WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:04.800 Hi, Welcome to the Humpback  Whale National Marine Sanctuary. 00:00:04.800 --> 00:00:08.480 Today we're going to talk  about some activities that 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:12.080 you as teachers or parents  can do with your kids to 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:14.800 help them understand a little bit more about the 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:16.080 humpback whales. 00:00:16.080 --> 00:00:18.000 These are all activities that you will have your 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.120 equipment right there at home  and can be able to use it. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.080 So it's kind of going through  fun facts of the whales. 00:00:24.080 --> 00:00:26.800 So here's our humpback whale, let's remember that 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:30.960 it's about 45 feet long,  when it's an adult is about 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:32.160 45 feet long. 00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:36.240 It weighs about 45 tons. 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:37.840 It's a magnificent animal. 00:00:38.800 --> 00:00:41.200 Research is a little tough  because they can't put it 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:44.480 into any kind of an aquarium  or a pen to be able to 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:46.960 study it, so everything they've learned, they have 00:00:46.960 --> 00:00:49.360 learned while it's out in the open ocean. 00:00:49.360 --> 00:00:51.680 So let's talk about size first. 00:00:51.680 --> 00:00:55.520 So 45 feet, kids how big is 45 feet? 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.920 So one way to figure this  out (it's kind of interesting 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.560 to see how big things are  in your house) is to take a 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.520 rope and I've taken this rope and I have measured 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.520 off every foot on the rope, so that I know how 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:09.680 much 45 feet is. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:11.840 Start in one corner of your house or one corner of 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:13.600 your bedroom: measure it out. 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:14.800 How big is your room? 00:01:14.800 --> 00:01:17.120 Would a humpback whale fit into that room? 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.800 Another fact here: is that a baby humpback whale 00:01:20.800 --> 00:01:24.640 is about 15 feet long, when it is born and that's 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:26.720 probably closer to the size of your bedroom, 00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:28.400 depending how big your bedroom is. 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:30.560 Or take it outside, how big is your yard? 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:34.160 So again, see if you go outside figure out how big 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:35.760 that whale actually is. 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:39.920 Now, the humpback whales spend their summer 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:43.360 times (in Alaska), the winter  times down here in Hawai'i. 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:47.120 They come down from Alaska, they come down here 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:50.800 they frolic, they play, we see  awesome activity from them. 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:53.920 They mate, they also give birth. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.040 Once those babies are born and they get big enough 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:59.760 that the mom can take them back up to Alaska. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:03.440 The mom will swim them all  the way back up to Alaska. 00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:05.760 Usually she goes with maybe a couple other mothers 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:08.560 and babies kind of as a support  group against predators. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:12.240 As they go back up they go  back up to Alaska and the 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:14.880 mom will keep nursing the  baby but she also teaches 00:02:14.880 --> 00:02:16.640 that baby how to feed. 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.560 Now once they have fed and they've spent their 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.760 summer season up in Alaska, they will turn around 00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:26.480 again and the mom and the baby will swim back 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:28.240 to Hawai'i. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:31.520 And at that point the baby  will take off by itself with 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.160 the other teenagers and play and learn how to be 00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:35.280 a big kid. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.520 But let's go back to Alaska for a minute and let's 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:39.040 talk about the feeding. 00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:43.200 The whale's an interesting  animal: actually has a very 00:02:43.200 --> 00:02:46.800 huge mouth, the mouth goes  about a third of the way 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:50.160 back on the body, so that  this bottom jaw will open 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:51.520 way up like this. 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.960 Bottom jaw will open way  up like this when it feeds: 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:59.280 it's about 15 feet big, it  has a tongue (it's of kind of 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:01.680 gross), the size of a small car. 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:04.880 Imagine a small car in your mouth! 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:08.800 Now a humpback whale also does not have teeth. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:11.760 Instead it has what is called baleen. 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:15.600 This is an example of baleen,  this is baleen that was 00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:19.840 taken off of a humpback whale  that had died up in Alaska. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.080 They are plates that's made like out of what your 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.200 fingernails are made out of  and it's got little hairs on 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:26.400 the edge of these. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:28.720 This has been cut off most of these are anywhere 00:03:28.720 --> 00:03:31.040 from six to eight ten feet long, depending on the 00:03:31.040 --> 00:03:31.840 size of the whale. 00:03:32.880 --> 00:03:35.120 There's about two to three hundred of them in the 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:38.160 mouth, it's in the top jaw  of the mouth and when the 00:03:38.160 --> 00:03:42.000 whale feeds, it opens its  mouth, it takes a big gulp of 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.120 water, it traps all these little fish and krill. