MMMMMaaaaarrrrriiiiinnnnneeeee MMMMMaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaalllll FFFFFiiiiieeeeelllllddddd NNNNNooooottttteeeeesssss.............................................................................................................................111112222222222 GGGGGrrrrraaaaayyyyy WWWWWhhhhhaaaaallllleeeee FFFFFiiiiieeeeelllllddddd NNNNNooooottttteeeeesssss.....................................................................................................................................................................111112222266666 SSSSSeeeeeaaaaa OOOOOtttttttttteeeeerrrrr FFFFFiiiiieeeeelllllddddd NNNNNooooottttteeeeesssss.........................................................................................................................................................................................111112222299999 SSSSSeeeeeaaaaarrrrrccccchhhhhiiiiinnnnnggggg fffffooooorrrrr MMMMMooooorrrrreeeee aaaaabbbbbooooouuuuuttttt MMMMMaaaaarrrrriiiiinnnnneeeee MMMMMaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaalllllsssss....................111113333322222 Explore Your Yard..........................................132 There(cid:146)s a Whale in Your Room!....................133 What(cid:146)s for Dinner?........................................133 Take an Imaginary Trip.................................134 Who Lives Here?............................................135 An Oily Mess..................................................136 There Aren(cid:146)t Many Left!................................136 Get Involved!..................................................137 What Do You Think?.....................................137 Ollie Otter Lunch Bag Puppet......................138 MMMMMaaaaarrrrriiiiinnnnneeeee MMMMMaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaalllll FFFFFiiiiieeeeelllllddddd GGGGGuuuuuiiiiidddddeeeee.............................................................................................................................111114444400000 !"! WWWWWhhhhhaaaaattttt IIIIIsssss aaaaa MMMMMaaaaarrrrriiiiinnnnneeeee MMMMMaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaalllll????? Cold and dark as the sea is, some mammals have adapted the water. But to life there. Mammals that live in the ocean range tiny leg bones deep in Orca chasing in size from the furry, five-foot-long sea otter to the the whale(cid:146)s body and handlike bones salmon enormous blue whale, a hundred feet long. What inside its flippers remind us of its do these creatures have in common? Like us, they land-dwelling ancestors. are warm-blooded animals that breathe air, have hair and nurse their young. The pinnipeds are graceful and agile swimmers with smooth, tapering bodies and strong flippers, More than 30 species of marine mammals live in or but they still retain many ties to land. Most return pass through Monterey Bay. Three major groups of to shore to mate and give birth, some more marine mammals can be seen here: cetaceans gracefully than others. (cid:147)Eared(cid:148) seals, like the (whales, dolphins and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals California sea lion, have small external ears and and sea lions) and sea otters. Each group evolved versatile hind flippers they can turn under to from different land mammals that moved back to (cid:147)walk(cid:148) on land. They evolved from bearlike the sea. mammals that returned to the sea about 30 million years ago. (cid:147)Earless(cid:148) seals, like the harbor seal, The cetaceans descended from a crowlike ancestor evolved from otterlike ancestors about 14 million that returned to ocean life about 65 million years years ago. These true seals don(cid:146)t have visible ears ago. The streamlined, fishlike whale doesn(cid:146)t or walking flippers, on land, they wriggle resemble its four-legged ancestor. With one or two awkwardly on their bellies. nostrils on the top of its head, a whale can easily breathe at the surface without lifting its head. The sea otter, adapted to living in the ocean over Its tail is incredibly strong, forceful enough to push the past four million years, still resembles the the whale through weasel, its relative on land. Gray whale skeleton 122 swallow it whole. Although many whales and seals are solitary feeders, orcas often feed in a group called a pod. Hunting together like a pack of wolves, a pod of orcas can surround a school of salmon or even overwhelm a larger whale. Sea otters keep to shallow waters, eating whatever Sea