Marine Animal Washed Up On Alpha Beach

Recently a marine animal washed up on Alpha Beach here in Lagos. The last reports I heard from Wednesday was that people had started hacking off meat from the animal.

I have identified it as a blue whale, which is the largest animal ever known to exist.

We may see them as just fish, but they are more than that.

Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, located in at least five groups.

Climate Change is one of the biggest threats facing whales and dolphins today...
 The climate is changing fast: so fast that some whale and dolphin populations may be unable to adapt.

Changes in sea temperature, freshening of seawater, sea level rise, loss of icy polar habitats and the decline of food sources are just some of the many threats posed by climate change.

Blue whales are threatened by:
*Pollution – mammals store pollution in their tissues, and they pass it all on to their firstborn, while it’s gestating and breastfeeding.
*Oil spills
*Changes in ocean that affect food supply (krill)
*Ship strikes
*Noise pollution – blue whales are not only the biggest, but also the loudest animal on the planet – their call is 190 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine, more than twice as loud as a person shouting (about 70 dB). If you happened to be swimming next to one (and you wouldn’t be, because you can’t withstand the pressures at that depth, it would do some serious damage. 150 dB will cause permanent hearing damage.
*Whales use song to communicate with one another, and to find mates. Blue whales are mostly solitary. They can call to each other across thousands of km. In Newfoundland, you can hear whales singing in Puerto Rico.

Why are whales important:
*Researchers have found that the iron-rich faeces of sperm whales living in the Southern Ocean boosts the growth of phytoplankton, marine plants which suck in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They estimate that the whales are responsible for removing 400,000 tonnes of carbon each year, twice as much as they contribute through respiration.

*Whales play an important role in stabilizing the aquatic food chain and reproduction of other species. As more whales are killed the food distribution in the ocean becomes destabilized and causes changes in the food supply of many other marine life

*Whale watching and various other spectating activities have brought in billions of dollars helping stimulate economic growth in various cities, states and countries

And for those of you who wants to know if it is ok to eat whale met, some studies have found extremely high levels of contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and PCBs in whale and dolphin meat. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were widely used as dielectric and coolant fluids, for example in transformers, capacitors, and electric motors. There is also evidence that they can cause cancer in humans. Mercury is used in thermometers, barometers, manometers, sphygmomanometers, float valves, mercury switches, mercury relays, fluorescent lamps and other devices. Mercury and most of its compounds are extremely toxic and must be handled with care;