Did You Know??

Did you know...?
1. that the Atlantic population of gray whale went extinct in late 17th Century.
2. Gray whales migrate farther than any other known animal, about 12,000 miles every year.
3. The blue whale's tail can generate 500 horsepower.
4. The population of blue whales is dangerously low with only an estimated 1300 to 2000 left.
5. Whales and dolphins sleep by shutting down half their brain so it can rest, while the other part is fully active and aware of their surroundings.
6. The early people of Korea were hunting whales as far back as 5000 BC.
7. Whalers in Norway started whaling 4,000 years ago.
8. The invention of the exploding head harpoon was invented in 1856.
9. The earliest type of whaling, called drift whaling, consisted of harvesting whales that had washed up on the shore, mainly after storms.
10. In 1932, the first attempts to regulate/restrict whaling.
11. The IWC(International Whaling Commission) began their efforts in the 1960's to limit the number and species of whales that could be hunted.
12. The Indian Ocean, the oceanic waters off Mexico, a number of South Pacific island nations and territories, and Antarctica have been declared whale sanctuaries.
13. In 2006, after more nations favoring commercial whaling joined the IWC, it narrowly voted to support the eventual return of commercial whaling. =[
To end on a more interesting/upbeat note,
14. A blue whale's tongue weighs more than a whole elephant, and is large enough for fifty people to stand on it.

Warm-up

The chinese proverb means that if you ask a question, you are only a fool for the five minutes that the question is being answered or people are making fun of you for asking it. if you do not ask the question, you wont know the answer and will be an eternal fool for not gaining the knowledge you could have by asking that question.

5/7/10 History info

One important person who is involved with anti-whaling efforts is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder, Paul Watson. The SSCS(Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) is the society that the show on Animal Planet, Whale Wars. It's about the society's conservation attempts on ending commercial whaling. The SSCS, was founded in 1977. The show Whale Wars, was started in 2008. The SSCS is based out of Friday Harbor in Washington. After Paul Watson founded the SSCS, he initially called it Earth Force. He saw a lack of an aggressive approach towards the efforts, he decided to take a more aggressive intervention. The show Whale Wars is based on the groups encounters with Japanese whalers in the southern ocean. The SSCS currently operates two vessels, the MV Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker. Their responsibility while on the sea is to stop Japanese whaling vessels. Some of the most endangered whales from whaling are the blue whale and the gray whale.