Whales for President!

Hi fellow Steem friends, this is my first post and I'm so excited!! In a world where the Steemit community is so occupied with placental marine mammals, you might just be looking for some mind-blowing information about the most gigantic and amazing animals that have ever inhabited our planet. You have come to the right place because this article provides of all that you need to know about #WHALES and why we should care about them!

Whales survived World Wars....

Whales can become old, very old... Many whales now living might even have passed through World Wars. Scientists have found bowhead whales with harpoons dating from the 19th century still embedded in their bodies. This made scientists estimate their lifespan at up to 200 years. Despite the fact that whales live their whole lives in the water, whales are in fact mammals. They give birth in the water, nurse with milk as they grow up and they're warm-blooded. Did you know some whales even grow hair? Because whales descended from animals with limbs under their bodies, their backbones don't naturally bend side to side, but rather up and down. That's why their tail fins are horizontal instead of vertical like fish. Blue Whales are not only the largest whales but are also the largest animals that have ever lived on our planet. They can grow up to a length of 105 feet and weigh up to 150 tons.

When it comes to poop, whales go big too...

A blue whale can eat as much as four tons of food in a day, and what goes in must come out. They often feed in the deep ocean and when it comes to poop, whales go tremendously big. Whales are actually much better than humans as their poop brings nutrients up to the surface where they act as fertilizer for shallow ecosystems.

Some whales do shit gold...

It's sometimes said that rich people shit gold. Well, believe me, some whales actually do. Ambergris, a solid, waxy, flammable substance in the digestive system of sperm whales is rarely found on beaches. Its colour is dull grey or blackish. Ambergris is a highly valued material which was used to make perfume back in the days. The largest pile that has ever been found, weighed 455 kilograms with an estimated value of around 1,6 million pounds.

Photo source (click here): dog walker finds a lump of ambergris on the beach worth over £100,000

Environmentally friendly creatures

Also environmentally, we as humans can learn a lot from whales. It's estimated that sperm whales and the iron in their poop helps sequester 200,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year by fecally fertilizing photosynthetic plankton. Whales set amazing records, too. The deepest diving species, Cuvier's Beaked Whale has been tracked to 3,000 meters below the surface!

Second-most intelligent animals alive

By creating sounds, whales let other whales know they found food or there may be danger ahead. They also communicate with each other just for fun. Some whales can hear other whales up to hundreds of miles away. Sounds travel four times faster in the water than it does in the air. According to many scientists, dolphins are to be the second-most intelligent animals in the world.

Photo source: second-most intelligent animals in the world (Photo: Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock)

They never sleep, or always?

Whales are efficient sleepers and have quite an alternative method to do so. Whales sleep by resting one part of the brain at a time while the other part is awake to make sure that the whale keeps breathing. Once that one side has had enough rest, the brain sides will swap and the other part will start to rest.

Their carcasses become whole ecosystems!

Finally, like all of us, whales eventually die. When whale carcasses, sometimes weighing more than a hundred tons, fall to the ocean's dark depth, they can form mini-ecosystems called "whale falls" sustaining countless deep-sea species for decades.

Amazing Video of Humpback Whales in Hawaii

Whales are endangered species

Despite their valuable existence, 7 out of 11 great whale species are endangered. Whales are killed for monetary gain and also suffer from marine habitat loss and intensification of shipping. In a world where Steemers have almost forgotten the true meaning of "whales", shouldn't we put some more attention to the real meaning and avoid extinction of these miraculous creatures?

Click here to go to the International Whaling Commission webpage of Greenpeace!
Let me know if you enjoyed reading my first blog post!