otters live close to is readily available in kelp forests. They hunt while shore; they(cid:146)re not as well equipped for the they dive, collecting crabs, clams and other shell- open ocean as the streamlined, deep-diving seals fish with their agile front paws. Afloat on the and whales. surface, they use rock tools to smash the shells. FFFFFeeeeeeeeeedddddiiiiinnnnnggggg With strong canine teeth for prying and powerful molars for crushing, sea otters break open and devour their prey. The largest Marine mammals eat the smallest food. Baleen whales, like the humpback and blue whales, KKKKKeeeeeeeeeepppppiiiiinnnnnggggg wwwwwaaaaarrrrrmmmmm strain millions of small, shrimplike crustaceans from the water with their sievelike baleen. How do marine mammals generate enough body heat to keep warm in the cold ocean? Baleen plates hang in rows from the whale(cid:146)s upper jaw. The baleen fibers, made of the same materials Their large appetites and fast digestion fuel the as fingernails and claws, fray toward the inside of high metabolic rates that produce body heat. Other the mouth and overlap to form a dense net. The adaptations help maintain that heat in a marine whale swallows a great mouthful of food and water, mammals body. then closes its jaws. With a thrust of its tongue, it expels the water through the baleen, leaving the A whale has a thick, insulating layer of fat called prey trapped inside. The gray whale feeds on blubber to help retain body heat. The layer of muddy bottoms, straining amphipod crustaceans blubber also makes the whale buoyant and from the sediments with its shorter, stubby baleen. supplies energy when food is Toothed marine mammals use their teeth to grasp, scarce. Seals have rip or crush fishes and squids. With their strong both a blubber jaws and doglike teeth, seals and sea lions tear at layer and a coat their prey. Dolphins and toothed whales make of hair for clicking sounds and use the echoes to find insulation. (echolocate) and possibly to stun their prey. Of all the With peglike teeth, these cetaceans grip a fish and 123 marine mammals, only sea otters lack blubber, Migrator or resident, a marine mammal spends a depending instead on insulation from their dense lot of time under water holding its breath. Sperm fur coats. An otter must groom and clean itself whales are the deepest divers, know to dive for an constantly to keep the fur waterproof. hour or more to at least 3,700 feet (1,100 meters). To prolong its underwater time, the animals A whale also has a special circulatory system that metabolism and heartbeat slow down and its lungs helps maintain its core body temperature. In an collapse. Because they breathe air, marine mam- overheated animal, the outer blood vessels dilate to mals must return to the surface at regular intervals. allow warm blood to flow out to cooler fins and flippers. In a chilled animal, the outer blood CCCCCooooommmmmmmmmmuuuuunnnnniiiiicccccaaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn vessels constrict to reduce blood flow to the extremities. Cool blood flowing from the outer On land, seals and sea lions communicate with body back to the heart recaptures heat from warm barks and bellows. Some whales (like humpbacks) blood flowing away from the heart in a counter- sing beautifully under water. current heat exchange. Sei whale MMMMMiiiiigggggrrrrraaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn aaaaannnnnddddd lllllooooocccccooooommmmmoooootttttiiiiiooooonnnnn Blue whales call long distance with bursts of low- frequency sound (below the range of human hear- Most marine mammals are social creatures. They ing). Such sounds may travel hundreds of miles may swim together, rubbing and playing in groups under water. of two, three or more. Some, like sea otters and some pinnipeds, reside in coastal areas. Others, like Others, like orcas, communicate with clicks. Each baleen whales, are world travellers. Each year, baleen orca pod has its own dialect, its own catalog of whales migrate between their polar feeding areas clicks and squeaks. Neighboring pods share some and the tropical areas where they breed and give calls; the more the pods interact, the more their birth. Passing Monterey Bay twice a year, the gray dialects will overlap. Toothed whales and dolphins whales swim more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilo- also use sound as a kind of sonar echolocation - to meters) from the Bering Sea to Baja California and find out about objects they can(cid:146)t