1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain 2 00:00:06,920 --> 00:00:10,079 Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren vogelban here. Dating back to the days of 3 00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 1: Wooly Mammoth's, humans have been obsessed with larger than life mammals, 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: and on the aquatic front, there's no bigger mammal than 5 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: the blue whale, which is the largest known animal to 6 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,759 Speaker 1: ever grace the planet. No evidence has been found that 7 00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: any other creature, even the largest of dinosaurs, surpassed the 8 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: blue whale in size. But wait, what about the megalodon, 9 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:30,479 Speaker 1: the extinct shark species believed to be the largest fish 10 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:32,239 Speaker 1: on the planet, and which you may recall from the 11 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen horror movie The meg Well. Scientists guests that 12 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: even the biggest megalodon only reached a mere fifty eight 13 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: feet in length, though some argue it was up to 14 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:45,239 Speaker 1: eighty two feet that's eighteen up to twenty five. By contrast, 15 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:47,360 Speaker 1: the largest blue whales clock in at a little more 16 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:49,879 Speaker 1: than a hundred feet or thirty meters long, and on 17 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: average are between seventy and ninety feet in length that's 18 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty seven meters, and their average weight 19 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: is approximately four hundred thousand pounds. That's a hundred and 20 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: eighty one thousand kilo mds or about two hundred tons. Females, 21 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: by the way, tend to be larger than males. The 22 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:08,199 Speaker 1: largest blue whales live in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. 23 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: A blue whale's tongue alone weighs as much as an elephant. 24 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: About a hundred people could fit in a blue whale's mouth. 25 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 1: A blue whale's heart is the size of a car, 26 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: its eyes the size of a basketball, and a small 27 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: child could swim through its arteries. The spray from a 28 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: blue whales blowhole is almost as tall as a three 29 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: story building that's about thirty ft or nine meters high. 30 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: These aptly named whales are blue gray in color, with 31 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: lighter gray patches that resemble splotches of paint, though they 32 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,000 Speaker 1: also go by sulfur bottom whale due to their yellowish underbelly. 33 00:01:38,440 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: The blue whale is part of the Baileean whale family, 34 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:43,919 Speaker 1: a group of toothless whales. It has instead of teeth, 35 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:46,480 Speaker 1: plates of thick, coarse bristles in its mouth that it 36 00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: uses to catch food. These are called black baileeen or 37 00:01:49,760 --> 00:01:52,080 Speaker 1: whale bone, and a single whale might have up to 38 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: eight hundred plates of the stuff in its great mouth. 39 00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: Despite their massive size, blue whales rely on very tiny 40 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: two inch crustaceans own as krill as their staple meal. 41 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,880 Speaker 1: But boy, do blue whales eat a lot of krill. 42 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: We spoke with Adam Ratner, a marine scientist with the 43 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: Marine Mammal Center. He said, given their size, blue whales 44 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: rely on vast quantities of food. Using plates of baleen 45 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: to filter small zooplankton from the water, they can consume 46 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: up to six tons or twenty thousand pounds that's over 47 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: five thousand kilograms of krill every day. In one gulp, 48 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,080 Speaker 1: the blue whale can take in a hundred of its 49 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: body weight of water and krill. That's half a million calories. 50 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: Despite all the hubbub over their hefty size, not much 51 00:02:34,680 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: is known about blue whales behaviors and social structures. Ratner said, 52 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: we do tend to see blue whales traveling alone or 53 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:43,480 Speaker 1: in small groups. In terms of behavior in the wild, 54 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:45,760 Speaker 1: they don't tend to be very belligerent to each other 55 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: or other animals, but rather focused on feeding or migrating. 56 00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: But again, behavior during breeding season could be very different, 57 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,959 Speaker 1: and it's still in need of more research, but marine 58 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: biologists are studying one way that blue whales communicate with 59 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,519 Speaker 1: each other. Sound. Ratner said, blue wheels produce one of 60 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: the loudest sounds in the animal kingdom, a low rumble 61 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,520 Speaker 1: that can be heard hundreds of miles and even reported 62 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: to be thousands of miles away in the ocean. Researchers 63 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: are still unsure of the meaning of the vocalizations, though, 64 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: with best guesses being around finding mates or signaling opportunities 65 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,920 Speaker 1: for mating or feeding. Along with studying whale behavior, scientists 66 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:26,000 Speaker 1: use whale vocalizations to estimate whale population sizes. When these 67 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:28,679 Speaker 1: whale calls are repeated in a sequence, they become known 68 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,360 Speaker 1: as songs. They often repeat sequences vocalized by other blue 69 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: whales and add risks of their own, sort of like 70 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: whale memes or pop music. We also spoke with John 71 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: Callum Bocuus, a co founder of the nonprofit Cascadier Research 72 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: and a research biologist, to his conducted extensive studies on 73 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,560 Speaker 1: the movement of blue whales. He explained, we've recently discovered 74 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: these very loud calls are produced only by males, indicating 75 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,120 Speaker 1: it plays some role in mating or in competition with 76 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,440 Speaker 1: other males. He notes that blue whales will also form 77 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: male female pairs during mating season, with the female leading 78 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: the pair. Competition for mats can also get a little intense, apparently. 79 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: Calumbodicus said there's also a competition involving high speed swimming 80 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: that occurs when more than one male is involved. Blue 81 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,280 Speaker 1: whales can adjust the frequency of their songs by changing 82 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 1: the speed at which they blow air through their vocal cords. 