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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My

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Speaker 2: name is Robert Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Stuff to

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Speaker 3: Blow Your Mind, we are going to begin a couple

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Speaker 3: of episodes on the subject of blubber. I am surprisingly

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Speaker 3: fired up about blubber. I don't know exactly why, but

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Speaker 3: I'm like acheing to talk about it.

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Speaker 4: Well.

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Speaker 2: I think a big part of it is that, if

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Speaker 2: nothing else, blubber is just a funny word. It's just

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Speaker 2: a funny sounding word. I had to look into it

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Speaker 2: a little bit before we proceeded here, apparently stemming from

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Speaker 2: the late fourteenth century blobber, which describes bubbles, bubbling, or foaming,

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Speaker 2: often pointed out like the Middle English for foam, and

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Speaker 2: this also influences the verb blubber, as in two blubber.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, at the very least, blubber is just a

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Speaker 2: funny word to think about and say.

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Speaker 3: Does the word blob come from the same root as blubber?

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Speaker 2: I believe it does.

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Speaker 3: Wow, So it might not surprise you if you know

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Speaker 3: anything about marine mammal anatomy. To hear that, I started

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Speaker 3: thinking about Blubber to cover on the show because we've

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Speaker 3: come into the winter months here in the Southeastern United

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Speaker 3: States and I have felt that desire again to wrap

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Speaker 3: myself in coziness, to find barriers against the cold. And

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Speaker 3: this of course got me thinking about Blubber, which turned

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Speaker 3: my mind once again to one of my favorite weird

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Speaker 3: novels to quote and explore on stuff to blow your mind.

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Speaker 3: That is Herman Melville's Moby Dick. We've talked about passages

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Speaker 3: from Moby Dick on the show before, often related to

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Speaker 3: whale anatomy, but sometimes on other strange subjects. I know

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Speaker 3: we did a bunch of stuff about Moby Dick when

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Speaker 3: I did an episode with Lauren and Annie of of

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Speaker 3: the podcast Savor on Ambergris or Ambergrise uh, and we

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Speaker 3: talked about Moby Dick when Rob, when you and I

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Speaker 3: did some episodes on whale spout on like what exactly

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Speaker 3: is going on there when you see that you know,

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Speaker 3: the whale blast, what's coming out? And does it burn

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Speaker 3: the skin? Does it poison people? As alleged and Moby Dick.

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Speaker 2: I like that you have singled it out as a

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Speaker 2: weird novel.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it totally is weird.

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Speaker 2: I think it is easy. It's given its its notoriety,

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Speaker 2: and you know, everyone has heard of Moby Dick, and

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Speaker 2: a lot of people have. If you haven't read it,

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Speaker 2: you've at least seen a film adaptation of it, hopefully

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Speaker 2: one of the good ones. You might miss the fact that, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it is very weird in many regards.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's incredibly weird and what i'd say, one

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Speaker 3: of the weirdest books that people read in school probably.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 3: Oh.

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Speaker 2: We also talked about it briefly in Wrath of Khan,

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Speaker 2: our Weird House cinema episode, because of course it too

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Speaker 2: takes a hefty shot of Moby Dick.

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Speaker 3: Oh, that's right, but of course relating to blubber specifically,

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Speaker 3: in chapter sixty eight of Moby Dick, the narrator Ishmael

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Speaker 3: meditates on the concept of whale skin and whale blubber,

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Speaker 3: which he calls the blanket. Now, as we've talked about before,

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Speaker 3: the whale facts and Moby Dick are of varying accuracy

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Speaker 3: when reconciled against modern science. Sometimes they're pretty spot on,

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Speaker 3: other times they're way off. Some of the main observations

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Speaker 3: in this chapter, as we'll discuss are correct, mainly in

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Speaker 3: that Ishmael observes that the whale's body is surrounded by

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Speaker 3: a thick layer of blubber, and that one of the

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Speaker 3: blubber's main purposes is related to insulation the retention of

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Speaker 3: body heat. That's not the only thing that blubber does

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Speaker 3: in marine mammals, but that's a big part of it.

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Speaker 3: It's one of the most important things it does. So

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Speaker 3: first he marvels at the incredible size and quantity of

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Speaker 3: blubber within the whale, which, in the example of a

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Speaker 3: single sperm whale that he's talking about, boils down into

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Speaker 3: one hundred barrels of oil. He says, one hundred bear

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Speaker 3: of oil from a single whale, and that's not even

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Speaker 3: the entire mass of its outer skin or integument layer.

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Speaker 3: And he says that that gives the mind a hint

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Speaker 3: of the quote enormousness of that animated mass overall. And

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Speaker 3: he also observes the texture and the makeup of the blubber,

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Speaker 3: which is quote something of the consistence of firm, close

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Speaker 3: grained beef, but tougher, more elastic and compact, and ranges

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Speaker 3: from eight or ten to twelve and fifteen inches in thickness.

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Speaker 3: He also remarks curiously when he's looking at the outer

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Speaker 3: skin of the sperm whale. He says that the sperm

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Speaker 3: whale's skin is quote all over, obliquely crossed and recrossed,

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Speaker 3: with numberless straight marks in thick array, something like those

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Speaker 3: in the finest Italian line engravings, which he later also

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Speaker 3: compares to Egyptian hieroglyphics. He especially makes the connection to

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Speaker 3: the mysteriousness of the hieroglyphics and the mysteriousness of the

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Speaker 3: marks the whale's body. I think we now know that

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Speaker 3: this is actually a common thing you do see on

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Speaker 3: the bodies of sperm whales, that they will have lines

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Speaker 3: or sometimes even circular scars over their bodies, which can

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Speaker 3: in part come from battles with the squid they hunt,

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Speaker 3: can come from running into things, butting, fights with other whales,

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Speaker 3: all kinds of scrapings and accidents, maybe sat yes, mating,

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Speaker 3: maybe other contact with fishing equipment or whatever. The whales

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Speaker 3: can get a lot of scars. And I love thinking

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Speaker 3: of these scars on the outside of the sperm whale

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Speaker 3: skin as like a mysterious language to be deciphered.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.

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Speaker 3: But then Finally he comes to marvel at the blubber

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Speaker 3: as a heat retaining adaptation within the whale, which he

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Speaker 3: kind of connects two thoughts about human character. So I'm

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Speaker 3: going to read a more extended passage here. Ishmael says, quote,

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Speaker 3: it is by reason of this cozy blanketing of his

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Speaker 3: body that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable

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Speaker 3: in all weathers, in all seas, times and tides. What

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Speaker 3: would become of a greenland whale, say, in those shuddering

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Speaker 3: icy seas of the north, if unsupplied with his cozy surtout.

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Speaker 3: Surtout is a type of coat from the time. By

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Speaker 3: the way, so his cozy surtout true. Other fish are

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Speaker 3: found exceedingly brisk in those hyperborean waters. But these, be

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Speaker 3: it observed, are your cold blooded, lungless fish, whose very

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Speaker 3: bellies are refrigerators, creatures that warm themselves under the lee

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Speaker 3: of an iceberg, as a traveler in winter would bask

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Speaker 3: before an infire, whereas like man, the whale has lungs

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Speaker 3: and warm blood freeze his blood and he dies. How

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Speaker 3: wonderful it is, then, except after explanation, that this great monster,

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Speaker 3: to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it is

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Speaker 3: to man. How wonderful that he should be found at home,

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Speaker 3: immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters.

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Speaker 3: And then a little later he says, it does seemed

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Speaker 3: to me that herein we see the rare virtue of

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Speaker 3: a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls,

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Speaker 3: and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh man, admire

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Speaker 3: and model thyself after the whale. Do thou too remain

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Speaker 3: warm among ice? Do thou too live in this world

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Speaker 3: without being of it? Be cool at the equator, Keep

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Speaker 3: thy blood fluid at the pole, like the great dome

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Speaker 3: of Saint Peter's, and like the great whale. Retain o man,

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Speaker 3: in all seasons a temperature of thine own beautiful.

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Speaker 2: I love it. I especially want to get back to

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Speaker 2: that immerse to his lips for life in those Arctic waters.

