaked whales complete the groups specialized for feeding on squid. Besides the modification of the mouth, all these whales are noted for their ability to dive to great depths where their food abounds. Not only can they dive to great depths, but they can stay submerged for long periods--up to an hour? Sperm whales have been found entangled in the submarine cables which were known to be on the bottom at a depth of 3,000 feet. It is clear that such feeding habits have opened up vast areas of the oceans to these species.

_Filter Whales_

The whalebone whales seem to have undertaken two different lines of specialization in feeding: The right whales developed an enormous head with a very large filter plate, whereas the rorquals are much more streamlined with a small filter plate. The ability of the latter to gather food is insured by the pleated throat. The right whales lack a dorsal fin and are decidedly less streamlined. The rorquals have a dorsal fin. There are two species which do not exactly fit in either group. The humpback whale appears to be like the rorquals in that it has a pleated throat and a suggestion of a fin. It is however, a very bulky slow swimming species. The California gray whale, apparently, is intermediate between the two groups and may be thought to be a survivor of the ancestral stock from which both groups differentiated. It has neither a pleated throat nor a fin. The gray whale, like the right whale, has been slow to recover from whaling. It is likely that the populations were never very large. Only the rorquals seem to have the numbers needed for large whaling operations.

Significance of Blubber

_Heat Conservation_

As whales extended their operations into the icy waters of polar regions or into the cold waters of the ocean depths, they had to develop means of keeping warm. Anyone who has attempted to swim in cold water knows how quickly one loses his body heat and becomes chilled. Whales minimize the heat loss by accumulating a thick layer of fat just below the surface of the skin. The fatty layer, called blubber, not only keeps the whale warm, but it also provides for food storage. It has already been stressed how important it is for whales to survive long periods without eating, so it is likely that the two specializations arose together.

There are, however, extensive areas of the whale which cannot be blanketed with fat and these are the flippers and the large tail flukes. It has been observed that the blood going into these structures gives up its heat not to the outside but to the veins which parallel and surround the arteries. By this anatomical feature most of the heat which would otherwise be lost to the water, is recaptured by the veins which deliver the heat back into the body. Of course, this means that the tissues of the tail flukes and flippers function at temperatures much lower than those found within the body. Here we find that nature was using the principal of the heat exchanger long before man discovered it or put it to work in air conditioning.

Whales are so well insulated that they stay quite warm 24-36 hours after death. Whalers must process the whales quickly, for otherwise, at the elevated body temperature, decomposition proceeds most rapidly and ruins much of the meat. It is possible that the baleen-bearing whales do not cross the warm equatorial waters because they overheat. No one has yet determined whether the newborn young have a sufficient layer of fat to protect them from the cold water, and it has been suggested that whales calve in temperate waters to prevent the babies from being chilled. However, there are species like the narwhal and the white whale which calve in Arctic waters.

_Buoyancy_

Another aspect to the extensive deposits of fat is that these tissues are lighter than water and help counteract the heaviness of the whale's body so that with the assistance of the lungs neutral buoyancy is achieved. The fat is accumulated in between the muscle strands, and in fact, in every available nook and cranny.

_Food Storage_

Much of this fat is drawn upon for food. Whenever a whale is existing on its fatty tissue, acetone is one of the waste products which must be eliminated in the breath. This pungent material makes the breath very strong and noticeable at these times. Certainly among whales, there is no stigma attached to being fat or having halitosis.

Ordinarily fatty tissues only accumulate when there is a surplus of food over the needs of the animal. You might suspect that whales would need to stockpile fat first, in order to remain warm and buoyant, and that growth would be curtailed and accomplished last. However, studies on the growth of whales show that the efficiency of food gathering is so high and food so plentiful, that growth not only continues but at a tremendous pace.

Sexual Maturity

Whales mature sexually between their third and seventh years. Toothed cetaceans attain sexual maturity later than filter-feeding whales. A blue whale is sexually mature at 5 years, whereas porpoises require at least 7 years. Most filtering whales are sexually mature in 2 or 3 years. Whales are not fully grown at sexual maturity, but they continue to grow for years. In most mammals growth stops with sexual maturity. Female whales generally can be expected to produce a baby every other year, for the gestation period is approximately one year. Babies are nursed for about 9 months. At birth the baby is completely formed and active, but lacking baleen, must nurse. A blue whale baby at birth weighs approximately 8 tons, about 1/12th of the weight of the mother. The mother provides the baby with 50 gallons of milk a day. Since the nursing is done under water, and the baby must surface frequently to breathe, the act of nursing is very brief. Muscles in the breasts of the mother force the milk into the baby's mouth in large amounts. The baby will double its length in 7 months, which averages to a daily weight gain of 220 pounds. During all this time the mother must fatten for the winter ahead, and perhaps continue to grow herself.