see. Sperm whales back, the longest migration known of any mammal. may even use blasts of sound to stun their prey. 124 Only otters and eared seals like sea lions have Now, scientists study marine mammals to learn external ears. True seals and whales have hidden how they interact with each other and with their ears but they still can hear. environment. Researchers track them with radio tags and satellites, identify them individually with PPPPPeeeeeooooopppppllllleeeee aaaaannnnnddddd mmmmmaaaaarrrrriiiiinnnnneeeee mmmmmaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaalllllsssss photographs, listen to them with underwater microphones and observe their group behavior. For thousands of years, people hunted marine Such research has shown that these benign and mammals for food, oil, clothing and tools. probably intelligent animals form complex social groups and communicate with one another. In Monterey Bay, whalers hunted mostly hump- backs and gray whales between 1854 and 1925. Long ago, when the shore whalers used small boats and limited weapons, whales had a fair chance of surviving. But Humpback whale with advancing technology, some whales were hunted nearly to extinction: humpbacks, blue whales, gray whales, sperm whales, elephant seals and sea otters. Scientists and conservationists brought the plight For many marine mammals, the future is still of the marine mammals to public attention. As uncertain. With continued protection and research, people have learned more about the lives of marine perhaps these warm-blooded animals will find mammals, they have grown to respect and value safety in their ocean home. them as an integral part of the ocean environment. Marine mammals are now protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act in the United States. Since 1972, it(cid:146)s been illegal to kill or harass marine mammals or collect their bones, fur or other parts. 125 WWWWWhhhhhaaaaattttt iiiiisssss aaaaa GGGGGrrrrraaaaayyyyy FFFFFeeeeeeeeeedddddiiiiinnnnnggggg aaaaannnnnddddd dddddiiiiieeeeettttt WWWWWhhhhhaaaaallllleeeee????? Gray whales do most of their During winter, the baleen whale feeding from May to November you(cid:146)d most likely see along in the cold northern seas. North America(cid:146)s Pacific Coast is Unlike other baleen whales the gray whale. The adult gray that filter food from the water, whale is a medium-sized whale, the gray whale usually eats 36 to 50 feet (11 to 15 meters) from the bottom. Rolling on its in length (a little longer than a side (usually the right side), school bus) and weighing 20 to the whale sucks up a mouthful 45 tons (18 to 41 metric tons). of mud or sand. With a thrust Every winter, thousands of gray of its tongue, the whale expels whales migrate south from their the mud through baleen plates cold-water summer feeding that hang from its upper jaw. grounds in the Arctic seas to the The baleen acts like a strainer, warm-water lagoons of western filtering shrimplike amphipods Baja California in Mexico. This and other prey from the mud. journey is more than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) The gray whales gorge round trip, the longest of all themselves during these known mammal migrations. months, eating about 1,000 pounds (455 kilograms) of food a day and gaining six to 12 inches (15 to 30) centimeters) of body fat. This fat provides the pri- mary source of energy for the trip from the Arctic to Baja California and back. For a pregnant whale, these fat reserves not only get her to Mexico, but provide fuel for her and her calf on the return trip. 126 MMMMMiiiiigggggrrrrraaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn which is 3.5 percent fat). A gray whale calf can gain 50 to 70 pounds In October, when the days begin to (23 to 32 kilograms) a day. Calves shorten and ice starts to form on the are about 15 feet (five meters) long at Bering Sea, pregnant females begin their birth, growing to 20 feet (six meters) migration south. They are soon long by the time they pass Monterey followed by nonpregnant females, on the northward journey with their mature males and juveniles. Most of the mothers. They are weaned at seven to 21,000 gray whales that live in the nine months, reach maturity between eastern Pacific migrate to the Mexican five and 11 years and can live to be lagoons every year, passing through 50 years old. Monterey Bay from late November to mid-February. During their time in the Mexican lagoons, the other adults continue courting and Gray whales travel close