May 2011 Archives
Better People by Xavier Rudd
People saving whales,
Giving your thanks to our seas
My respect to the ones in the forest,
Standing up for our old trees
Them giving food to the hungry
Giving hope to the needy
Giving life to a baby
Giving care for free
There is freedom around us
We have everything we need
I will care for you
Because you care for me
We all have opinions
Some of them get through
But there's better people
With more good to do.
What I have could be a message
Or just some words from my heart
My respect to the ones making changes
For other lives they'll give their own
Our world it keeps spinning
'Round and round it goes
Human nature keeps spreading it's disease
And our children keep growing up with
What they know from what we teach
And what they see
And it's only a question of the time we have
And the lives that our children will lead
They can only keep growing up with
What they know from what we teach
And what they see...
Today we are going to talk about my new job: the Director of a non-profit (NGO) called Cetus Research and Conservation Society. But rather than bore you with the jobs I do in order to run the organization, I will entertain you instead with some cool whale facts: Giving hope to the needy
Giving life to a baby
Giving care for free
There is freedom around us
We have everything we need
I will care for you
Because you care for me
We all have opinions
Some of them get through
But there's better people
With more good to do.
What I have could be a message
Or just some words from my heart
My respect to the ones making changes
For other lives they'll give their own
Our world it keeps spinning
'Round and round it goes
Human nature keeps spreading it's disease
And our children keep growing up with
What they know from what we teach
And what they see
And it's only a question of the time we have
And the lives that our children will lead
They can only keep growing up with
What they know from what we teach
And what they see...
I left work at 5:30pm this afternoon with the above song stuck in my head.
The sun was out and in typical West Coast fashion, so was the wind. A beautiful summer afternoon, made even better by the realization I had absolutely no plans and no responsibilities for the next 5 hours.
Blissfully, I arrived home, grabbed some cheese and a bottle of wine, picked up my bike, and rode the 6 minutes downhill to the ocean. Once there, I breathed in the clean crisp air, counted my blessings, and thought of you.
Life is good. It really is. But I miss you and being there. I miss many people and many places.
Perhaps I always will; or maybe one day I will find peace.
This was my view as I thought of you.
The sun was out and in typical West Coast fashion, so was the wind. A beautiful summer afternoon, made even better by the realization I had absolutely no plans and no responsibilities for the next 5 hours.
Blissfully, I arrived home, grabbed some cheese and a bottle of wine, picked up my bike, and rode the 6 minutes downhill to the ocean. Once there, I breathed in the clean crisp air, counted my blessings, and thought of you.
Life is good. It really is. But I miss you and being there. I miss many people and many places.
Perhaps I always will; or maybe one day I will find peace.
This was my view as I thought of you.
Whales, dolphins and porpoises are collectively called cetaceans, since they all belong to the order Cetacea. (The name of the organization I work for is Cetus, the constellation in the sky which looks like a whale.)
Cetaceans appeared 50 million years ago, having evolved from land to sea and sharing a common origin with the hippopotamus (!).
40 million years ago whales were divided into baleen whales and toothed whales. The first gigantic baleen whales appeared 5 million years ago.
The largest whale (and ever existing animal) is the blue whale. It grows up to 33 m in length and can weigh up to 181 tons. But the average size is just 27 m and 150 tons (of which 50 tons are blubber (!). Their fatty layer can be up to 50 centimeters wide.
The large size of the whale is due to the food abundance in the ocean and it is also a method of fighting the cold water of the sea. The blubber is a food reserve but also a thermo-insulating layer in the cold waters where whales live. The fat is not fixed to the muscles, but very flexible, slipping over the muscles.
The heart of a medium sized baleen whale weighs 700 kg (1,750 pounds), the tongue about 3 tons, the fatty liver one ton and the 3 m (9 ft) long stomach around 500 kg (1,250 pounds), requiring 1,200 kg (3,000 pounds) to be filled! The gut can be 250 m (833 ft) long and a blue whale eats 5 tons of food daily!
Blue whale's brain weighs 5 kg (12.5 pounds) while that of the sperm whale 7 kg (17.5 kg), representing the largest brain in nature. The head represents 40 % of the length of a right whale.
A Blue Whale's tongue is about the size and weight of a full grown AFRICAN ELEPHANT, and its heart is compared to the size of a Volkswagen beetle.
The whales' lungs can store at each inspiration 5,000 liters of air. They usually breathe at every 15 minutes but they can hold their breath up to over an hour in the case of the sperm whale. The humpback whale can dive to 250 m (833 ft) for 20 minutes. The blue whale's exhaling blow can be 12 m (36 ft) tall! The blow can be heard 2 km (1.2 mi) away. In other whales it is 3 m (10 ft) high. In freezing water, the breathing rate is slower to keep the warm air inside.
Sperm whales dive at over 1,200 m (3,600 ft) depths and Cuvier's beaked whale (a type of toothed whale) holds the record for diving amongst any sea mammal: 1,900 m (6,330 ft) (this means 190 atmospheres) for one hour and 25 minutes. In toothed whales, the nitrogen from the blood is absorbed by the fatty substance from the bump on their head.