Life Span

It is not known for certain how long a whale may live after completing its growth. At the present time, commercially important species seldom attain physical maturity before being captured. Many whales which are captured are measured for scientific study. Such measurements also keep the whalers from taking undersized juveniles. Whales apparently do not live to be very old. Fifty years appears to be the best current estimate of a life span.

Whale Intelligence

Whales are apparently very intelligent animals. Whalers have remarked how difficult it is to approach whales which have previously escaped. The gray whales were observed actually avoiding the coast after shore whaling had been carried out for a few seasons. Animal trainers have found the toothed whales particularly apt pupils, and these animals are the stellar attraction of the various oceanaria.

Whale Senses

_Sight_

Little is known, however, about the capabilities of the various sensory organs. Certainly the eyes are very important and are effective under water. It is not likely that the eye is very effective out of water, even though whales do elevate the head out of the water for a look around. The behavior has been appropriately called "spyhopping," and it is manifested usually in the ice floes. Killer whales are believed to search the sea's surface and the edge of the icebergs for seals and birds.

_Hearing_

Whales appear to have very acute hearing. The report of a whaling gun will alarm whales which have previously tolerated the whaling vessel close aboard. Whalers have noted that in very foggy weather whales are much more difficult to approach because of the increased sensitivity to noise. The toothed cetaceans which are gregarious are capable of a great variety of vocalizations. Much of this is ultrasonic to man and it has been suggested that these emissions are used like man's sonar for finding obstacles and food. Considering the limited range of vision possible in water which is usually hazy or turbid, such a feature would be most useful. There is a continual chatter among members of a porpoise school, or gam, as the whalers call them. The accumulated noise serves as a beacon to which straying members can home when they have gotten out of visual range, which incidentally is under 300 feet. No one yet knows exactly how these animals can produce these sounds without being able to move air across the vocal chords. They do not exhale under water, and yet they are continually noisy.

_Smell_

The sense of smell is not important to whales, and the organ was abandoned when the nostrils were shifted to the back of the head and modified for diving. Although man may never be able to test whales experimentally for their sensual acuities, it is quite apparent that they are fully aware of their environment. They clearly recognize the environmental signposts which guide them to and from their various areas. Oceanographers are not nearly as adept in knowing where they are on the ocean. Whales clearly recognize their own particular kind, and they do not intermingle. Incidentally, man finds it difficult to differentiate some of the whale species. Because of the rarity of specimens and information, the identity of some species may still be in doubt.

Habits

Filtering whales, unlike the gregarious porpoises and dolphins, seldom school. Even when they appear to be abundant in a limited area, they have congregated for feeding and not for social interaction. Toothed cetaceans, on the other hand, are generally sociable. The sperm whale travels in large groups of females dominated by a single bull whale. The other males have been driven away and the victorious male exercises control of the harem only as long as he wins these contests. Once the dominant male is defeated, he becomes a solitary individual.

Enemies

_Killer Whales_

Whales, by virtue of their size and speed, are not preyed upon by other animals. The killer whale, however, has the size and inclination. Generally, it is content to capture seals, sea birds, and fishes, and it does not range too far from this prey. There have been isolated reports of killer whales attacking the gray whale. The gray whale is described as being very disturbed whenever a killer whale appears. On the coast of Siberia the gray whale will hide in very shallow water and if cornered is said to go into shock, floating at the surface, stomach up, while the killer whale bites at the tongue and flippers. Perhaps reports like this have been improperly interpreted. It is easy to understand how killer whales would congregate around the catch of the whaler. Recently studies on the loss of hooked tunas from the long-line fishery of the Japanese, show that killer whales are adept at stealing fish along the setline. Additional studies on the natural history of the killer whale must be made before its relationship to other whales can be properly assessed.

_Parasites_

If whales generally lead a charmed life with respect to predators, they still have their share of parasites both external and internal. Their huge bodies are ideal platforms for the growth of barnacles which have specialized for this unusual habitat. Another very annoying skin parasite is the whale louse, which is a flattish small crustacean which clings by claws to the delicate skin. The digestive tract of the whale provides a wonderful habitat for round worms and tapeworms. Like their host, these parasites are the largest of their kind. Other organs such as the kidneys, liver and lungs are infested too.

Sperm whales suffer from another affliction which is an obstruction of the intestine by a fatty concretion which forms from the bile. Ordinarily these are passed from the digestive tract when small, but if they are retained and continue to grow, an obstruction is possible. The material is a grayish wax which is known as ambergris. It is used by the perfume industry to make permanent blends of various fragrances. Most of this material is obtained by whalers when they process the sperm whale. Only rarely does the material float ashore after the death of the unfortunate producer. Nowadays the value of ambergris is but moderate.