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Speaker 3: Later on in this episode, now I mentioned that this

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Speaker 3: chapter I was just quoting from is called The Blanket

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Speaker 3: Chapter sixty eight. The blanket. The blanket referring to the

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Speaker 3: coating of blubber around the whale's body. There is actually

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Speaker 3: a much earlier part of the story which struck me

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Speaker 3: as abstractly and yet powerfully can to this chapter, and

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Speaker 3: this earlier part is not about whale anatomy at all,

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Speaker 3: but about a literal blanket. And it seems also related

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Speaker 3: somehow to the seasonal mind state I've been in that

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Speaker 3: got me thinking about blubber. So this is chapter eleven,

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Speaker 3: much earlier. It's called night Gown, and the context in

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Speaker 3: the story is that because of overcrowding at a boarding

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Speaker 3: house on Nantucket, Ishmael he's just arrived there and he

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Speaker 3: has been forced to share a room, and not to

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Speaker 3: share a room, to share a bed at the boarding

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Speaker 3: house with the Polynesian harpooneer quek Weeg. And he's initially

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Speaker 3: much annoyed by these circumstances, but then after some reflection

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Speaker 3: and some experiences together, Ishmael comes to not just tolerate,

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Speaker 3: but admire and even adore quek Weeg, and they become

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Speaker 3: best of friends, in Ishmael's words, a cozy, loving pair

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Speaker 3: on their honeymoon. So in the Nightgown chapter, Ishmael writes

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Speaker 3: of sharing a bed in a blanket at the boarding

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Speaker 3: house with quik Weeg. He says, first they try to sleep,

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Speaker 3: then they're not able to sleep. And then finally, he says, quote,

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Speaker 3: we became very wakeful, so much so that our recumbent

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Speaker 3: position began to grow wearisome. And by little and little

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Speaker 3: we found ourselves sitting up, the clothes well tucked around us,

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Speaker 3: leaning against the headboard, with our fore knees drawn up

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Speaker 3: close together, and our two noses bending over them, as

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Speaker 3: if our knee pans were warming pans. We felt very

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Speaker 3: nice and snug, the more so since it was so

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Speaker 3: chilly out of doors, indeed out of bedclothes too, seeing

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Speaker 3: that there was no fire in the room. The more so,

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Speaker 3: I say, because truly to enjoy bodily warmth, some small

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Speaker 3: part of you must be cold. For there is no

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Speaker 3: quality in this world that is not what it is merely.

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Speaker 3: By contrast, nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself

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Speaker 3: that you are all over comfortable, and you have been

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Speaker 3: so a long time, then you cannot be said to

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Speaker 3: be comfortable anymore. But if, like Queequeg and me in

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Speaker 3: the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown

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Speaker 3: of your head slightly chilled, why then indeed, in the

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Speaker 3: general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For

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Speaker 3: this reason, a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with

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Speaker 3: a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of

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Speaker 3: the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness

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Speaker 3: is to have nothing but the blanket between you and

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Speaker 3: your snugness and the cold of the outer air. Then

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Speaker 3: there you lie, like the one warm spark in the

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Speaker 3: heart of an arctic crystal.

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Speaker 2: Beautiful? Beautiful. Do you think that the two characters were

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Speaker 2: talking about any of this as they said in bed? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Maybe, I don't know. I don't remember at this point

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Speaker 3: in the story how extensively the two characters are communicating

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Speaker 3: across it. I don't remember what to what extent. There's

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Speaker 3: a language barrier at the beginning of their friendship.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it could have been said, if I could have

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Speaker 2: just said, Hey, isn't this delicious? I'm glad we don't

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Speaker 2: have a fire.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, But no, I think there really is something to

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Speaker 3: that that there is a way that it is much

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Speaker 3: cozier to be warm under a blanket in a cold

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Speaker 3: room then to be under a blanket in a warm room.

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Speaker 3: I mean, in a way that's almost obvious.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, No, I'm a big blanket fan. If it's

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Speaker 2: too hot, I'm a little bit sad that I don't

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Speaker 2: get to cover up with blankets more. Yeah, and then

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Speaker 2: when it's too cold, I'm just sad in general. So

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Speaker 2: the one warm stark, Yeah, I know what he's getting

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Speaker 2: at here.

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Speaker 3: But I thought that this was beautiful and insightful, and

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Speaker 3: to some extent it makes me think also of the

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Speaker 3: anatomy of the whale, thinking of the whale's body as

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Speaker 3: a blanket, the idea of creatures that carry their blanket

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Speaker 3: with them into the icy waters. And if you apply

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Speaker 3: the same reasoning, you know, as we'll discuss in the

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Speaker 3: anatomy of the whale, the whale is not coated in

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Speaker 3: every single part of its body by the blubber. So

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Speaker 3: I wonder what the sensation of the whale is. You know,

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Speaker 3: it has blubber mostly all around its body, but maybe

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Speaker 3: not fully in the flippers or something. So does it

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Speaker 3: have those little exposures to the iciness around it? What

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Speaker 3: does it feel like to the whale? Does the whale

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Speaker 3: have that sensation in the cold it feels with the

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Speaker 3: flippers or some little parts of its body of the

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Speaker 3: one warm spark in the heart of an Arctic crystal,

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Speaker 3: except it doesn't have to wrap itself in the blanket.

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Speaker 3: The blanket is under its skin.

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Speaker 2: That's a great question. Yeah, I mean, another thing about

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Speaker 2: blubbers we'll discuss is that blubber is not uniform thickness

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Speaker 2: over the entire body of the whale. It's going to

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Speaker 2: vary in thickness depending on where you're looking at. So

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Speaker 2: I know it's a human thing, I guess, But anytime

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Speaker 2: I see a creature that has evolved to thrive in

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Speaker 2: the cold corners of the world, it doesn't depend on

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Speaker 2: its technology to do so. Like humans, I always just

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Speaker 2: kind of, on some like non thinking level, assume that

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Speaker 2: they're just really called and miserable all the time. But

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Speaker 2: of course that would be it'd be that's rather unreasonable

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Speaker 2: with me.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I wonder if that's the equivalent of a tropical

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Speaker 3: lizard looking at us, being at you know, seventy two

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Speaker 3: degrees in the shade, and thinking we must be miserable.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So anyway, and the rest of the series, we're going

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Speaker 3: to be exploring blubber as biology and also some things

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Speaker 3: about blubber in hue and culture.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, most of that will probably be in the second episode. Yes,

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Speaker 2: this episode will be more about what blubber is and

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Speaker 2: what it is to a specific whale species.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, what it is and what it is not.

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Speaker 2: Yes.

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Speaker 3: So the best source I found rob in providing a

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Speaker 3: scientific overview of blubber is actually an extensive, in depth

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Speaker 3: entry in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals from two thousand

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Speaker 3: and nine from Academic Press. This article is by a

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Speaker 3: well known marine biologist named Sarah J. Iverson, who is

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Speaker 3: affiliated with Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. So I thought

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Speaker 3: maybe we could start off by going through this entry

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Speaker 3: talking about some of the points that Iverson raises and

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Speaker 3: branch out for discussion at various places as we go along.

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Speaker 3: All right, so what is blubber. Blubber is fat, yes,

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Speaker 3: but it is not just fat. It is not just

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Speaker 3: like the adapose tissue of other mammals in the world.

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Speaker 3: Blubber is, in Iverson's words, a quote dense, vasculared layer

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Speaker 3: of fat beneath the skin. So it is a special

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Speaker 3: type of fat tissue that is a characteristic trait of

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Speaker 3: marine mammals. It is found only in the mammals of

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Speaker 3: the sea. There are not really fully land dwelling animals

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Speaker 3: that have blubber, so all cetaceans meaning whales, porpoises and dolphins,

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Speaker 3: all cyrenians like manatees and dugongs, and all pinnipeds meaning

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Speaker 3: seals have blubber. Iverson notes a couple of exceptions of

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Speaker 3: marine or semimarine mammals. Things you might think of as

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Speaker 3: marine mammals or semimarine mammals that don't have blubber. Polar

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Speaker 3: bears and sea otters don't have blubber strictly defined, though

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Speaker 3: obviously they do have and rely on fat. Polar bears

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Speaker 3: tend to store a lot of subcutaneous fat, which is

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Speaker 3: used to insulate the body, but it doesn't have the

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Speaker 3: special structural and chemical features found in blubber. It's more

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Speaker 3: like regular terrestrial carnivore fat, but they do keep a

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Speaker 3: lot of on their body when they can to help

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Speaker 3: stay warm. Blubber is an incredibly important adaptation for marine mammals.

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Speaker 3: It makes marine mammal life possible, and in some species,

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Speaker 3: at particular stages of life or times of the year,

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Speaker 3: blubber can make up fifty percent of the animal's total

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Speaker 3: body mass. So you know some whales you meet are

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Speaker 3: half blubber. In part, blubber serves the same purpose as

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Speaker 3: fat in other organisms, so it stores food food energy

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Speaker 3: that can later be burned to support the body's energy

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Speaker 3: needs when food is scarce. But it also does other

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Speaker 3: important things for marine mammals. Most importantly, probably blubber is insulation.

