This past month has brought two beautiful whale details to my attention. First, a sperm whale (no. 4, above) was photographed with an actual ginormous chunk of giant squid hanging out of its mouth. Finally! Visual confirmation that all those epic squid-on-whale battles we’ve long suspected actually do take place. It appeared a Momma Whale was using said piece as a visual aid to teach Baby Whale about the merits of deep diving for food. National Geographic had a nice photo gallery of the event.
And second, a blue whale (no. 6) killed by a benthic mapping vessel washed ashore in northern California, providing both a sad example of one of the big threats to whales (ship collisions) but also an A+ opportunity to take some blue whale blubber and tissue samples. And it provided a light bulb moment for me in the form of this stunning photo. Blue whales are actually blue! And what a beautiful blue too.
Who knew? I always figured it was figurative, like the “right” in right whales (no. 3; they were easy to kill, so they were the “right” whales to whalers) or the sperm in sperm whales (whalers mistook their spermaceti for actual sperm). Water appears blue . . . the whales look blue under water . . . hence blue whales, right? Wrong.
Thanks to Reed Esau for drawing my attention to the sperm whale/squid hunting lesson.
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Great photos those from NG. Thanks for posting.
It’s good that the whale eats squid, not the other way (it’s a kind of “mammalism” I think)