83 00:04:17,080 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: Some researchers think that can do this intentionally, as they've 84 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,239 Speaker 1: observed a gradual reduction in the frequency of blue whale 85 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,479 Speaker 1: calls over the years, perhaps in reaction to noisy conditions 86 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: caused by objects like passing ships. A female blue whale 87 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:31,839 Speaker 1: might give birth to a single baby calf every two 88 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,839 Speaker 1: to three years. Each pregnancy lasts around eleven months. These 89 00:04:35,839 --> 00:04:38,719 Speaker 1: blue whale babies typically are whopping twenty five ft long 90 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: around eight meters and weighs seven thousand pounds or over 91 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:44,600 Speaker 1: three thousand kilograms, which is heavier than a midsized suv. 92 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: Ratner said the milk from their mothers is so nutritious 93 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:51,920 Speaker 1: that the calves gained two hundred pounds. That's a day 94 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:57,279 Speaker 1: nursing a Blue whales average lifespan is eighty to ninety years. However, 95 00:04:57,360 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: their existence is increasingly under threat. Whales are currently listed 96 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. As commercial whale 97 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: hunting took off in the early nineteen hundreds, blue whales 98 00:05:07,480 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: dropped from a pre willing population of two d and 99 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,920 Speaker 1: fifty thousand to an estimated ten to twenty individuals alive presently. 100 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: Most of the decrease has been observed in the southern hemisphere, 101 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:21,559 Speaker 1: where blue whales were previously the most numerous. We also 102 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: spoke with Jeff Jacobson, a marine biologist with a no 103 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,719 Speaker 1: Year Center for Marine Science. He said, for some reason, 104 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: blue whales were not as impacted by whaling along the 105 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: California coast, and we have at least two thousand individuals here. 106 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:37,280 Speaker 1: The population is still recovering. Around Antarctica, he said that 107 00:05:37,279 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 1: whales still remain highly vulnerable de collisions with ships, perhaps 108 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,560 Speaker 1: because more krill sometimes appear in shipping lanes. Other challenges 109 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: facing the blue whale include entrapment and fishing gear, and 110 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: climate change affecting the mammal's food sources, but there are 111 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: some organizations working to make habitats safer for blue whales. 112 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: Ratner says that the Marine Mammal Center has addressed policies 113 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 1: about changing shipping lanes in San Francisco Bay in order 114 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,039 Speaker 1: to reduce the light flihood of boats impacting migrating whales. 115 00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: He also said that quote individuals around the world can 116 00:06:05,400 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: make a huge difference by examining their carbon footprint and 117 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:11,159 Speaker 1: working within their communities, neighborhoods, schools, and work to reduce 118 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: their use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural 119 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,720 Speaker 1: gas for energy and transportation, as well as producing their 120 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: use of single use plastics, one of the most commonly 121 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,160 Speaker 1: found items of ocean trash. The compose a threat of 122 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: entanglement or ingestion for large whales. Like many marine mammals, 123 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: blue whales migrate as the seasons change, but you can 124 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: find them all over the globe in every ocean except 125 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 1: the Arctic, and both on coastal shelves and deeper waters. 126 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 1: Ratner explained that the whales typically migrate towards the North 127 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:40,240 Speaker 1: and South poles, heading into cooler waters in the summer 128 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: to feast, than back toward the equator in the winter 129 00:06:42,600 --> 00:06:46,039 Speaker 1: to breed. The Calumbocutus adds that the blue whales migration 130 00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 1: patterns are slightly more flexible than other baley whales, like 131 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 1: the gray whale. This is mainly because blue whales are 132 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:54,080 Speaker 1: always in search of food to satisfy their large appetites, 133 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:56,640 Speaker 1: so their movements are geared more toward finding food sources 134 00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: than adhering to strict migratory patterns. Although there are a 135 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: number of distinct blue whale populations, they can broadly be 136 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: grouped to those that reside in the Northern hemisphere and 137 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: those that are found in the southern hemisphere. One of 138 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,480 Speaker 1: the larger populations in the northern hemisphere is the estimated 139 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: two thousand some blue whales that feed off the coast 140 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: of California and migrate to Costa Rica and Mexico. It's 141 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:20,520 Speaker 1: somewhat difficult to track them because satellite tagging that you 142 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: might use on other marine mammals like sea lions, could 143 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 1: cause skin infection in the whales. Scientists studying whales will 144 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: often use a more basic photo identification system to keep 145 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: track of specific blue whales around the world, because they 146 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: each have unique markings on their skin that can be 147 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: used to keep track of them and for some good news. 148 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:40,640 Speaker 1: According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red 149 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: List of Threatened species, blue whale numbers have likely gone 150 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: up in recent decades, so things seem to be looking 151 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: up for the blue giant. Today's episode was written by 152 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: Terry yar Lagata and produced by Tyler Clain. Brain Stuff 153 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:59,280 Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio's House Stuff Works. For 154 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:01,360 Speaker 1: more in this a months of other big topics, visit 155 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:03,720 Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for 156 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:06,000 Speaker 1: more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the I heart 157 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,640 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 158 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: favorite shows.