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Speaker 3: It protects marine mammals body heat against the often extreme

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Speaker 3: cold of their watery environments, and it does so in

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Speaker 3: particular interesting and dynamic ways. We'll talk about that more

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Speaker 3: as we go on, but blubber also aids in buoyancy

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Speaker 3: and has interesting functions in help with locomotion, maybe in

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Speaker 3: some cases streamlining the body in the water, in other

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Speaker 3: cases even serving as a kind of spring. We can

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Speaker 3: talk more about that later. And also you can learn

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Speaker 3: a lot about a marine mammal by looking at its blubber.

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Speaker 3: At the species level, you can learn about its evolutionary

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Speaker 3: history and environmental specialization, and at the individual level, you

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Speaker 3: can learn a lot of things about like what this

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Speaker 3: animal has been eating and where it's been foraging by

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Speaker 3: looking at its blubber.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and another factor that I think we already kind

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Speaker 2: of alluded to in terms of like the scarring on

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Speaker 2: a whale is that blubber does provide some level of protection,

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Speaker 2: some level of armor, which can can seem a little

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Speaker 2: counterintuitive at first, because we think of an animal's armor,

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Speaker 2: we think of hard armor. We think of hard, unfeeling

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Speaker 2: protection between the organism and its many threats, And obviously

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Speaker 2: blubber is not quite a hard shell. But on the

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Speaker 2: other hand, it can sustain a fair amount of damage

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Speaker 2: from an animal's environment, so it does have to a

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Speaker 2: limited degree some sort of an armor role here as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and even in non marine mammals, there are cases

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Speaker 3: where fat plays an important role in protective cushioning, you

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Speaker 3: might say, even if it's not like, you know, not

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Speaker 3: like plate armor, but it does play a protective role

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Speaker 3: in some types of cushioning basically patting. So getting into

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Speaker 3: the structure of blubber. Blubber is subcutaneous fat, meaning that

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Speaker 3: it's stored around the outside of the body, just under

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Speaker 3: the skin. And this is in contrast to visceral fat,

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Speaker 3: which is stored deeper in the body cavity surrounding the organs.

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Speaker 3: Blubber sits just under the skin, kind of loosely enveloping

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Speaker 3: the underlying layer of muscles. And as I mentioned, blub

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Speaker 3: is not just fat. It is this special type of

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Speaker 3: fat tissue which is shaped by evolution for a very

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Speaker 3: special purpose, primarily that of a dynamic thermal insulator. So

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Speaker 3: in most marine mammals, the blubber layer is a continuous

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Speaker 3: covering for almost the entire body, with some exceptions like

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Speaker 3: the appendages. Often the flippers won't have blubber. Though it

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Speaker 3: does tend to cover the whole body, it doesn't cover

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Speaker 3: it evenly everywhere, so the thickness and structure of the

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Speaker 3: blubber layer differ on different parts of the body for

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Speaker 3: reasons we'll probably get into later.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: While blubber is not just regular fat tissue, it is

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Speaker 3: still basically fat tissue. It's similar to regular fat, also

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Speaker 3: known as adipose tissue, in that it is made mainly

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Speaker 3: of fat cells called adipocytes. Atopocytes are energy storage cells

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Speaker 3: that first form in an immature ste age without fat

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Speaker 3: or without much fat stored in them. They're initially mostly

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Speaker 3: protein and water, and then as the animal is able

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Speaker 3: to take in more food energy than needed to sustain

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Speaker 3: its metabolism, the extra energy is stored as lipid molecules.

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Speaker 3: In the now mature fat cell as atiposites accumulate these

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Speaker 3: liquid droplets for storage. They swell up in size, so

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Speaker 3: adipocytes are very stretchable cells. Their cells that can grow

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Speaker 3: and shrink as needed. When they fill up with fat,

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Speaker 3: they stretch and grow. When fat stores are depleted, they

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Speaker 3: can shrink back down to size.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Humans, as humans, we tend to have a very

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Speaker 2: toxic relationship just with the word fat, almost to the

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Speaker 2: point where it colors or creates a barrier to understanding

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Speaker 2: its necessity for an organism, or or at least that's

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Speaker 2: the way I have often been found in anytime I'm

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Speaker 2: reading about like the actual purposes of fat, fatty tissue,

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Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, of course this is actually super important.

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Speaker 2: But we're often just coded to, you know, buy the

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Speaker 2: media and culture to have to feel a certain way

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Speaker 2: about even the idea of a fat in our body.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I can see that. Well, I would

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Speaker 3: encourage you out there to try to break that shackle

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Speaker 3: in your brain, like not to associate, you know, any

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Speaker 3: kind of negative cultural ideas or whatever with the idea

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Speaker 3: of fat biology. Like, fat is really interesting tissue and

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Speaker 3: it's really important, you know, it's almost I would almost

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Speaker 3: say it's like the biological equivalent of wealth in a way.

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Speaker 3: It's like, you know, something that can be accumulated to

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Speaker 3: be used later and serves important purposes along the way.

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Speaker 3: So these fat cells, they can they can grow and

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Speaker 3: shrink as needed, and in most atipos tissue, these fat

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Speaker 3: cells are packed densely together and held together by what's

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Speaker 3: called an extracellular matrix, a kind of honeycomb mesh or

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Speaker 3: three D net made out of things like collagen fibers.

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Speaker 3: Collagen is the structural protein found in animal skin and

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Speaker 3: in connective tissues. A lot of cooks will be familiar

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Speaker 3: with collagen because structural collagen is a major part of

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Speaker 3: what makes certain cuts of meat tough, Like tough muscles

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Speaker 3: usually have a lot of collagen connective tissue in them,

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Speaker 3: and so these are the cuts that typically you have

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Speaker 3: to slow cook. You want to cook for a long time,

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Speaker 3: maybe with moist heat, and that type of treatment tends

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Speaker 3: to turn these tough cuts of meat with a lot

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Speaker 3: of collagen tender. It makes them tender because the collagen

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Speaker 3: breaks down and turns into gelatin, giving the final product

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Speaker 3: a soft texture. This is part of what sets blubber apart.

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Speaker 3: Blubber has significantly more of this structural material than most

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Speaker 3: adipose tissue in the animal kingdom, more collagen, more elastic fiber.

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Speaker 3: And for this reason you can kind of think back

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Speaker 3: to the description in Moby Dick of the blubber as saying,

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Speaker 3: you know, it's kind of like firm, close grained beef,

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Speaker 3: but he describes it also as tougher, as elastic and compact.

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Speaker 3: There's something dense and springy about it. It's just it's

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Speaker 3: tough stuff. And I think a lot of this probably

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Speaker 3: comes from this extra collagen and elastic content. I expect

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Speaker 3: we'll get more into this in part two when we

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Speaker 3: talk about blubber as a food item, which it is,

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Speaker 3: especially for people living in the polar regions. But I

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Speaker 3: would suspect because of this extra collagen and structural fiber

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Speaker 3: that blubber is a good bit chewier and tougher than

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Speaker 3: most animal fat. Maybe we'll have to revisit that next time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but certainly in the meantime, for any of you

400
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Speaker 2: out there who have personal culinary experience with blubber, go

401
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Speaker 2: ahead and write in.

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Speaker 3: Totally yes please. And by the way, Iverson also in

403
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Speaker 3: this entry mentions the textural difference in blubber between blubber

404
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Speaker 3: and regular fat, not in the context of blubber as food.

405
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Speaker 3: She writes that blubber tends to have a quote firm, tough,

406
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Speaker 3: and fibrous character, distinct from most other animal fats, and

407
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Speaker 3: this toughness and strength gives blubber a lot of its

408
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:13,200
Speaker 3: important adaptive qualities for the marine mammal. Another common structural

409
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Speaker 3: distinction that biologists make about blubber as opposed to other

410
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Speaker 3: adipose tissue is that it is highly vascularized. In Iverson's words, quote,

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Speaker 3: blubber also contains numerous blood vessels and specialized shunts called

412
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Speaker 3: arteriovenous anastomoses or avas, which allow larger and swifter blood

413
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Speaker 3: flow than would be possible through the capillaries alone and

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Speaker 3: are important to the thermoregulation process. So this is the

415
00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 3: really key thing about blubber as an insulation method. It's

416
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Speaker 3: not just static insulation. Say like a beer cooler. You know,

417
00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 3: a beer cooler is really it's great. Beer cooler provides

418
00:23:59,359 --> 00:24:02,400
Speaker 3: great insulate You can put cold things in, It'll stay

419
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Speaker 3: cold a long time, even on a hot day. You

420
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Speaker 3: can put hot things in it. They'll stay hot for

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00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 3: a long time. You know, it's great, but how insulating

422
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 3: the cooler is does not change unless you open the lid.

