Rhoda Zukerman, age 14, of Shaker Heights, 0hio, for her question:

Do whales migrate? ,

When hunting is good, a big whale eats about a ton of food a day. If he is a Moby Dick type whale, he prefers to dine on giant squid. These giant octopuses live in the deep ocean. Down there, the changing seasons make little difference, This the sperm whales will hunt where his favorite food happens to be He travels around. only to seek good hunting grounds,

The baleen whale feeds his massive body on plankton. Plankton is a sort of seafood salad. It is a mixture of minute plants and animals afloat in seawater. The baleen whale gulps great mouthfuls of this floating food, water and, all. He uses his baleen to strain out the seawater from the plankton,

Strips of baleen hang in curtains from the roof of his giant mouth. You may have seen a strip of this whalebone ‑ which is neither bone nor tooth, At one time it was used to stiffen corsets and bustles. You may still find it used as the support for a fancy fan,

The plankton‑eating whale must work hard to squeeze out enough food from the sea. Wha’ts more, the supplies of plankton are far from dependable. The tiny sea plants and animals have their growing seasons and resting seasons. These changes depend to a large extent on the seasons of the year,

Many habits of the great whales are still mysterious to us. After all, the largest animal in the world is far too big to be studied in a fish tank. His home is the deep and trackless ocean that sweeps around the whole worlds He appears now in the Arctic Ocean, now in the Antarctic, again in tropical waters, It is thought that he may migrate from polar sea to polar sea.

Spring comes to the northern and southern oceans by turns. Under the new sunshine, the cold surface water slips down and warm water rises from the depths, This deep water is rich in minerals. Tiny winter­‑starved