Whale Abnormalities

Whales are found with healed broken bones which must have been incurred by fighting and other collisions. The skin of whales is mottled with scars which were produced by parasites and by fighting. Toothed whales are especially scarred from the raking by the teeth of an adversary during battles for dominance. For at least 5 centuries, man has preyed on the whale. In recent times navies of several nations have been alarmed by unidentified underwater objects which cannot easily be distinguished from submarines. Some of these contacts are produced by whales. The counter measures not only cost the whale its life, but also causes the navies unnecessary expenditures of depth charges and time, and produce considerable tension and anxiety.

Inadequate Knowledge of Whales

Whales have been extensively described both in popular and scientific writings. However, their story is by no means complete or correct. It will be many years before all the information can be obtained on these animals which range the wide oceans where man must study them under great disadvantage. Until man has the underwater mobility and maneuverability of whales, he will have to be content with surmise and interpretations based on limited observations.

There is a great deal known about the anatomy and fine structure of whales. You can certainly admire the work of the early anatomists who persevered in dissecting the partially decomposed carcasses of stranded specimens. What a contrast to the opportunity afforded now to the anatomist who need merely be present on a whaling ship station to receive any part which he wishes to examine. It takes the whaling station 4 to 6 hours to butcher a whale completely.

Naturally, the whales which are currently the object of research are those which are commercially important and available. The California gray whale which would be convenient for study is no longer taken commercially. Permission would have to be obtained from the International Whaling Commission to secure even a single specimen, and a scientist could not easily obtain a specimen without the assistance of whalers. Fortunately, we know a great deal about the species as a result of an extensive monograph prepared nearly 100 years ago by Captain C. M. Scammon, who was among the first to whale this animal commercially. Professor Edward D. Cope described the species, giving it the name _Rhachianectes glauca_, after he examined a skeleton which had been shipped to him at the Philadelphia Museum.

Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum prepared the first detailed description of a living specimen which he found at a Korean whaling station. At the time of his report the species had not been seen for many years and had been believed extinct. More recently Russian scientists published considerable material which they had obtained from Russian whalers who had continued to take an occasional specimen during the thirties of this century.

They made a detailed study of the food of this whale, and they clearly showed that the herd which summered in the Sea of Okhotsk and wintered off Korea did not intermingle with the Siberian herd which wintered in the lagoons off Lower California. For the last 20 years or so, the species has enjoyed protection from whaling on an international basis. Since 1947 whaling scientists of the Canadian and American fishery agencies have published data principally on the recovery of the California herd, and to a degree have filled in some of the gaps in its life history. There is still a great deal to be learned, and it may be that some of the published observations will have to be revised or discarded. It is likely that the California gray whale is quite similar in many of its biological details to those which appear to be general in the commercially important species.

California Gray Whale

_Evolutionary Place_

It should be kept in mind, however, that this whale is the most primitive of the living baleen-bearing whales, and it seems to represent the point in the evolutionary sequence from which the two main groups diverged. The California gray whale is the sole survivor of a family of whales which in past eons was represented by many species. It has a smallish head with a limited filtering mechanism. Its dependence on foods which are found only near to shore is considered further evidence that it is primitive. Likewise its need for harbors to calve suggests that it has not lost its dependence on the nearshore habitat, even though it can safely cross the wide Pacific. The extremely restricted and separated distribution pattern of the whale is typical of an old, primitive species which persists either in its preferred ancestral home, or which occupies less desirable habitats into which it was forced by the more successful species. Recently gray whale remains were found in the Netherlands, and it is possible that it was exterminated in European waters by prehistoric whaling prior to the Ice Age.

_Geographic Distribution_

Today the species is restricted to two distinct populations existing on opposite sides of the Pacific. One herd summers in the Sea of Okhotsk, migrating southward to Korea where, in the open bays, calving takes place in January, February and March. The larger population summers off the coast of Siberia and Kamchatka, migrating clear across the Pacific Ocean to California and then south to the breeding lagoons near Bahia de Sebastian Viscaino, situated on the outer coast of Baja California. A few whales have been noted around the tip of Baja California and in the gulf itself. These are part of a small group which calve in lagoons along the mainland of Mexico just inside the Gulf of California. It has been suggested that the recovery of the species was possible because these lagoons were unknown to whalers. It is, however, unlikely that the whalers continued to whale until they had completely wiped out the populations of the main lagoons. The inability of the species to support intensive whaling suggests both a limited population and an animal with a low reproductive potential. Since 1850 there have been three brief periods of whaling, each separated by about 20 years. Each succeeding period of whaling has been shorter, suggesting that 20 years is not a long enough recovery period.

