Thar she blows!
I'm still all a-lather with excitement. A few days ago, while attending a convention at Merimbula on the south-east coast of Australia, Martha and I went whale watching. Neither of us had ever seen a whale before and the prospect of getting even a brief glimpse filled us with joyous anticipation. We were not disappointed. After about an hour of searching, the cry suddenly went up from one of the forty eager spotters on board, “Whale at 10 o'clock!” Sure enough, about half a mile away, and only about a hundred yards from the shore, a female humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and her calf intermittently broke the surface, their backs sliding systematically from head to tail just above the surface before sinking again with a slow motion upward flick of the massive tail as if to say goodbye.
For the next hour we tracked the duo as they deliberately moved ever so slowly towards Antarctica and lots of food. A few times we were treated to the sight of the calf lunging half-heartedly from the water before returning with a gracious splash. The one disappointment was that we did not get to witness that most majestic of whale activities — a full-on leap from the water followed by a thunderous and dramatic return crash. Known as “breaching”, such leaps constitute “the most powerful single action performed by any animal” (Hal Whitehead, Why Whales Leap, Scientific American, March 1985), entailing the lifting of a biomass equivalent to about 485 people weighing 150 pounds (68 kgs) each.
We were awestruck by the experience, and marveled yet again at the endless genius and creative power of our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His capacity to craft the tiniest of sub-atomic particles, the largest of galaxies, and every thing in between. Space prohibits talking about the unbelievable design features that enable all the different species of whales to survive. Many of these features are understood by whale experts, such as their secretion from the skin of “tiny droplets of a high polymer of ethylene oxide… [which] assist the shedding of epidermal |
cells into the water and may help to maintain a laminar flow, reducing turbulence and drag…” (David Macdonald, The Encyclopedia of Mammals, p. 165). Naturally, mysteries abound, such as how sperm whales can dive so deep and surface rapidly without suffering from the bends.
Whales also are true to one of creation's most faithful themes — variation on a theme. Believe it or not, even the pattern of blowing varies from species to species!
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| The spouts of a Humpack Whale and a Southern Right Whale, respectively |
One of about 76 species of whales and dolphins, the humpback whale is found in all the world's oceans. They give birth in warmer tropical waters where the warmth provides suitable conditions for the calves to feed and put on a layer of fat before heading towards the colder poles where their main food source, krill, is found. Growth is rapid as calves drink 400 liters of mother's milk — which is about forty times fattier than human milk — every day.
These beasts illustrate both the folly of man and the wisdom of God. Investigators believe that before whaling decimated the population, about 150,000 humpbacks migrated annually along Australia's eastern coast. Human stupidity reduced their numbers to a mere 300 before sanity returned and they were protected in 1965. Left to “go forth and multiply” in accordance with the divine wisdom shown in their reproductive cycle, they now number about 7000. Hasten the day when earth is released from its bondage to human greed and our planet once again abounds with so many of these majestic beasts that anyone sitting on a rocky promontory for an hour or two with binoculars can be assured of some high-quality, spirit-lifting entertainment. |
