Respiration 



THOSE OF US who have been fortunate enough to go on an ocean 

 cruise may have come across the impressive sight of a blowing 

 whale. On the monotonous stretches between Las Palmas and Cape 

 Town or between Aden and Colombo, this spectacle is a particularly wel- 

 come distraction, and passengers will drop their pastimes and climb up to 

 the highest deck for a good look at the jets of vapour which the whale emits 

 at regular intervals (Fig. 68). These jets are highly reminiscent of geysers, 

 with which most of us are familiar from films or our school geography 

 books. The vapour hovers in the air for a few seconds before it disperses, 

 and then the spectators wait for a repeat performance. Watches are 

 consulted, and it emerges that it takes about one minute before the next 

 jet shoots up. 



Up on the bridge, they have, of course, spotted the whale long before, 

 and probably altered course to give the passengers a better view of this 

 spectacle. Moreover, if the liner belongs to one of the big whaling nations, 

 the officers themselves probably have an interest in reporting their 

 observations to the competent authorities. Thus some British ships send 

 their reports to the National Institute of Oceanography in Wormley, 

 Dutch ships to the Netherlands Whale Research Group in Amsterdam, 

 etc., and we shall see later why these reports are important. Meanwhile 

 we shall merely point out that the type, shape and direction of the jet 

 - the blow or blast as it is called in whaling circles - are important means 

 of identifying the species. 



In this, the height of the blow is probably the least reliable pointer, 

 not only because a great deal of experience is needed to judge it accur- 

 ately, but also because it depends largely on the size of the individual 

 whale. Adult Greenland and Biscayan Whales have blows from 10-13 feet 

 high, and the figures for other whales are: Grey, 10 feet; Blue, 20 feet; 

 Fin, 13-20 feet; Sei, 6-8 feet; Humpback, 6 feet; Little Piked Whale, 

 3 feet; Sperm Whale, 16-25 f<^et; Bottlenose Whale and Beluga, 3 feet. 



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