_Shore Habits_

Generally speaking, shallow water is dangerous for the larger whales, other than the gray and right whales. Strandings of the other species do occur, which can be interpreted to mean that these whales are not afraid of shallow water. However, when they strand they die. The cause of stranding is difficult to determine. Perhaps the victim is sick and drifts ashore. Most strandings occur during severe storms which quickly obscure the bottom features by stirring up the sand and mud. The stranding of the pilot whale is most dramatic because entire groups will come ashore as if afraid to go back to sea. If man intercedes and helps free them, they still refuse to escape. The cause of the panic and subsequent action is unknown, although it is unlikely that the action is mass suicide as so colorfully described in newspaper accounts. Most other strandings suggest that the whale was out of its normal habitat.

The gray whale, however, has no difficulty in this dangerous region, and in fact they negotiate the treacherous turbid channels of the lagoons, notwithstanding the strong tidal currents which flow through them. They have also been observed rolling in the surf in water barely deep enough to float them. Should stranding occur, they seem to realize that it is only momentary as another swell will come along to free them. For the other species, stranding produces fright and struggling which only exhaust them and lodge them deeper into the bottom. Death usually results from overheating, although it is noted that a stranded whale finds it difficult to breathe normally because the weight of the body out of water crushes the chest cavity.

At the present time it is difficult to understand why the lagoons are used by the gray whale for calving. It may be an ancestral behavior trait which has been inherited. It is most likely, however, that the quiet waters facilitate birth and nursing during the time the baby is gaining strength for the long migration. The observation that the whales may roll and rub themselves against the muddy banks has led to some conjecture that the lagoons help control the skin parasites.

You may wonder whether the lagoons, which are limited in number and in extent, may control the size of the population. Lagoons are subject to change in size and depth through geologic processes, and they may be created or destroyed. The lagoons which are used by the whales are remote and seldom visited by man. You wonder whether the whales would continue to use them if they were also used much by man. The California gray whale has not used San Diego Harbor for over 100 years. Perhaps San Diego Bay was used because the other lagoons were then overpopulated. Certainly the total population of whales has never again reached the numbers which existed before the whalers started.

_Scientific Description_

It has already been mentioned that the gray whale was described by Professor Cope in 1868-69. The scientific name by which he tagged it, _Rhachianectes glauca_, describes the fact that the whale is blue-gray in color, and that it frequents rocky reefs. Because the species did not resemble any other whale, he placed it in a separate family, the Rhachianectidae. Cope was not aware that paleontologists had found and described fossils of whales which were very similar to the gray whale. Of course, the paleontologists working in Europe did not know that there was a living representative of these fossil whales which they had named _Eschrichtius_. However, this oversight was finally realized by Dutch cetologists Van Deinse and Junge, who in 1937 corrected the mistake by placing the gray whale in the genus Eschrichtius, discarding the old genus name Rhachianectes. If you wish to search the scientific literature on the gray whale prior to 1937, you must look for it under the old name Rhachianectes. This is not the first or last time a scientific alias will be produced; yet this one serves to dramatize the fact that the gray whale is truly a living fossil, which is a reminder of some of the evolutionary steps over which the other whales passed to gain the structural and behavioral features needed to occupy the many areas of the oceans.

_Reaction to Whaling_

The California gray whale is known by other common names, such as "Koku Kujira" of the Japanese, which means "the devil fish." This indicates the cleverness of the gray whale and the dangers associated with hunting it. Whalers universally considered this species the most difficult to whale and the only one which might charge the boat. Gray whales certainly seemed to learn quickly the dangers to them from whaling. Captain Scammon considered this species the most interesting, giving it top billing in his book on the _Mammals of the Pacific Coast_. He reports that it was standard practice in the lagoons to kill the baby in order to lure the mother into harpoon range. In these encounters, the whalers showed great courage standing the charge of the angry mother, as they took a chance of losing their boats and their lives. The females of other whale species have a strong maternal instinct, but none of them seems to be so consistently willing to fight for its young as the gray whale.

We still do not know much about the behavior of the gray whale or the other filtering whales. At present, the people who are best informed on this subject are the whalers. They can ill afford to waste valuable time trailing whales which are too wary to be approached. In general, feeding whales are easiest to approach, being intent on feeding and completely oblivious to the approach of a whaling vessel. At other times, the whales are disturbed by the least noise. Ordinarily, once a whale is harpooned, it attempts to escape its tormentors, rather than turn and demolish the boat, which of course, would have put an early end to whaling. In the instances where a whale has rammed a boat, it is usually an accident, occurring during the death flurry. However, there are exceptions, and of course, these make whaling hazardous.

_How Do They Sleep?_