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:47.120 I don't know if you can  see it here, but this is an 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:51.760 example of krill: they're little tiny shrimp-like 00:03:51.760 --> 00:03:54.400 characters, you're probably seeing the eyeballs. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:58.560 They can eat those, they can  also eat little tiny small 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:02.240 fish, herring, little small  fish, things that will get 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:03.840 caught on these hairs. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:06.720 Again they take a gulp of  water, they spit out that 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:10.720 water and all the little fish  and krill are stuck on these 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:14.640 hairs and then they take  that tongue swirl it around 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:16.480 and shove it back down the throat. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:18.960 Now an interesting fact  about the throat: you always 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:21.280 hear stories about a whale swallowing you. 00:04:21.280 --> 00:04:23.600 Well, humpback whales cannot swallow you. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:26.240 This is the size of the  back of their throat (it's a 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.800 dryer hose) it's about that  big, (I can see you) but the 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:32.960 whale could not swallow you. 00:04:32.960 --> 00:04:35.040 So a whale, a humpback whale is not going to eat 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:38.400 anything bigger than what could go down that small 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:39.440 little throat. 00:04:39.440 --> 00:04:44.000 Kind of amazing when you think  how big that whale actually is. 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:47.920 Now here's a question: how do they get enough food 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:49.840 in them so that they can survive? 00:04:50.400 --> 00:04:53.440 When they're up in Alaska,  they estimate that they eat 00:04:53.440 --> 00:04:57.040 about a ton, to a ton and  a half a day of these small 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:58.560 little krill that we talked about. 00:04:59.440 --> 00:05:02.480 Now they use that baleen  in a unique way and this is 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:04.960 a demonstration you can try at home here. 00:05:05.520 --> 00:05:07.600 I have a bowl of just water. 00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:12.880 I am going to pour into my bowl, some parsley here 00:05:12.880 --> 00:05:13.360 in a minute. 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:18.240 That parsley is going to represent the krill or 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:18.960 the little fish. 00:05:19.520 --> 00:05:23.920 I have two chopsticks that  are going to represent the 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:27.280 whale partly, and also a  dolphin, in the dolphin teeth. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.200 And I have a comb, just a  regular hair comb that we're 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:35.520 going to use that demonstrates  how the baleen works. 00:05:36.080 --> 00:05:40.880 Now, I'm going to add some  food to my pond of water 00:05:40.880 --> 00:05:46.000 here, and then as the whales  feed, it's called bubble 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.760 net feeding they swim around and around and around 00:05:49.760 --> 00:05:53.440 in a circle and as they're  swimming around and around 00:05:53.440 --> 00:05:57.200 and around and around in a  circle, you'll see that the 00:05:57.200 --> 00:06:00.320 food starts to congregate in the middle. 00:06:00.320 --> 00:06:02.320 It all collects together. 00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:04.320 So as they're doing this,  there's usually a group of 00:06:04.320 --> 00:06:07.520 them swimming together (I  wonder if they get dizzy?) 00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:10.320 big circle but they go around and around, they're 00:06:10.320 --> 00:06:13.520 trapping that food and then  they're going to catch it. 00:06:13.520 --> 00:06:17.360 Now, if you were a dolphin,  you would go in with your 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:20.880 mouth and you'd catch maybe  one or two little fish, 00:06:20.880 --> 00:06:24.000 these represent the dolphins  fish of their teeth and 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:26.080 they would capture one or two little fish. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.520 But take a look at how this baleen works. 00:06:29.520 --> 00:06:32.880 Let's get our swirl going  again here so the whales will 00:06:32.880 --> 00:06:36.480 go around and around and once they know that they 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:39.120 know that they've got their  clump of fish that are there, 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.760 they open their mouth and their big mouth goes in 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:45.760 and remember this comb represents the baleen and 00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:49.200 that's how much they can catch at one time. 00:06:49.200 --> 00:06:51.760 That's all stuck, that's all  the little fish and things that 00:06:51.760 --> 00:06:55.760 are stuck on, pretend that  is the hairs of the baleen. 00:06:55.760 --> 00:06:56.560 Pretty cool huh? 00:06:57.760 --> 00:07:02.240 So again we just used a  comb, from your regular old 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:05.520 comb, some parsley or pepper, you can use pepper, 00:07:05.520 --> 00:07:08.800 to represent the fish and  again you're going to make 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.200 that baleen work. 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:15.680 By getting your fish going  and once you've collected 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:19.120 all your fish together, your  whale goes in, takes that 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:21.760 big gulp of water and catches all kinds of food. 00:07:21.760 --> 00:07:23.920 Okay, let's think guys from  in here, about how much 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.160 a humpback whale actually eats. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:29.600 Now, if you take a look at  what about a ton and a half 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:32.560 of this little fish represents,  that would be close to 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:37.920 you guys eating 250 hamburgers every single hour. 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:40.800 I'd have a hard time eating  one hamburger, every hour 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:42.000 on the hour, for a day. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.520 That's the amount of food  they take in and they're as 00:07:45.520 --> 00:07:48.320 they're eating this, remember  they're only eating for a 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.240 certain amount of months the time that they are 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.720 actually up in Alaska. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:56.320 So, they take that food and  they store it as blubber. 00:07:56.880 --> 00:07:59.840 And blubber we always think of as being fat, extra 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:00.800 fat on the body. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:02.640 Well that's exactly what it is. 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:04.960 The whale stores up a whole  bunch of blubber on its 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:09.760 body and then it uses that  blubber all summer long, 00:08:09.760 --> 00:08:12.640 the rest of the summer long,  all winter long as energy 00:08:12.640 --> 00:08:15.440 for them, until they do go back to Alaska and eat. 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:18.480 Now, I've got a thing here to  take a look a little activity, 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.720 to take a look at what blubber actually is. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:26.240 I have a tank of water here,  I've been taking its temperature. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:27.680 This is ice water. 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:31.440 My ice water is down to about  37 degrees right now okay. 00:08:32.160 --> 00:08:35.840 So we're going to find a way  to take a look at the blubber. 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:39.840 I have made what i call my blubber glove. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:42.960 And what it is is two  baggies, (let me show you from 00:08:42.960 --> 00:08:47.120 the beginning here), I take  a baggie, I fill the first 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.960 baggie with this is a chunk of Crisco, I stuff the 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:52.480 Crisco down in the bag. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:58.800 Then I take the second baggie  and put it in on top of 00:08:59.520 --> 00:09:05.120 that blubber and/or that  Crisco and I tape those two 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.200 things together, the tops. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:10.880 And what I come out with  is the blubber glove, where 00:09:10.880 --> 00:09:15.120 the inside layer is clean  because it's that second baggie, 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:18.880 where all of my blubber or  my Crisco is down below. 00:09:18.880 --> 00:09:22.400 Now you put your hand in  there, you work that blubber 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:24.960 around your hand, just like  if you were that real whale 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.160 body and then try sticking  your hands in the water. 00:09:28.160 --> 00:09:31.440 I put my blubber glove in,  I put my hand that is just 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:34.080 plain hand, no protection. 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:38.320 My water right now is about  38 degrees (that is cold) 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:41.040 and how long can I stand to stay in there. 00:09:41.040 --> 00:09:44.240 Interesting my fingers are  getting really cold, really 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:46.400 fast, I wonder if they're turning blue yet. 00:09:46.400 --> 00:09:49.280 But my hand that's in the  blubber, I don't even feel 00:09:49.280 --> 00:09:50.880 the temperature of the water. 00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:52.400 My blubber is working. 00:09:52.400 --> 00:09:55.520 So that blubber does two  things for that animal: it 00:09:55.520 --> 00:09:59.920 protects it from the cold and  it also supplies that's the 00:09:59.920 --> 00:10:02.960 food that it is stored for the rest of the year. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:05.680 Fun experiment to do, you  might time it, see who can 00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:07.840 stand the cold water the longest, how cold can you 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:09.680 make your water before you start this. 00:10:09.680 --> 00:10:10.960 So, I'm cold. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:12.720 I'm going to go on to the next one here. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:13.840 That's blubber. 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.320 Now there's one more thing  that we can do that we'll 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:17.120 talk about whales. 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.240 Let's go back down here to  this end and that is to talk 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:24.640 about how a scientist recognizes a whale? 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.440 And they do that by taking  pictures of their tail flukes. 00:10:30.400 --> 00:10:33.520 Every whale tail has a different pattern on it, 00:10:33.520 --> 00:10:35.360 it's like your fingertips. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.960 So when a scientist takes a  picture of that whale tail, 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.520 they'll take it back into the  office, they'll compare it 00:10:41.520 --> 00:10:44.480 with all the other pictures  they have to see if there's a 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:46.560 match or is this a new whale that has now come 00:10:46.560 --> 00:10:49.360 down here to Hawai'i or  wherever they're looking for it. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.640 So an activity that you guys  can do, is to make a board 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:55.600 like I have over here and I  want you to take a look at 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:56.640 this board. 00:10:56.640 --> 00:11:01.200 There are 16 different images of whale tails. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:05.120 Now as a scientist, you would have to match those. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:08.240 Can you match any of those pictures? 00:11:08.800 --> 00:11:12.160 A couple of them are very  easy, other ones there's just 00:11:12.160 --> 00:11:15.920 a slight difference on them,  that you would try to see 00:11:15.920 --> 00:11:17.280 which ones might match. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:24.560 One that matches that is an easy one here would be 00:11:24.560 --> 00:11:31.040 number eleven and number three, are the same exact 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:34.080 pattern, so they have to look  very, very closely at this. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:36.960 It's also very tough for  the scientists to do because 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:39.200 every picture is going to  have a little different angle 00:11:39.200 --> 00:11:40.800 and get a little different image of it. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.240 Now what you can do with the  kids, is to have the kids 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:46.960 all make their own patterns, make them easy, make 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:49.680 them hard, put them all up on the blackboard, mix 00:11:49.680 --> 00:11:52.000 them up and see if the class can match them: can 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:53.280 you find those matching pairs. 00:11:53.280 --> 00:11:55.680 It's a great matching game, so this is your lesson 00:11:55.680 --> 00:11:56.640 for today guys. 00:11:57.760 --> 00:11:59.920 Take some time, see if you can do some of these 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:01.280 activities yourself. 00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:03.520 Learn more about these awesome animals. 00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:05.680 Please join us next week for another lesson. 00:12:05.680 --> 00:12:09.840 Thank you.