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Speaker 3: Blubber is adapted to selectively either insulate the body and

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Speaker 3: keep the blood flow and thus heat exchange to the

425
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Speaker 3: outside minimal, or on the other hand, to allow rapid

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Speaker 3: voluminous blood flow through the fat tissue and near the skin,

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Speaker 3: including by connecting veins directly to arteries, or I think

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Speaker 3: these would be slightly smaller vessels like arterials and you

429
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 3: know the next step down from veins and arteries directly

430
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 3: connecting those things. And this is important because it gives

431
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:52,160
Speaker 3: the animal a lot of control over its internal body temperature.

432
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 3: The blubber is an insulator that protects body heat against

433
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 3: the cold water when needed, and then allows the mammal

434
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,879
Speaker 3: to wrap it dump excess heat into the water when needed,

435
00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:07,200
Speaker 3: for example during exertion to make more vigorous activity possible

436
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,680
Speaker 3: without overheating, or just when it goes into hotter, warmer waters.

437
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 2: So this is going to be an outrageous overstatement of

438
00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 2: the obvious, but sometimes I think these can be helpful,

439
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 2: like it is helpful to compare the blubber to a

440
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:24,760
Speaker 2: blanket or a winter coat. But a winter coat or

441
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:28,240
Speaker 2: a nice blanket is not a part of our body. No,

442
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 2: the blubber is a living part of the creature's body.

443
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:34,959
Speaker 2: It is at once the thing it is using to

444
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,400
Speaker 2: maintain its temperature and also the flesh that is being maintained.

445
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:40,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like if a coat were part of your body,

446
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,800
Speaker 3: and you could flip a switch to make the coat

447
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,199
Speaker 3: either make you hotter or make you colder. Now, this

448
00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 3: is another thing we will explore more as we go on,

449
00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 3: but it's important to note that there are huge variations

450
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 3: in blubber thickness among marine mammals. I'm not sure if

451
00:25:56,600 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 3: the numbers that Melville gives in mobi deck about the

452
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 3: average thickness of a sperm whales blubber layer are correct,

453
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:07,840
Speaker 3: But I don't know. Maybe he's in the zone, but

454
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,200
Speaker 3: I have questions about that. But there is at least

455
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:17,679
Speaker 3: large variability between species and between individuals. So as animal

456
00:26:17,680 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 3: bodies get bigger, of course, it tends to be the

457
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 3: case that volume increases more rapidly than surface area. This

458
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,840
Speaker 3: is sometimes known as the square cube law in animal

459
00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:33,000
Speaker 3: body sizes, and as a result, larger species tend to

460
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 3: have much thicker layers of blubber, so some examples given

461
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:40,919
Speaker 3: by Iversen in this entry are that you might get

462
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 3: arrange for like seven to ten centimeters of blubber in

463
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 3: a lot of adult seals, and then up to twenty

464
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 3: to thirty centimeters in fin whales, and then up to

465
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:54,160
Speaker 3: fifty centimeters of blubber in the bowhead whale, which I'm

466
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 3: to understand is one of the most shocking and amazing

467
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,439
Speaker 3: blubber carriers in nature. Maybe the raining champion. I think

468
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 3: we're gonna you've got some stuff about the bowhead whale,

469
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:04,280
Speaker 3: don't you, Rob.

470
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 2: Yes, we'll definitely be coming back to the bowhead whale

471
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 2: here in a bit. Now, I do want a note

472
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 2: real quick that in the different sources we were looking

473
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 2: at for this episode, we did find that sided blubber

474
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,640
Speaker 2: thickness for specific species of whale can vary quite a bit.

475
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 2: And I'm to understand this depends on what sort of

476
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,760
Speaker 2: criteria you're using for measuring of the thickness, not so

477
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 2: much that like this source is wrong and this source

478
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:32,640
Speaker 2: is right right.

479
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 3: So Iverson in this entry says that like, the bowhead

480
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 3: can be up to fifty centimeters of thickness. I don't

481
00:27:38,760 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 3: know if that's like at the absolute maximum the thickest

482
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,680
Speaker 3: place or something, or if that's referring to an average.

483
00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 3: But I think you had the book by Karwadine that

484
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,760
Speaker 3: cited a lower figure but still a huge amount of blubber.

485
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 2: Correct. Yeah, so either in either case, the bowhead whale

486
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 2: is the best. If you will, it is the most

487
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 2: bloody best. And we'll, yeah, we'll come back for a

488
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 2: little more on the bowhead because I think it will

489
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 2: be illustrated to get into to get to know the

490
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,480
Speaker 2: most blobbery whale, and in so doing learn why it

491
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 2: is so blubbery.

492
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 3: Yeah. Another thing that's amazing about these animals with these

493
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 3: thick blubber layers is how rapidly it can accumulate in

494
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 3: like a newborn marine mammal as it nurses. Iverson talks

495
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:25,240
Speaker 3: about this, this idea that newborn seals have very little

496
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 3: blubber when they're born. They instead, the newborns usually rely

497
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:33,080
Speaker 3: on fur for insulation, fur or maybe a fine type

498
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 3: of mammal hair found on newborns called lenugo, and these

499
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 3: baby seals cope with their lack of blubber by simply

500
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 3: delaying entry into the water. So you know, most baby

501
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 3: seals are born on land or born on ice, and

502
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 3: they'll have to wait until sufficient fat stores are built

503
00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:53,960
Speaker 3: up before they can dive in and go for that

504
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 3: wet life. But the blubber accumulates fast, So Iverson mentions

505
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 3: the example of a newborn harp seal or of Foca grenlandica,

506
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 3: in which blubber is only on average about six percent

507
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:12,520
Speaker 3: of body mass when the seal is newly born and

508
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 3: the blubber is only made of about twenty percent fat,

509
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 3: and then after a mere twelve day lactation period, the

510
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 3: baby seals are often up to fifty percent blubber by

511
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 3: weight and the blubber is ninety percent fat, So six

512
00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,720
Speaker 3: percent of the body to fifty percent of the body

513
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 3: in twelve days. And you can see the opposite during

514
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,560
Speaker 3: times of fasting when adults are separated from food, for

515
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 3: example nursing mothers. We can talk about that in a bit.

516
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:44,480
Speaker 3: When adult marine mammals can't get food, fat stores rapidly deplete.

517
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 3: So what types of lipid molecules do you find in

518
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 3: marine mammal blubber. Well, marine mammal fats are mostly made

519
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 3: up of fats that these animals get directly from their

520
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 3: food sources, including long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFA,

521
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 3: and what Iversen calls quote unique fatty acids produced at

522
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 3: lower trophic levels of the marine ecosystem, meaning fats from

523
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 3: lower down the ocean food chain. That's the majority of it.

524
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,840
Speaker 3: But marine mammals can also make their own fat. They

525
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:25,719
Speaker 3: can synthesize fat molecules from excess amino acids in the diet.

526
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 3: I think they probably could make fat out of carbohydrates

527
00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 3: as well, but the diet of a marine mammal is

528
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 3: extremely low in carbohydrates. Usually they're doing that Atkins diet life.

529
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, in many cases, but certainly with the maleene whales,

530
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 2: we're talking about the consumption of a lot of tiny

531
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:43,480
Speaker 2: oceanic organisms.

532
00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 4: Yeah.

533
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:55,800
Speaker 3: But anyway, I think we need to come back to

534
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 3: the idea of blubber as thermoregulation, because this is a

535
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,760
Speaker 3: big deal. This is a big part of the evolutionary

536
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 3: function of blubber. In general, fat is an insulator. It

537
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,360
Speaker 3: slows the exchange of heat. And I've read about some

538
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,959
Speaker 3: fun looking experiments designed for kids just to illustrate this.

539
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 3: I kind of want to do one with my daughter.

540
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:21,479
Speaker 3: I didn't have time to do it before we did

541
00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 3: this episode today, but maybe I'll get around to it soon.

542
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,480
Speaker 3: So one of these experiments is called the Crisco glove

543
00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 3: or the blubber glove test. So the way it works

544
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,200
Speaker 3: is you get a bucket of ice bucket of ice water,

545
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 3: and then you make a couple of mittens out of

546
00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 3: ziploc bags. So one is going to be your control mitten.