to shore in small groups mating. In February and March, newly impregnated (pods) of two to 15 whales. The trip each way females begin the return trip north. Mature males takes eight to 10 weeks. Males and nonpregnant leave first, followed by juveniles. Females with new mature females court and mate throughout the calves are the last to leave the lagoons. You can see southward journey. If you see two or three gray the whales heading north past Monterey from mid- whales thrashing and splashing about in the water, February to mid-May. they are probably courting and possibly mating. CCCCCooooommmmmmmmmmuuuuunnnnniiiiicccccaaaaatttttiiiiiooooonnnnn RRRRReeeeeppppprrrrroooooddddduuuuuccccctttttiiiiiooooonnnnn Gray whales don(cid:146)t sing like humpback whales or click and whistle like dolphins, but they do make Most pregnant females give birth when they reach grunting sounds to communicate with one another. the warmer Mexican waters, usually in January and However, scientists aren(cid:146)t sure what the sounds February. Some have their calves during their mean or how these whales use them. migration south. A female gray whale is pregnant for about 13 months and gives birth to a one-ton Like most whales, gray whales breach, rocketing call every other year. nearly out of the water and falling back with a thunderous splash. Breaching and the slapping of The whale(cid:146)s migration is timed so that the calves flippers and flukes (tail fins) on the water may be are born in warm water where they grow rapidly forms of communication. Gray whales may also on their mother(cid:146)s rich milk. Gray whale milk is communicate by touch, especially females who about 53 percent fat (compared to cow(cid:146)s milk often touch their calves. 127 GGGGGrrrrraaaaayyyyy wwwwwhhhhhaaaaallllleeeeesssss aaaaannnnnddddd pppppeeeeeooooopppppllllleeeee stations popped up along the migration route - the central coast of California at Point Lobos, Moss Whether you watch gray whales from the shore or Landing and MacAbee Beach. With the discovery a boat, your first glimpse is usually its heart-shaped of the Mexican breeding lagoons in 1855, even (cid:147)blow(cid:148) of misty vapor as it exhales at the surface. greater numbers were hunted. By the 1880s, the Look toward the horizon for the blow. A whale gray whale population had plummeted to near- blows three to five times in a row, 10 to 20 seconds extinction. apart, before lifting its flukes out of the water as it starts, a three-to seven-minute dive. Sometimes With fewer whales, profits fell. The gray whale pop- you may see its mottled gray body with a row of ulation started to recover, until the next period of six to 12 bumps, or knuckles, along the midline of whaling occurred in the early 1900s. The introduc- its back. (Unlike many whales, the gray whale has tion of floating factories and diesel-powered boats no dorsal fin on its back.) made hunting whales easier and more profitable. You can also recognize a gray whale by its para- Since the 1940s the gray whale population has sites - the large whitish patches of barnacles been protected as an endangered species. The attached to the skin. The barnacles don(cid:146)t harm the International Whaling Commission allows only whale, they(cid:146)re just hitching a ride. Tan patches on Alaskan Eskimos and Soviet natives to harvest the whale are large clusters of parasitic whale lice, these whales for necessary food and supplies each amphipods that feed on the skin of the whale. year. Some scientists believe there may be as many gray whales now as there were before commercial Over the years, people have had more of an whaling began. interest in gray whales than just watching and studying them. Whalers made a living hunting Today, gray whales still deserve our protection. them: first to make oil from their blubber (to light Pollution, boat traffic, industrial noise, offshore oil lamps and lubricate machinery), then later to make and natural gas exploration, fishing, whale fertilizer from their meat and bone meal. Gray watching and loss of habitat and food resources whales were easy to spot as they swam close to pose potential threats to these magnificent crea- shore, and profits from whaling soared. Whaling tures of the sea. It(cid:146)s up to us to help protect them. It takes 17 students, lined up with arms outstretched, to equal the length of one 50-foot adult gray whale. 