Every sea creature tends to take your breath away when you see them up close. Their beauty is beyond compare to terrestrial mammals, which is why they are known as the most iconic creatures under water. From the quirky narwhal to the gigantic blue whale, these charismatic sea creatures have captivated us for centuries.

There’s even a “World Whale Day”, which was celebrated recently on 18th February. This annual holiday was first found in Maui by Hawaiians, in 1980. The holiday was a tribute to humpback whales and is celebrated in the Maui Whale Festival. While most of us are familiar with how to conduct ourselves around these beautiful and large sea creatures, it is worth familiarisig yourself with OzWhale watching information as we still have a lot to learn about them.

As we all know: the largest animal in the world ever to exit is the Blue Whale. In fact, these creatures are so old that they even existed before Moby Dick was written, which was in 1851. How amazing is that!

The Whale Family

Catacea is a clade of aquatic animals, which includes porpoises, dolphins and whales. They thrive in marine environments; have streamlined bodies, compressed neck vertebrae and nimble tails and dorsal fins. There are around 80 species and all of them are found underwater.

Now that you are familiar with these aquatic creatures, let’s have a look at the five mind-blowing facts about whales that you didn’t know about:

Fact #1

Right after the 9/11 attack, scientists conducted a study on whales. These mammals were monitored closely and their stress levels were analysed by their poop. The study revealed that right after the attack, the stress level of whales plummeted.

The study concluded that the reason behind the low-stress levels was due to the ship traffic, which was halted. This quieted the ocean and resulted in low-frequency noise that is used by whales to communicate. From this, we can derive that whales are not a big fan of noise, which is why appropriate distance must be maintained while whale watching.

Fact #2

As you know, whales emit a certain sound, at a certain frequency, which is almost like a song. This song is a callout for finding friends in the ocean. In 1989, a couple of hydrophones by the Navy in the US picked up strange signals. It was a whale call but the keynotes were very high, as compared to those made by blue whales. The frequency was measured at 52 Hertz, which lead to the study and discovery of “the world’s loneliest whale”. It was found out that this is a one of a kind whale and the last in the world.

Fact #3

The blue whale is an extremely large animal, so much so that a person can pass through its arteries. This leads us to think about its other body parts, one of which is the tongue. A blue whale’s tongue is so long and heavy that it weighs more than an elephant.

Fact #4

Here’s a disgusting fact that is too good to be true: a whale’s vomit is worth more than $100,000 because it is used to make perfume.

Fact #5

They say that if a dead whale washes up on shore on any beach in Britain, the tail belongs to the queen and the head to the king.

So, there you go… five amazing facts that we are sure you had never heard of before. There are hundreds more where that came from because these aquatic creatures never cease to amaze us.