547
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:43,320
Speaker 3: That's just two bags, one bag inside of the other

548
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 3: with nothing in them, and then your hand is inserted

549
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 3: into the inner bag and then the other pair of

550
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,680
Speaker 3: bags is your test mitten. So your hand goes into

551
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 3: the inner plastic bag, and then that bag goes into

552
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 3: a second plastic bag with a layer of vegetable shortening

553
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 3: in between the two bags. And then the idea is

554
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 3: when you dip both hands into the water, you will

555
00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 3: feel the difference. The layer of shortening in the test

556
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 3: bag insulates your hand and keeps it warm against the

557
00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,080
Speaker 3: cold water, while the hand in the control bag will

558
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 3: rapidly lose heat in the ice water and start to

559
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 3: feel very cold.

560
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I bet kids love this experiment. It has all

561
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 2: the hallmarks of a great kids science experiments. It has

562
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 2: sliminess and goofiness, it has immersion in another substance. Yeah,

563
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 2: I'm a little shocked. I'd never heard of it till now.

564
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:38,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, it's a great illustration of this principle.

565
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 3: That's not just about blubber and marine mammals. Marine mammals

566
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 3: are not the only animals that use fat as a

567
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:46,920
Speaker 3: form of insulation against the cold. There is a common

568
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 3: adaptation throughout the animal kingdom, but marine mammals face some

569
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 3: specific challenges when it comes to thermoregulation. First of all,

570
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 3: they live in the water, and cold water remove heat

571
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 3: from the body more rapidly than air of the same temperature.

572
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 3: If you doubt this, just try it. Just feel the

573
00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:11,840
Speaker 3: difference between standing naked in a room where the air

574
00:33:11,960 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 3: is sixty degrees fahrenheit and then standing naked in sixty

575
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:20,240
Speaker 3: degree fahrenheit water. The difference is unbelievable. It is starting.

576
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,680
Speaker 3: The former is probably going to be a bit uncomfortable,

577
00:33:23,760 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 3: depending on your preferences. The latter is shocking. It will

578
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 3: make you gasp.

579
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've conducted this very experiment at the local YMCA

580
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 2: pool before.

581
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 3: Oh, does it get that cold?

582
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:39,400
Speaker 2: There and on. Sometimes it does, so it generally it

583
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 2: would mean that there's been a malfunction with the pool

584
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,720
Speaker 2: heaters or I mean, that's the most extreme case. But

585
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 2: I've also found that if there's like a rapid change

586
00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 2: in temperature, like we go from a reasonably warm day

587
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 2: to suddenly it's winter weather, there's going to be a

588
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:58,240
Speaker 2: little lag sometimes in the pool catching up. Ooh, so yeah,

589
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:00,800
Speaker 2: those are the mornings. So mainly they heat or failure

590
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:03,959
Speaker 2: days where you're really shocked when you jump in.

591
00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:06,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, same temperature, but the colt but the water

592
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 3: at that temperature is so so much more of a

593
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:14,720
Speaker 3: shock to your body. Water has a thermal conductivity about

594
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 3: twenty five times that of air, so it's just able

595
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:22,680
Speaker 3: to remove heat from your body so much faster. And

596
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 3: when you are surrounded by air, you also usually benefit

597
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 3: from a thin layer of warmer air that just hovers

598
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 3: around your skin. Warmed by your body, this small layer

599
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 3: of warmer air provides some insulation for you in itself.

600
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,160
Speaker 3: No such luck really in the water. The water absorbs

601
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 3: your body's heat directly to whatever stint. There is a

602
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 3: warm layer of water around your body. When you're in

603
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 3: the water, it's microscopically tiny and does not really do

604
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,279
Speaker 3: anything to help keep you warm. So you just out

605
00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 3: of luck there.

606
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 2: Your only help is going to come the form of

607
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 2: bodily exercise. Are getting dry, yeah, or getting out yeah,

608
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:08,040
Speaker 2: the transitioning to the hot tub for sure.

609
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 4: Yeah.

610
00:35:08,960 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 3: So cold water is just so much more unforgiving than

611
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,760
Speaker 3: cold air. And so that's one thing. They're in the water.

612
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:18,839
Speaker 3: The other thing is marine mammals, like all mammals, are

613
00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:23,399
Speaker 3: homeothermic indotherms. They produce their own body heat, and their

614
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,799
Speaker 3: bodies need to stay warm or they will rapidly lose

615
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 3: functionality and die. They are not like there are animals

616
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:34,360
Speaker 3: that whose body temperature can fluctuate much more throughout and

617
00:35:34,400 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 3: the animal will be okay. You know, homeothermic endo therms

618
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:41,760
Speaker 3: are not like that. The water is a harsh place

619
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:43,799
Speaker 3: for a homeothermic endotherm to live.

620
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, And Malvell alludes to this wonderful in that passage

621
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:48,560
Speaker 2: you're at. Yeah.

622
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 3: So to get around this, marine mammals, they've got several adaptations.

623
00:35:53,120 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 3: One is size. Marine mammals are larger on average than

624
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 3: terrestrial mammals. Even the smallest marine mammals are pretty big,

625
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 3: especially when you think about the actual average size of

626
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 3: terrestrial mammals. I mean, there are so many extremely tiny

627
00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:14,319
Speaker 3: terrestrial mammals. I haven't calculated it, but I would guess

628
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 3: the average size of a terrestrial mammal is like a

629
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:21,520
Speaker 3: large rat or something. But marine mammals, the smallest ones

630
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 3: are still fairly big by land mammal size. And this

631
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:28,520
Speaker 3: is evolution taking advantage of the square cube law. Again.

632
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,799
Speaker 3: As animal bodies get bigger, volume increases more rapidly than

633
00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 3: surface area, and animals lose heat to the environment through

634
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:41,240
Speaker 3: their skin through their external surface area. So the internal

635
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 3: body volume makes and holds the heat, and then the

636
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 3: surface area, which decreases in proportion to that volume as

637
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 3: the animal gets bigger, is what loses the heat. Thus,

638
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 3: bigger body, greater relative heat retention.

639
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and just a one more note on the largeness

640
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,600
Speaker 2: of marine mammals, I mean, the biggest of the marine mammals,

641
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:03,920
Speaker 2: the blue whale is not only the biggest whale and

642
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,759
Speaker 2: the biggest vertebrate and mammal alive today, it is the

643
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 2: biggest vertebrate and largest animal known to have ever existed.

644
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a body plan that works in the water.

645
00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:16,160
Speaker 3: Big bodies help you stay warm in the cold water.

646
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 3: But the size is one thing. I Everson notes that

647
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 3: then the other thing, of course, is insulation. Now, blubber

648
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 3: is not the only form of insulation used by marine mammals.

649
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 3: In some cases, these animals rely on fur, which tends

650
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:37,520
Speaker 3: to work best in air, specifically because fur works by

651
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 3: trapping one of those insulating layers of air around the body,

652
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:46,479
Speaker 3: so it traps air as insulation. But in cases where

653
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:49,120
Speaker 3: fur would be less effective, like for animals that live

654
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 3: underwater all the time, blubber is going to be the

655
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:55,239
Speaker 3: better option, especially because blubber works in both air and

656
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:57,759
Speaker 3: in water. So in animals that live in the water

657
00:37:57,800 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 3: and then come out of the water, like some seals

658
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,200
Speaker 3: and so forth, blubber is still going to be helpful

659
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 3: because it works in both places. Interestingly, some marine mammals,

660
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 3: like sea otters, are able to use fur as insulation

661
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:15,160
Speaker 3: even in the water. And I got interested in why

662
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 3: this is. It seems like this is because their fur

663
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 3: is so good at trapping air. It can actually carry

664
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 3: an insulating layer of air with them when they dive.

665
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:28,680
Speaker 3: So they go into the water and they take a

666
00:38:28,719 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 3: little bubble with them that's trapped in their fur. It

667
00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 3: seems like this doesn't work, maybe if they dive too deep,

668
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,840
Speaker 3: where water pressure will compress or push out the bubbles

669
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:42,840
Speaker 3: of air and the insulation will be lost. And this

670
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:45,720
Speaker 3: is probably why you only see the preference for fur

671
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:50,160
Speaker 3: over blubber retained in marine or semimarine mammals like otters

672
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 3: and polar bears, which spend significant time in the air

673
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:56,520
Speaker 3: up on the land or on the ice and don't

674
00:38:56,560 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 3: need to dive too deep or for too long. As

675
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,759
Speaker 3: I talked about earlier, bluffer is an amazing adaptation for

676
00:39:03,960 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 3: heat control because it is not a passive static form

677
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 3: of insulation. It's dynamic and it can change its insulating

678
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 3: properties as needed in the moment, particularly by changing how

679
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 3: it channels blood flow. So when warm arterial blood from

680
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 3: the center of the body flows out toward the skin,

681
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 3: it loses heat to the surrounding water and cools the body.