Whales give birth every 2-3 years. They need waters with temperatures of 22-25C to do this, that's why offspring are born in shallow tropical waters (Carribean, Hawaii, Australia and others). After a 10-12 months gestation, whales have just one calf, which suckles for 5-12 months. The lactating female delivers 200-570 liters of extremely fatty milk: 200-430 g of fats per liter (for comparison, cow milk contains 40 g of fats per liter). Sucking lasts for a few seconds, 30-40 times per day.
Usually, the offspring measures at birth about a quarter of the mother's length (for a blue whale this means 6-8 m (2-2.6 ft) and 2.5 tons). During the birth, the mother is accompanied by several midwives, which will help the newborn to stay at the surface for breathing. The newborn whale is sustained by the mother by the tail and back till it learns how to swim. Unlike us, whales must consciously breath.
The calf of the blue whale has the fastest growth rhythm in the animal world: more than 100 kg (250 pounds) per day, 4.5 kg (11 pounds) per hour, one ton at each 9 days! At 3 years old, the blue whale has 15 m (50 ft) in length. The calf of the humpback whale doubles its weight at 6 months, and at 11 months is 9 m (30 ft) long. The offspring learns hunting techniques when being two years old and by four years old it is autonomous. Adult size is achieved 10 years later. Whales reach sexual maturity when 4-5 years old.
The blue whale also possesses the largest penis in the world at 2.4 m long (hung like a whale).
Bowhead whales are estimated to reach a longevity up to 200 years and whales are the most long-living warm-blooded animals. Only some reptiles (giant turtles) live longer. Male sperm whales don't attain their full size until they are 50 years old!
All baleen whales effectuate long migrations (up to 25,000 km or 16,000 mi annually): they breed and give birth in subtropical-tropical waters and travel to feed in cold waters. They orientate in their journeys towards the Sun, Moon and Earth's electromagnetic field.
The so-called killer whales can be 9.5 m (32 ft) long, 6 tons heavy and have 50 dagger-like teeth.
These predators attack penguins, seals, dolphins and baleen whales (the huge blue whale included, when in pack) but, despite their name, they are not whales but oversized dolphins! They are a whale's only natural predator (human predation is not considered natural).
Whales are famous for their singing, especially the blue and humpback whales. Their song can have different reasons: getting a mate, social interaction, alarm, keeping inter-individual distance, feeding, prey location and so on.
The blue whale's song has 155 and 188 decibels, thus this is the loudest animal in the world (by comparison, a pneumatic drill is about 100 dB). But blue whales sing at frequencies, between 10 and 40 Hz and infrasounds under 20 Hz cannot be heard by humans. Infrasound travels further than audible sounds, so whales can communicate at distances of 185 km (115 mi). The song of the blue whales is 10 seconds to 2 minutes long, while humpback whales sing for 5 to 30 minutes. The songs of the humpback whales have frequencies of 20-450 Hz and can be clearly heard by humans.
Class is over.
I spent this entire week working up in Alert Bay, the "home of the killer whale" and a beautiful little town of one thousand people. Alert Bay is a great place to visit but I don't know if I could live in a place with only one coffee shop, one grocery store, and a single gas station which is open from 11 o 2, Monday through to Thursday. I'm no city girl but that was pushing it even for 5 days. Next time I go I will be sure to bring more provisions (books and wine) and maybe I will learn to live in true isolation the more I am up there. Until then, I went to Starbucks twice today - just to make sure I was still alive.
One last thing.
On the way to Alert Bay on Monday I did something that certainly not everyone gets the chance to do.
I drove my first plane, for my first flight lesson. The goal is that by May of 2012 I will have my pilot's license. I will pick my mum up at her home on Kal lake and I will take her to a picnic on the ocean for mother's day.
Driving a plane was about as exhilarating and frightening as you can imagine.
Aren't humans a strange animal? We pay to be challenged and frightened.
This is a picture from the driver's seat. A perfect view of the San Juan Islands.
All that saving whales, flying planes, and the odd sangria party coupled with a new addiction to Rock Band reminds me of a traditional Native American story so I will end this month's blog with The Story of the Hummingbird (my own version, naturally).
Long ago in the Ancient Canadian West Coast Rainforest, sudden lightning struck, and a fire began. In the middle of the night alarms went off and all of the forest animals ran wildly, not knowing what to do. As with any sudden emergency, the animals ran - not wanting to leave their homes but thinking that if they did not get away from the fire, they would surely die. Amidst the chaos, they all began running East together.
As they ran, they began to notice a small humming bird going back and forth above them. It would zoom ahead of them and then zip back against the grain. Not long after it would zoom past them again. They ran for their lives and did not have much time to worry about the other animals. Finally though, a deer asked the humming bird as it zipped back against the grain, "What are you doing, hummy, we need to get out of here!?" The miniature bird heard the deer and stopped to look at him while he ran with the group, but quickly zipped away. On route, zooming back, the humming bird stopped before the deer, "I'm just doing what I can," he said as he passed.
As the hummingbird flew against the flow again, it slowed down and in front of the deer and opened it's mouth. In it, the deer saw water. He was trying to put out the fire. Or at least do what he could. The deer was shocked. But did not slow, let alone stop to help.
Now, what if all of the forest animals had taken that approach. Perhaps there would no longer be a fire to run from.
PS. I love Sangrias and I love my sister.
PPS, the secret to the Secret Ingredient Sangria is...there is no secret ingredient.
