(Originally published 6/24/09) Last weekend while whale watching off the west end of Santa Cruz Island, blue whales could be seen from all sides of the boat. Besides the ten right in the vicinity, more geyser-like spouts could be seen in the distance. With a creature bigger than the 75 foot catamaran they are easy to spot from a ways off. Up close their breath gives them away as much as their mammoth size. You can imagine somebody burping after eating 2,000 pounds of shellfish. They are feeding on krill, small crustaceans, but they can’t digest the hard, red shells. So if you’re lucky you might see a blue whale with a trail of red streaming out behind – kids love to “eeeewww” at this.
A couple days latter, Megan McKenna, a doctoral student at Scripps, spoke to a group of Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary volunteers about blue whales. Her research centers on ship noise and how it impacts marine organisms, particularly large whales. She estimates at least 16 container ships pass through the Santa Barbara Channel everyday. This figure comes from accumulated AIS (Automatic Identification System) data, which every vessel is supposed to broadcast, but may not. Blue whales also broadcast through their three distinct types of calls to their fellow cetaceans, over long distances, too—according to scientists.
