James Allen Ball, age 11, of Poteau, Okla., for his question:
Do whales migrate?
At one time vast companies of whales migrated North and South with the seasons, just off the shores of the continents. Most of them were gentle giants who dined on nothing larger than shrimp. But these mass migrations of whales never again will be seen in the oceans of our planet.
The news from the world of whales is bad, and very, very sad. All species of the big whales have been slaughtered without mercy, and their numbers reduced to a pitiful few. The 100 foot b1ue baleen is the largest creature that ever inhabited the Earth. The number of blue whales left in the ionely southern oceans is so few that they never may be ab1e to find Each other and produce offspring.
All the baleen whales migrate with the seasons between the tropics and the polar seas. They spend the cool season in warm, Equatorial waters where they breed and give birth to their calves. Then they start the long migration back to the polar seas where they spend the summer. Some baleen groups are native to the Arctic and some to the Antarctic and, of course, the northern summer season is the southern winter season.
Most whales sink when ki11ed in the water. One kind floats, making it Easy to tow him along side a whaling ship. HE was named the "right whale" because he was the right fellow to hunt. In the past, immense numbers of black "right whales" spent the summer in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Every year, the two populations traveled well known routes to winter at the warm Equator. Nowadays, only a few of the black "right whales" are left.
The baleen whales strain their food through curtains of horny baleen, or whalebone. They dine on plankton and shrimp sized krill and they must follow their food supplies. Their calves are born in tropical waters and the clan, or what is left of it, returns to polar seas where krill is plentiful.
The 60 foot sperm whale has teeth and dines on deep sea squid, octopus and cuttlefish. These creatures feed on small pelecypods that feed on still smaller diatoms. And diatoms thrive and decline with the seasons. This food chain compels the sperm whales to migrate. Throughout the year, they circulate around long oval paths through the warm and tropical oceans.
Numbers of grey baleen whales still spend the surner in the far north. In the fall they separate. Some take the eastern and some the western shore route southward down the Pacific. In spring, the two groups retrace their migration journeys back to the Arctic. Twice a year, these stately travelers may be seen from the coast of California.