682
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:31,600
Speaker 3: When that arterial blood is kept away from the skin,

683
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 3: it retains heat. And because blubber is so vascularized, it

684
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 3: can switch this heat exchanging blood flow on or off

685
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,800
Speaker 3: depending on what the animal needs. So in cold water

686
00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:46,399
Speaker 3: it can keep the blood further inside, keep it away

687
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,200
Speaker 3: from the skin, and in warmer water or when the

688
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 3: animal is working out, it can open up the vessels

689
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,680
Speaker 3: and shunts and allow the blood to dump heat into

690
00:39:55,680 --> 00:40:00,359
Speaker 3: the surrounding water through the skin. Unsurprisingly, given the we've

691
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:04,200
Speaker 3: already talked about, marine mammals that live at higher latitudes

692
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 3: or swim in colder waters tend to have thicker blubber

693
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:12,240
Speaker 3: for their body size, and the smallest cetaceans are usually

694
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 3: not found at the highest latitudes.

695
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 2: You need extreme bodies for extreme environments.

696
00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,479
Speaker 3: Yes, Now, one more thing I want to mention before

697
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:25,280
Speaker 3: we get into your bowhead example, is another thing iverson

698
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 3: goes into, which is the specific role of blubber for

699
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:35,440
Speaker 3: energy storage in marine mammals. Of course, you know, energy

700
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,720
Speaker 3: storage is one of the main purposes of fat across

701
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 3: all the animal species that use it, but it has

702
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:45,319
Speaker 3: a special role for marine mammals, especially in species that

703
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 3: migrate across great distances, using one environment for forage during

704
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 3: a fattening season, and then a different, sometimes far away

705
00:40:55,360 --> 00:40:59,880
Speaker 3: environment for important parts of their reproductive cycle. For example,

706
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,680
Speaker 3: billen whales that travel to high latitudes in the summer

707
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:08,080
Speaker 3: for feeding opportunities because of summertime booms and their planktonic

708
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:12,080
Speaker 3: food sources at higher latitudes, and then we'll travel down

709
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:15,879
Speaker 3: into warmer waters to give birth, to lactate and rear

710
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:16,759
Speaker 3: their newborns.

711
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 2: Gray whales are a great example of this, and wescuss

712
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:21,840
Speaker 2: them in previous episodes.

713
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, so I think you observed grey whales

714
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:28,760
Speaker 3: off the Pacific coast of Mexico.

715
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 2: Is that right? Yes? I did. This was very much

716
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 2: they're breeding grounds.

717
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:35,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So this is where they're raising their

718
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:38,399
Speaker 3: young and then when season changes, they would travel back

719
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 3: up to around Alaska off the you know, the western

720
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:46,720
Speaker 3: coast of North America for feeding opportunities. And even when

721
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:51,160
Speaker 3: great global migrations are not involved, reproduction and marine mammals

722
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,720
Speaker 3: often takes these animals away from feeding opportunities, for example,

723
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 3: winter dinning for the birth and nursing of cubs and

724
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 3: female polar bears. And this is especially interesting because of

725
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:07,720
Speaker 3: the increased metabolic demand on female mammals to produce milk

726
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:12,280
Speaker 3: after birth. So you know, after the mammal gives birth,

727
00:42:12,840 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 3: the mother's body is working overtime to synthesize rich, highly

728
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:22,399
Speaker 3: caloric nourishment for the newborn. In most mammals, the mother

729
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:26,719
Speaker 3: needs to draw on fat reserves and feed herself externally

730
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,759
Speaker 3: during this period to lactate enough for her young. But amazingly,

731
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:35,840
Speaker 3: some baline whales and large seals are able to nurse

732
00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 3: their young without eating hardly at all, drawing almost entirely

733
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 3: from blubber reserves, and this is very unusual in nature,

734
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:51,680
Speaker 3: Iversen writes. Quote in species that fast through lactation, females

735
00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:56,360
Speaker 3: switch almost completely to a fat based metabolism. For instance,

736
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 3: during a sixteen day lactation period, a gray seal female

737
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,839
Speaker 3: draws ninety seven percent of the energy supplied to her

738
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:08,719
Speaker 3: pup solely from her blubber stores. Wow and note that

739
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:12,600
Speaker 3: the mother's blubber reserves during gestation will also dictate how

740
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:14,799
Speaker 3: much blubber the pup is going to be born with

741
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 3: and then from here. Blubber also still plays an important

742
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:21,960
Speaker 3: role in reproduction in the development of the young for

743
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 3: the pups because the blubber that they've gained during nursing

744
00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:30,280
Speaker 3: and that they're born with will sustain them after nursing

745
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 3: is over and until they're able to feed themselves. Blubber

746
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:39,760
Speaker 3: Iverson notes is also an important reserve of internal water.

747
00:43:40,160 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 3: I never really thought about this but she gives the

748
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:47,600
Speaker 3: example of gray seals during lactation. The mother seal is

749
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,120
Speaker 3: going to be losing a lot of water through milk

750
00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:53,840
Speaker 3: production and is fasting on land to feed her pups,

751
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:59,040
Speaker 3: so she's not able to replenish water stores externally. Extra

752
00:43:59,120 --> 00:44:04,280
Speaker 3: water comes from the oxidation of fat reserves in blubber

753
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:08,200
Speaker 3: for metabolism, because when you burn fat inside your body,

754
00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:12,719
Speaker 3: water is a natural byproduct of that chemical reaction. This

755
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:17,000
Speaker 3: is called metabolic water. So metabolic water is produced, and

756
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:21,319
Speaker 3: then that provides water that the mother mammal needs. Now,

757
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,919
Speaker 3: I want to note that in this entry, Everson also

758
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:25,880
Speaker 3: gets into a lot of other interesting stuff about the

759
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 3: role of blubber and locomotion, buoyancy, movement, and other things.

760
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,560
Speaker 3: We might talk more about those topics in the next

761
00:44:32,600 --> 00:44:34,799
Speaker 3: part in this series, but we want to definitely have

762
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:36,760
Speaker 3: time today to talk about the bowhead whale.

763
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:38,800
Speaker 2: That's right, yeah, And I think it'll be a helpful

764
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 2: exercise here to take everything we've discussed so far and

765
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:46,800
Speaker 2: then look at a specific example of a high blubber

766
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:50,839
Speaker 2: species and see how things begin to line up. And

767
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:54,279
Speaker 2: as referenced to earlier, I got this information from the

768
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:56,839
Speaker 2: Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porposes of the World by

769
00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,719
Speaker 2: Mark Cardine. An excellent book for a anyone who just

770
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:03,239
Speaker 2: wants to read about whales at home, or if there's

771
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:05,719
Speaker 2: any possibility that you'll get to see one out in

772
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:08,000
Speaker 2: the world going on any kind of like a whale

773
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:11,239
Speaker 2: sight seeing tour, you know, And these are available all

774
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 2: over the place. It's worth having a copy of the book.

775
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,320
Speaker 2: It's it's mobile. I've lent it to friends who have

776
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:20,320
Speaker 2: gone on cruises before. It's a great read, lots of illustrations.

777
00:45:20,760 --> 00:45:24,360
Speaker 2: It informs you and also helps you in identifying what

778
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 2: you're looking.

779
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:25,520
Speaker 3: At in the wild.

780
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 2: So we've already you know, mentioned you know what blubber is,

781
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 2: who has it? We've also mentioned, you know, what are

782
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:47,040
Speaker 2: the biggest blubber containing animals out there. Obviously the blue

783
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 2: whale is going to be the biggest blubber animal. But

784
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:53,799
Speaker 2: just because you're the largest blubber creature out there, it

785
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,600
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean you're the animal with the most blubber

786
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 2: or the most blubber you know, for your body. The

787
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:05,399
Speaker 2: true blubber superstar is not the enormous blue whale. It's

788
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,000
Speaker 2: not the fin whale, it's not the mighty sperm whale,

789
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,960
Speaker 2: but it's rather the whale species it's often ranked fifth

790
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,160
Speaker 2: in overall size, and that is the bowhead whale.

791
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:17,279
Speaker 3: I just looked it up because I wanted to make

792
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:19,600
Speaker 3: sure I was picturing the correct whale in my mind.

793
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 3: And the bowhead whale is going to be the one

794
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:26,640
Speaker 3: that has some sort of bone structure or structure in

795
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:30,200
Speaker 3: the head above the sort of curve of the mouth

796
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:32,239
Speaker 3: that looks like a hump. It almost looks like a

797
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 3: kind of bump in the nose, but it's on top

798
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 3: of the whale's head up above the eyes.

