Whale hello there!

Today we embarked on another great adventure- the second day of the Marine Science intensive! To kick-start our day, we got our blood flowing with some pushups to pay off tardiness (also a preview of what will happen when we are late at the Island School). After this, we jumped straight into a rousing session of DyKnow where we reviewed some old biology topics, including information about all the heat energy we had just released during our morning exercise.  

After we had covered the basic topics of biology, we moved on to the topic of Marine Mammals (with an emphasis on whales). We mainly discussed two different types of whales - baleen, and toothed - and the characteristics of each. One fact that many of us found amusing is that whales once had tiny little legs - about the size of a human toddler’s. The image of a ginormous sperm whale with two puny little feet flopping around in the back was hard to imagine while keeping a straight face.

A whale with legs would certainly be an odd sight to see

 After evolving over the course of a few millions of years, however, these land-based mammals slowly lost their hind legs and gave up their terrestrial lives for aquatic ones. Today, we can still see remnants of those odd ancestors of modern day whales as certain vestigial bones in the skeleton of the whales. Many animals have vestigial structures. We humans, for example, have tailbones and nictitating membranes (the membranes adjacent to our tear ducts at the inner corners of our eyes) which are remnants of once necessary structures that evolution has since done away with.

We also learned about a few other marine mammals, such as sea lions, elephant seals, and sea otters. Many of these animals exhibit diverse societal behavior and different models of dominance. The elephant seal population, for example, seem to have their own sort of government (stretching the definition of that word a bit). A single alpha male will claim dominance over a harem, a group of female elephant seals, and maintain the sole right to mate with every single one. In this dictatorial regime, females are not permitted to mate with other males without fear of punishment. Furthermore, subordinate male seals can only gain alpha status through combat, in which case his status of alpha male is transferred to the victor. Otherwise, beta male seals have to be content with remaining abstinent for life. 

There can only be ONE alpha

Another fun fact about marine mammals is that, in sea lion populations, orphaned babies are often adopted by a lion who has not had a chance to become a mother, or has lost one of her own pups. Aw!

After our scintillating round of DyKnow lectures, we watched a documentary featuring the class superstar, Joy Reidenberg, who took us along on her journey of sperm whale dissection.  The documentary gave us an overview of the behavioral patterns and anatomy of the sperm whale. Interestingly, many parts of the sperm whale have adapted to suit its needs perfectly (thanks evolution!). For example, we learned that the spermaceti (the wax and oil sac at the top of the whale head, also the main reason they are hunted), is able to be warmed and cooled at willed to change the density of the whale, giving it the ability to dive extremely deep and float up again. Sperm whales also have special ribcages that expand and contract again and again, allowing them to change the volume in their lungs as they dive deeper. Their blowholes function as both a tool for breathing, and for producing loud clicks for echolocation. Though all this information was interesting, the presentation was... messy. We watched as Joy slashed through the thick blubber to wrench out the whale’s intestines (among other organs). We also saw the team cut out its heart and hold it in their arms. Was it repulsive? Yes! Was it interesting? Also yes! In conclusion, it was a fun time.

Joy and The Whale

On the topic of fun, we were shown a video where city officials try and move a beached sperm whale back into the ocean…with dynamite. Through this video, we discovered that whales have suicidal tendencies in addition to having a cute habit of exploding after death (with or without dynamite).

Following lunch, we returned to DyKnow and covered marine invertebrates. Most are squishy, soft-bodied animals who often create or steal a hard outer shell for protection. These include sea stars, crabs, anemones, and a host of other interesting and bizarre creatures. Mrs. Becker showed us a bunch of invertebrate examples, and we got to pass around cool shells, corals, and sea stars during the lecture. We were also taught that many of the little creatures we will encounter in the Bahamas are NOT our friends, and anemones are not a friendly as they looked in “Finding Nemo”! We also learned that sea sponges are a real thing, and are not, in fact, called SpongeBob, but instead have the phylum “Porifera” Overall, many “Finding Nemo” and “SpongeBob” references were made, and we came out with one big takeaway: Don’t touch random stuff!

This little guy packs a big punch

 These Polychaetes are annotated in our DyKnow slides with the phrase “DO NOT TOUCH”. When you touch this worm you will instantly get injected with little spikes that will send a fire-like feeling through the affected area.

To end our day, we acted out a conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). With whale hunting being an extremely profitable business, quite a few whale species entered the 21^st century on the endangered list. To counter this rapid decrease in whale populations, the IWC was created and was supported by many countries to put in place a ban against all whaling. Our conference was to educate us on the process and the possible reasons why some countries may not want a complete ban. Since the ban is technically already in place, the conference’s decision was to determine whether the IWC should lift the ban or keep it. In the end, the group decided with a tally of four to three favoring lifting the ban due to many traditions depending on whaling along with the economic stability that the industries could provide. 

Greenpeace standing up for the rights of whales!

We WHALE see you later,

Leigh and William