To: Journey North
From: Laura Gorodezky, Education Coordinator
Channel
Islands National Marine Sanctuary
Greetings from Santa Barbara, California!
I thought you'd enjoy these photos of last week's whale rescue.
You asked if it's dangerous to rescue a whale. YES!! It's very, very dangerous! Remember that this whale's tail flukes were entangled in a monofilament gill net, a synthetic line, an anchor and several buoys. The divers risk becoming entangled in the same debris. Then, if the whale dives (or dies), the divers could be pulled underwater with the whale!
I have some exciting gray whale news to report this week:
The first northbound cow/calf pair to be observed in the Santa
Barbara area this season was spotted on April 4th at 4:25pm off
Arroyo Burro Beach! The animals, seen by Whale Corps naturalists on
board the Condor, were about 100 yds offshore and were heading west.
(They have to travel WEST to go NORTH because gray whales
follow the coast as they migrate. The coast is aligned in an
east/west direction in the Santa Barbara area.)
The passengers aboard the Condor observed the pair for 45 minutes and wished them a safe journey to their Alaskan feeding grounds. We look forward to more sightings of mothers and calves as the season progresses.
Newborn calves are about 15 ft long and weigh about 2,000 lbs. They drink 50 gallons of the rich milk provided by the mother each day and grow very quickly. This milk contain 50% FAT!!!!! Most calves will be weaned by the time they are 8 months old (What month would this be?) and will have doubled their weight. Cows are often quite protective of their new calves and will stay very close to them.
Laura Gorodezky, Education Coordinator
Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
Challenge Question # 87
"How many gallons of milk does a gray whale calf drink before it's weaned? Would this amount of milk fill a swimming pool?"
How to Respond to Challenge Question # 87
1. Send an e-mail message to: jn-challenge@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line write: Challenge Question # 87
3. In the Body of the message, answer the question.
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