799
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:42,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, these are These are big, girthy whales, up

800
00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:45,840
Speaker 2: to eighteen meters nearly sixty feet in length, weighing up

801
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:49,400
Speaker 2: to one hundred and seventy tons, and on the girth front,

802
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,840
Speaker 2: their maximum girth can exceed seventy percent of total length.

803
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 2: So these are big creatures, not as big as the

804
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:03,799
Speaker 2: blue whale by most you know, measuring sticks, but it

805
00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 2: is the whale with the most blubber. And we'll get

806
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 2: back to how it's it has a huge head, and

807
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:13,560
Speaker 2: we'll get back to one of what that uh sort

808
00:47:13,600 --> 00:47:16,759
Speaker 2: of hump portion of the head is for. Uh, But yeah,

809
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:20,280
Speaker 2: these are These are enormous creatures. Uh. And in terms

810
00:47:20,280 --> 00:47:25,320
Speaker 2: of the size rankings, they're generally ranked behind the right

811
00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:29,759
Speaker 2: whale right as in right handed or right as incorrect.

812
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:35,840
Speaker 2: The right whale is just a little behind the bowhead

813
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:40,280
Speaker 2: whale and overall size. In fact, they look a lot alike.

814
00:47:40,320 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 2: The bowhead whale was once known as the greenland right whale. Briefly,

815
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 2: there are three varieties of right whale. The pygmy right

816
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,839
Speaker 2: whale is not a true right whale, and the name

817
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:54,759
Speaker 2: right whale is thought to refer to one of two things,

818
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:57,799
Speaker 2: possibly both at the same time. So first of all,

819
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 2: there's English whaling wisdom that right whales were the correct whales,

820
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:07,160
Speaker 2: the right whales to hunt, because they had this trifecta

821
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,879
Speaker 2: of features. They were slow, so easy to chase down

822
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:14,319
Speaker 2: and kill, and then when you did kill them, they

823
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:17,560
Speaker 2: were so buoyant from their blubber that they floated. They

824
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:20,200
Speaker 2: definitely floated, so they were easier to harvest. And then

825
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:23,880
Speaker 2: when they were harvested they produced high amounts of oil

826
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:29,120
Speaker 2: and balen per individual. And the oil, of course is key.

827
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:31,799
Speaker 2: We'll get into the balen as well. But in terms

828
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:36,759
Speaker 2: of the bowhead whale, and the right whale species, they

829
00:48:36,760 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 2: have a lot of blubber, and therefore they produced a

830
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,279
Speaker 2: lot of whale oil. Because whale oil was made from

831
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:46,880
Speaker 2: rendered blubber. This was the product of whaling that was

832
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,080
Speaker 2: most important to the whaling industry generally, certainly in its

833
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:54,279
Speaker 2: later industrialized stages. You know, humans have hunted whales for

834
00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:58,160
Speaker 2: a very long time, but you know, whale oil was

835
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,680
Speaker 2: one of the major products during the most destructive heyday

836
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 2: of human whaling. Now. But the other side of the

837
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,560
Speaker 2: coin is that, apparently, according to Carwadine, mid nineteenth century

838
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 2: scientific observations were made that these were the right whales

839
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,880
Speaker 2: in that they were true and proper examples of what

840
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 2: a whale should be. Which I have a little harder

841
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:21,160
Speaker 2: time wrapping my head around that one, because I mean

842
00:49:21,239 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 2: it's like, what is the best whale? I mean, you know,

843
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:26,719
Speaker 2: they're all they're all whales. But I think it comes

844
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:30,840
Speaker 2: down to just sort of like basic body size identifiable

845
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 2: as a whale. It is a bleen whale and so forth.

846
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:36,719
Speaker 2: All right, So coming back to the bowhead whale, Yes,

847
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:42,360
Speaker 2: this is your blubber superstar baileina mistacetis, which means mustached whale.

848
00:49:43,040 --> 00:49:45,359
Speaker 2: It sounds like it's going to be something about mysterious

849
00:49:45,480 --> 00:49:48,239
Speaker 2: whale or something, but no, it's mustached whale. And this

850
00:49:48,360 --> 00:49:52,560
Speaker 2: refers to the bowhead whales bleen plates. We talked about

851
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 2: baileen plates previously in our episode on gray whales. These are,

852
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 2: of course the big filtery teeth like structures in the

853
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:03,719
Speaker 2: mouth that home through plankton or the marine animals that

854
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,879
Speaker 2: they are consuming. And for the bowhead whale, these are

855
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:10,879
Speaker 2: the longest of any animal, up to four meters or

856
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:13,440
Speaker 2: even five point two meters, so we're talking thirteen to

857
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:17,440
Speaker 2: seventeen feet long these baleen plates individually, and they're you know,

858
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 2: hundreds of them in their mouths. And the name bowhead

859
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:24,880
Speaker 2: stems from their large, strongly arched or bow shaped rostrum

860
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 2: and mouthline.

861
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 3: Okay, for a second, I thought that was what I

862
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:30,200
Speaker 3: was talking about earlier, but the rosterum and the mouth

863
00:50:30,239 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 3: line would be different.

864
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:35,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, this's more below and moving towards the front. What

865
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:37,160
Speaker 2: you're talking about is on the top of the head,

866
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:39,040
Speaker 2: and it's going to come into play here in just

867
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:42,920
Speaker 2: a minute. Okay, So the key to the bowhead's massive

868
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 2: blubber reserves here is that it is an Arctic specialist.

869
00:50:48,239 --> 00:50:51,439
Speaker 2: It more than anything lives up to that Melville line,

870
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 2: immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters

871
00:50:56,080 --> 00:51:01,239
Speaker 2: because it lives exclusively in the Arctic and Subarctic, and

872
00:51:01,320 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 2: it is the only baileen whale to do so. It

873
00:51:04,719 --> 00:51:07,960
Speaker 2: ventures up into the high Arctic during the summer again

874
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:11,640
Speaker 2: like all like other baileen whales, it moves north, chasing

875
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:16,000
Speaker 2: those blooms and the richness of food that it can

876
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,680
Speaker 2: that it can achieve up there. But these guys go

877
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:22,160
Speaker 2: really far north and then during the winter they go

878
00:51:22,239 --> 00:51:25,719
Speaker 2: back into the lower and Subarctic, but are thought to

879
00:51:25,719 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 2: stay close to the ice edge. So for whales of

880
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 2: this species venturing down into the Bearing Sea, that's snowbird behavior.

881
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:38,160
Speaker 2: That's like pretty much as southern as they go. They're

882
00:51:38,200 --> 00:51:39,920
Speaker 2: definitely not going down to Mexico.

883
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:44,480
Speaker 3: Nice tropical vacation in Alaska, off the coast of Alaska.

884
00:51:44,600 --> 00:51:46,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I mean this. I think this is the

885
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:48,480
Speaker 2: most important thing to keep in mind about about them

886
00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:51,320
Speaker 2: and about the role of blubber in their lives is

887
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:55,560
Speaker 2: that they they are extremists. They live in the cold

888
00:51:55,600 --> 00:52:00,279
Speaker 2: waters all the time and have are always in close

889
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:04,440
Speaker 2: proximity to sea ice, so they have to have that insulation,

890
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 2: and they have to have more insulation than any of

891
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:09,320
Speaker 2: the other whales in the sea. Now, like other whales,

892
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:12,640
Speaker 2: their main predator outside of human whalers, of course, is

893
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:16,640
Speaker 2: the orca. And according to Carwodine, the bowhead whale's close

894
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:20,840
Speaker 2: association with sea ice maybe how it primarily protects itself

895
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,479
Speaker 2: from killer whales that tend to avoid extensive Arctic sea ice.

896
00:52:26,000 --> 00:52:28,560
Speaker 2: The problem, of course is that due to climate change,

897
00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:30,880
Speaker 2: there is less and less sea ice out there to

898
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,719
Speaker 2: protect them. So it's you know, kind of an open

899
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 2: question of how they will adapt and how they are

900
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:41,600
Speaker 2: adapting to these changes. Now, coming back to what you

901
00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 2: noted earlier about the shape, the upper shape of the

902
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:49,360
Speaker 2: bowhead's enormous head. It lives in close proximity to sea ice,

903
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:54,080
Speaker 2: and it will venture under sea ice when it's feeding,

904
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:56,319
Speaker 2: and it can stay down for an extended period of

905
00:52:56,320 --> 00:53:01,719
Speaker 2: time depending on what it's doing and what the circumstances are. Well,

906
00:53:01,719 --> 00:53:05,200
Speaker 2: as with other whales, it's like if they were observed

907
00:53:05,280 --> 00:53:07,839
Speaker 2: while being chased by whalers, like, they can stay down

908
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:13,480
Speaker 2: even longer. But bowhead whales will come up under the

909
00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:16,400
Speaker 2: ice and they can break through ice that is up

910
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,759
Speaker 2: to sixty centimeters almost two feet thick. Whoa yeah, in

911
00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:24,640
Speaker 2: order to create their own breathing holes in the ice

912
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,160
Speaker 2: large enough for that raised hump like part of their

913
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 2: enormous head to come out and allow their their blowhole

914
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 2: to gain access to the air.

