• Question: are you scared of whales?

    Asked by aqsa99 to Allan, Angela, Diva, Harriet, Nathan on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Nathan Langford

      Nathan Langford answered on 26 Jun 2012:

      No… I’m not. I think whales are beautiful creatures. One of my most exciting memories from when I was a kid, was going out on a boat whale-watching in Hervey Bay in Australia, looking for humpback whales. They were just beautiful… Playful, calm, and when they came up beside the boat and looked up at you, they just seemed so human. I get really upset when I hear about how people are still hunting whales and killing them, when there are so few of some types left. I think that’s something we all have to keep fighting against.

    • Photo: Diva Amon

      Diva Amon answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Hey aqsa99,
      As Nathan said, all whales are beautiful creatures and normally aren’t interested in humans. There are two major groups of whales – toothed whales and baleen whales. The main difference being that toothed whales have teeth and baleen whales,do not. Instead they have strips of keratin (what makes up our hair and nails) which they use to filter small fish, krill and plankton out of the water. Even though baleen whales are some of the largest animals on the planet (like the blue whale) – they eat some of the smallest animals! Toothed whales eat fish and also sometimes even giant squid. Sperm whales are known to dive deep down in the ocean to look for giant squid for food. Giant squid usually put up a really good fight, leaving the sperm whale with suckers marks on it’s body.

      To answer your question, I’m only afraid of one type of whale – orcas, also known as killer whales. They are highly intelligent animals. They have been known to eat a variety of animals from fish to seals and even other whales. They have also been seen hunting sharks – any animal that hunts sharks has to be a pretty scary guy! They usually hunt in groups and sometimes even play with their food! I remember seeing the BBC documentary ‘Frozen Planet’ a few months ago. There was a clip where some orcas were trying to get to a seal which was resting on a small piece of ice. The orcas kept popping their heads out of the water to look at the seal and were very much thinking about how they could get to it. Eventually, the orcas started to swim forcefully around and under the piece of ice, making large waves with their tails. This caused the piece of ice to rock and eventually the seal fell off into the sea and was eaten. The BBC documentary makers told the story that after they filmed that story, the orcas started to do the same thing to the little boat that the cameramen were on, generating waves to try and knock the cameramen off the boat so they could be lunch! Once the cameramen realised what was going on, they said they were pretty scared and quickly sped off in their boat to get away!

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