THE BLUE WHALE

Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals swim the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tons. Their tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as a car.
Diet of Krill
Blue whales reach these mind-boggling dimensions on a diet composed nearly exclusively of tiny shrimplike animals called krill. During certain times of the year, a single adult blue whale consumes about 4 tons of krill a day.
Blue whales are baleen whales, which means they have fringed plates of fingernail-like material, called baleen, attached to their upper jaws. The giant animals feed by first gulping an enormous mouthful of water, expanding the pleated skin on their throat and belly to take it in. Then the whale's massive tongue forces the water out through the thin, overlapping baleen plates. Thousands of krill are left behind—and then swallowed.
Colouring and Appearance
Blue whales look blue underwater, but on the surface their colouring is more a mottled blue-gray. Their underbellies take on a yellowish hue from the millions of microorganisms that take up residence in their skin. The blue whale has a broad, flat head and a long, tapered body that ends in wide, triangular flukes.
Vocalization and Behaviour
Blue whales live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator as winter arrives.
These graceful swimmers cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour, but accelerate to more than 20 miles an hour when they are agitated. Blue whales are among the loudest animals on the planet. They emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans, and it’s thought that, in good conditions, blue whales can hear each other up to 1,000 miles away. Scientists think they use these vocalizations not only to communicate, but, along with their excellent hearing, to sonar-navigate the lightless ocean depths.
Blue Whale Calves & Longevity 
Calves enter the world already ranking among the planet's largest creatures. After about a year inside its mother's womb, a baby blue whale emerges weighing up to 3 tons and stretching to 25 feet. It gorges on nothing but mother's milk and gains about 200 pounds every day for its first year.
Blue whales are among Earth's longest-lived animals. Scientists have discovered that by counting the layers of a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can get a close estimate of the animal's age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was determined to be around 110 years old. Average lifespan is estimated at around 80 to 90 years.
Conservation
Aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction. Between 1900 and the mid-1960s, some 360,000 blue whales were slaughtered. They finally came under protection by the 1966 International Whaling Commission, but they've managed only a minor recovery since then.
Blue whales have few predators but are known to fall victim to attacks by sharks and killer whales, and many are injured or die each year from impacts with large ships. Plastic waste entering the world’s oceans is an additional serious threat to their survival, as this can be accidently eaten by the whale and results in slow starvation and death. Plastic is now getting into all forms of sea life, which is in turn consumed by human beings. Scientists are therefore urgently studying the negative effects that plastic is having on the oceans and our whole environment. A solution must be found quickly before it’s too late. 
TRUE – FALSE – NO INFORMATION? 
1) SCIENTISTS CAN APPROXIMATELY CALCULATE THE AGE OF A BLUE WHALE BY COUNTING THE LAYERS OF WAX IN ITS EARS. 
2) BLUE WHALES USE THEIR CALLS AND EXCELLENT HEARING TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE WORLD’S OCEANS. 
3) BLUE WHALES HAVE AN EXTREMELY VARIED DIET TO KEEP THEMSELVES HEALTHY. 
4) BLUE WHALES SWIM AT SPEEDS BETWEEN FIVE AND TWENTY MILES AN HOUR. 
5) A BABY BLUE WHALE INCREASES IN WEIGHT BY 200 POUNDS EVERY 24 HOURS UNTIL THE AGE OF 0NE YEAR. 
6) BLUE WHALES USUALLY SWIM IN GROUPS OF THREE OR FOUR FOR PROTECTION. 
7) BLUE WHALES CAN LIVE FOR OVER 100 YEARS.
8) AFTER A WHALE DIES, IT SINKS TO THE OCEAN FLOOR. 
9) SINCE 1966, BLUE WHALES HAVE BEEN PROTECTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION AND THEIR NUMBERS HAVE BEEN RESTORED TO PREVIOUS LEVELS. 
10) BLUE WHALES EAT MILLIONS OF KRILL WITH EACH MOUTHFUL OF WATER. 
11) BALEEN SEPARATES THE KRILL FROM THE WATER. 
12) BALEEN ALSO HELPS THE WHALE TO FLOAT WHILE IT IS SLEEPING. 
13) SOMETIMES SHIPS ARE BADLY DAMAGED AND SINK AFTER COLLIDING WITH A BLUE WHALE. 
14) 360,000 BLUE WHALES WERE KILLED IN SIXTY SIX YEARS. 
15) SINCE 2010, THE BLUE WHALE POPULATION HAS INCREASED BY SIX PER CENT. 
16) BLUE WHALES ARE SOMETIMES HURT AND KILLED BY SHIPS. 
17) BLUE WHALES CAN COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER UP TO 1000 MILES AWAY. 
18) ON AVERAGE, IT TAKES A WHALE TWO YEARS TO SWIM ACROSS THE WORLD’S OCEANS.
19) A BABY WHALE DRINKS MILK FOR UP TO FIVE OR SIX YEARS. 
20) A SINGLE ADULT MALE BLUE WHALE CAN EAT 28 TONS OF KRILL IN A WEEK. 
21) THE BLUE WHALE IS LARGER THAN THE BIGGEST DINOSAURS. 
22) A BABY BLUE WHALE TAKES 12 MONTHS TO DEVELOP BEFORE IT IS BORN.
23) SCIENTISTS ARE NOT CONCERNED ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF PLASTIC.