915
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:36,080
Speaker 3: It's hard to imagine that's true. They can break through

916
00:53:36,120 --> 00:53:41,360
Speaker 3: two feet thick of ice, Yeah, sixty unbel but that

917
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 3: would make more sense to me if if it is

918
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:46,160
Speaker 3: true that they can take refuge from their only potential

919
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:49,680
Speaker 3: predators by venturing further, you know, staying around the ice

920
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:52,279
Speaker 3: and venturing further under the ice than their predator is

921
00:53:52,280 --> 00:53:52,879
Speaker 3: willing to go.

922
00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and also further under the ice than their

923
00:53:56,640 --> 00:54:00,399
Speaker 2: competitors willing to go. There are other, of course, far

924
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:04,800
Speaker 2: northern aquatic mammals. You know, we've talked about nar walls before,

925
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:08,839
Speaker 2: but the bowhead whales are pretty exceptional here.

926
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:09,759
Speaker 4: Now.

927
00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:12,440
Speaker 2: The blubber, of course, provides them that thermal insulation we've

928
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:18,000
Speaker 2: been talking about physical predection, protection against environmental hazards certainly

929
00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 2: as well as those energy stores. How much blubber do

930
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:24,839
Speaker 2: they have? Well, as we noted earlier, your sources are

931
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:27,800
Speaker 2: going to vary depending on how they're measuring the blubber,

932
00:54:28,400 --> 00:54:30,680
Speaker 2: and it's also going to depend on where on the

933
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 2: body you're looking at. Carbadine says five point five to

934
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,480
Speaker 2: twenty eight centimeters or roughly two inches to eleven inches

935
00:54:37,920 --> 00:54:42,160
Speaker 2: in thickness, so up to nearly a foot of thickness

936
00:54:42,200 --> 00:54:46,280
Speaker 2: in general, So again the thickest of any whale, depending

937
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:48,600
Speaker 2: on how you're measuring it. The bowhead whale is still

938
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:50,360
Speaker 2: going to be at the top of any list.

939
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:52,880
Speaker 3: In one sense, I'm thinking, man, I would love to

940
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 3: see a cross section of that. But then on the

941
00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:56,800
Speaker 3: other hand, of like, oh, that's a little too real,

942
00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:59,960
Speaker 3: I guess because of the familiarity with the whaling contact

943
00:55:00,160 --> 00:55:02,160
Speaker 3: with it, you know, they really would be cut up

944
00:55:02,280 --> 00:55:05,400
Speaker 3: like that. But yeah, seeing a cross section of that

945
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:06,720
Speaker 3: tissue I'm sure is amazing.

946
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:11,080
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, because again they were heavily targeted by whalers

947
00:55:11,800 --> 00:55:15,360
Speaker 2: because like the right whales, they're also slow, deliberate swimmers.

948
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:18,319
Speaker 2: We talked in the in previous episodes about whales how

949
00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:22,440
Speaker 2: you basically different to Different whales have different ways of

950
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,759
Speaker 2: dealing with the threat of orcas, and it generally comes

951
00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 2: down to, like, are you going to try to outrun

952
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:31,000
Speaker 2: it or are you going to fight it off? And

953
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,760
Speaker 2: the bowhead whales are not going to outrun the orcas,

954
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 2: and they will turn and fight if needed. But again

955
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:40,440
Speaker 2: it also seems like refuge in the sea ice is

956
00:55:40,480 --> 00:55:44,319
Speaker 2: also part of their strategy. But since they are slow,

957
00:55:44,360 --> 00:55:47,600
Speaker 2: deliberate swimmers, that's one of the reasons that humans thought

958
00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:52,000
Speaker 2: that they were ideal whales for hunting. You know. Sadly

959
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 2: this is as with you know, like other whale species,

960
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:59,440
Speaker 2: like the gray whales. It's it's written that they are

961
00:55:59,520 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 2: rather cureious about humans. That they encounter humans and boats

962
00:56:04,560 --> 00:56:06,799
Speaker 2: and so forth, you know, they'll come up and take

963
00:56:06,840 --> 00:56:09,880
Speaker 2: a look, which you know, makes it even all the

964
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:13,120
Speaker 2: more tragic that we were so brutal towards them. Again

965
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:17,319
Speaker 2: during this highly industrial period of human whaling, when they

966
00:56:17,320 --> 00:56:22,279
Speaker 2: were you know, intensely hunted and threatened, and as human

967
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 2: whalers took advantage of that slow speed, their rich balen

968
00:56:25,840 --> 00:56:29,000
Speaker 2: and their blubber and the latter of which of course

969
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 2: also made them so buoyant. So all these things made

970
00:56:32,200 --> 00:56:35,160
Speaker 2: them ideal prey for whaling enterprises.

971
00:56:35,960 --> 00:56:38,840
Speaker 3: But also such an amazing example of what Melville talks

972
00:56:38,840 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 3: about the you know, the the rare virtue of the

973
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 3: strong individual vitality, the thick walls, and the virtue of

974
00:56:46,040 --> 00:56:50,120
Speaker 3: interior spaciousness that takes his weather with him where he

975
00:56:50,239 --> 00:56:54,160
Speaker 3: goes and is immersed to his lips for life in

976
00:56:54,200 --> 00:56:55,280
Speaker 3: those Arctic waters.

977
00:56:55,880 --> 00:56:58,040
Speaker 2: Joe, you mentioned your desire to see a cross section

978
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:04,239
Speaker 2: of the bowhead whale. Quick image search revealed several very

979
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:08,839
Speaker 2: interesting looking cross sections illustrations of course, so I would

980
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:12,040
Speaker 2: encourage folks to look those up in general, Like the

981
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,279
Speaker 2: inside of a whale is always fascinating because you know,

982
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:20,440
Speaker 2: their bone structure is so unique and alien but also familiar.

983
00:57:20,840 --> 00:57:24,200
Speaker 2: You know, we can't help but imagine if we ourselves

984
00:57:24,280 --> 00:57:29,000
Speaker 2: embarked on some on such an evolutionary journey of the body.

985
00:57:30,080 --> 00:57:32,600
Speaker 2: And just also the scale that they're on. Anytime there's

986
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:34,480
Speaker 2: there's a reminder of just like how big is a

987
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 2: human compared to you know, the guts of a particularly

988
00:57:38,160 --> 00:57:40,200
Speaker 2: large whale. It's just it's mind Rand.

989
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:42,960
Speaker 3: Well, Rob, are you excited to talk about blubber for

990
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:44,080
Speaker 3: at least one more episode?

991
00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, yeah, we we we barely scratch the surface

992
00:57:48,600 --> 00:57:52,160
Speaker 2: of the blubber when it comes to human uses for it.

993
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:55,600
Speaker 2: I don't you know. We may come back to whale oil,

994
00:57:55,680 --> 00:57:59,960
Speaker 2: but there's so many other uses for certainly the colon

995
00:58:00,280 --> 00:58:02,000
Speaker 2: uses I think we're going to be very interesting to

996
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 2: get into, which tend to be tied to older whaling traditions,

997
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 2: that we're more in balance with the creature's natural patterns. Yeah,

998
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 2: but as we said, certainly right in if you have

999
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:16,400
Speaker 2: any Glover thoughts right now, and maybe they will, there'll

1000
00:58:16,440 --> 00:58:18,240
Speaker 2: be something that we'll read in the next episode or

1001
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:21,240
Speaker 2: at least in a later listener mail episode. Just a

1002
00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:23,400
Speaker 2: reminder to everyone out there that's Stuff to Blow Your

1003
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,600
Speaker 2: Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with core

1004
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:29,280
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1005
00:58:29,320 --> 00:58:31,560
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1006
00:58:31,560 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 2: to talk about a weird film on Weird House Cinema.

1007
00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:37,960
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1008
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:39,800
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1009
00:58:39,800 --> 00:58:42,200
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1010
00:58:42,240 --> 00:58:44,200
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1011
00:58:44,400 --> 00:58:47,000
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1012
00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:55,240
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1013
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:58,520
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1014
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:01,320
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1015
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