128 WWWWWhhhhhaaaaattttt iiiiisssss aaaaa temperature of about 100” F (38” C). To keep SSSSSeeeeeaaaaa OOOOOtttttttttteeeeerrrrr warm they depend on their thick, water-resistant fur. Most other marine mammals have an If you look out into a kelp insulating layer of fat, called blubber, to bed off the central California keep out the cold. coast and see what looks like a floating brown log, you may have spotted a When you see a sea otter rubbing its sea otter. A closer look would show a long, dark- body and rolling in the water, it(cid:146)s grooming brown, furry animal with stubby front paws, large, its fur to keep it clean and waterproof. Depending webbed hind flippers and a whiskered face. on which part of a sea otter(cid:146)s body you look at, a square inch (6.5 square centimeters) of fur con- Sea otters are the smallest marine mammals in tains between 170,000 and one million hairs. North America. (Only the marine otter - an (You have only about 100,000 hairs on your entire endangered species that lives off the coast of South head.) As an otter grooms, it(cid:146)s coating each hair America - is smaller.) An average adult California with natural oils from its skin and trapping tiny air sea otter is about the size of a ten-year-old child - bubbles in its fur. four feet (1.2 meters) long. Females weigh about 44 pounds (20 kilograms), males about 64 pounds The trapped air and oils make the fur water (29 kilograms). resistant and insulate the otter from the cold ocean water. If the fur becomes soiled, perhaps from oil KKKKKeeeeeeeeeepppppiiiiinnnnnggggg wwwwwaaaaarrrrrmmmmm or boat fuel, it gets matted, which destroys the protective bubble barrier. A soiled sea otter dies Sea otters live in 30” to 60” F (0” to 15” C) sea of exposure to the cold in just a few hours. water, yet they maintain a constant internal body 129 Sea otters also keep warm by burning calories An otter swims on its back at the surface, pumping from their food. A sea otter(cid:146)s metabolism (rate of its hind flippers in unison. But when it(cid:146)s in a hurry, heat production) is two to three times faster than an otter will swim on its stomach. Some otters, similar-sized land mammals. Depending on the usually females, stay within a few miles of where caloric content of its prey, an otter fuels its high they were born. Males tend to travel farther, often metabolism by eating about 25 percent of its body exploring new areas. weight in food every day. A 50-pound (23 kilograms) otter eats about 13 pounds (six FFFFFeeeeeeeeeedddddiiiiinnnnnggggg aaaaannnnnddddd dddddiiiiieeeeettttt kilograms ) of seafood daily. There are more than 50 kinds of marine HHHHHaaaaabbbbbiiiiitttttaaaaattttt aaaaannnnnddddd lllllooooocccccooooommmmmoooootttttiiiiiooooonnnnn invertebrates on a sea otter(cid:146)s menu, including mussels, clams, abalone and other snails, Sea otters live in the coastal waters of the northern octopuses, crabs, sea urchins and sea stars. But Pacific Ocean from the Kuril Islands in Russia to from this variety, each individual usually Prince William Sound in Alaska. Smaller specializes in only two to four kinds of prey. Sea populations of sea otters live off the coasts of otters frequently hunt in the kelp forest, usually British Columbia, Washington State and California. in water less than 60 feet (18 meters) deep. In California, sea otters live along a 250-mile stretch of coast from point Aæo Nuevo in Santa While sea otters hunt for food under water, they Cruz County south to Purisima Point in Santa eat at the surface. An otter gathers its meal with its Barbara County. powerful forepaws or uses a rock to knock loose stubborn abalone and sea urchins. Back at the California sea otter live close surface, the otter floats on its back and eats. It uses to shore, usually in or its powerful jaw muscles and blunt molars to near kelp forests. They crush its food. The otter may place a rock or rest in the kelp, often other hard object on its chest to use as an anvil. wrapping themselves in kelp Then the otter bashes its prey against the rock, fronds. Some otters spend time breaking open hard-shelled animals like abalone, along sandy beaches and in harbors and crabs and clams. Sea otters are the only marine sloughs. Unlike Alaskan otters, mammals that use tools. California sea otters seldom come ashore. When they do, they RRRRReeeeeppppprrrrroooooddddduuuuuccccctttttiiiiiooooonnnnn usually haul out on low, algae- covered rocks along the Sea otters mate year-round. A male water(cid:146)s edge. and female bond together as a pair for a few days during mating activities. Ochre star and abalone 130