World Whale Day: Celebrating the gentle giants of sea
World Whale Day is a reminder of our responsibility to safeguard these magnificent creatures and their habitats for future generations
On every third Sunday of February, the World Whale Day is celebrated. Initially, it originated in Hawaii to create awareness and protect the native humpback whales. Over time, it has evolved into an international day dedicated to honouring whales and highlighting the threats these majestic creatures face.
This year, World Whale Day falls on February 16. Let’s take a moment to learn more about these incredible marine mammals and the challenges they encounter.
Whales are distributed throughout the world’s oceans and seas, from the Equator to the polar ice, except for the landlocked Caspian and Aral seas. Whales are mammals, which means, they can breathe air like us, warm-blooded, give birth to babies, suckle their young on milk, and have hair.
The main threats that whales face around the world are all directly linked to humans. Commercial whaling in the 20th century wiped out millions of whales from oceans, massively reducing whale populations until whaling was banned in 1986. Yet, many countries allow whale hunting calling it necessary for scientific reasons.
Every year, the fishing industry dumps around tonnes of fishing gear into the sea. These ropes, fishing nets, and lines, which are mostly made of nylon, wrap around whales bodies, putting them at the risk of injury, maiming and drowning.
Also, plastics and other wastes are strewn across oceans. Even when plastics break down into microplastics, these objects still threaten whales. Microplastics and other pollutants damage the whales’ ecosystem forever.
On some occasions, big ships struck the whale leaving it maimed or dead.
Can we be eaten by a whale?
Although there have been cases of a whale accidentally sucking a human into their mouths, there are no cases of people dying.
While whales have huge mouths, a whale’s throat is quite small, just the size of a human fist. So even if someone was swept into a whale’s mouth, within seconds, they were swept out again. Also, whales either don’t have teeth or don’t have sharp teeth, so they don’t have the ability to chew their food.
Whales eat small fish, fish eggs, krill, plankton, tiny plants, jellyfish… and don’t go after any large prey. Sperm whales, which are bigger, sometimes eat big fish or giant squid
As they only eat food that is digestible to them, whales will spit out humans.
Whale sharks gather a large amount of sea water in their mouths, and use the baleen like a sieve, retaining the food in their mouth while pushing the water back out. What’s left is the food they intend to swallow. There is very little chance of a human even being engulfed in the first place. But if someone did for whatever reason, he did be spat right back out.
Whales are magnificent, gentle giants of the ocean that play a vital role in maintaining marine ecosystems. World Whale Day is a reminder of our responsibility to safeguard these creatures and their habitats for future generations.
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