Storytelling
A Whale Of A Tale or Just How Salty Is Your Wee?
A whale is a mammal; all mammals need water; do whales ingest 1000’s of litres of salt water as a consequence of simply eating?
The Swarm — Taking Revenge on Man. Enter the YRR
We swap a lot of books in our family, and I spent many hours reading “The Swarm,” translated from the German and written by Frank Schatzing. It is a science fiction novel that suggests that an alternative intelligent life form, the YRR, has existed in the oceans of the world since life began on earth.
As a consequence of man’s ongoing pollution of the oceans and exploitation of marine life, the YRR, in a range of violent actions, begin to force man out of the sea — restricting him to land.
There are graphic descriptions of orcas eating those thrown overboard when whales sink ships that have been part of maritime trade or actually engaged in whale watching.
The undermining of the continental shelf between the UK and Europe causes tsunamis and destroys the oil industry: all vividly described by the author.
A range of scientists gathers to find out why the attacks occur. Who is organizing them and how they can be ended? With lots of scientific background, there is much to entertain the reader in most of the novel.
An Idle Thought of an Idle Mind: How Do Whales Get Fresh Water To Drink?
While I was reading, one question jumped off the page at me: How do whales get fresh water to drink? An idle thought of an idle mind: A whale is a mammal; all mammals need water; do whales ingest 1000’s of litres of salt water as a consequence of simply eating?
A Google search revealed a world of wonder about whales, water and why airports should be kidney shaped because whales don’t freeze.
I can’t leave you hanging there…….. check the footnotes
Baleen Whales and their Krill
Whales that wander the oceans with their mouths open like great scoop nets actually expel the water and retain their food are called baleen whales. They largely live on krill and plankton. Looking like a tiny shrimp, krill are crustaceans and molt up to ten times before they are fully adult.
Krill range from the microscopic 3/8 inch up to 6 cms — and they swarm in their billions, especially in the Antarctic and Arctic waters.
There are more than 90 species of krill, and they have extremely important levels of protein, amino acids, Omega 3 oils and water.
The whales we love to watch, blue, right, fin, Minke, and humpback whales, are all baleen whales: they eat vast amounts of krill and other plankton. Krill lives at every level of the ocean and some species actually migrate up and down through the water, where the animals that eat them, including whales, seals, fish, and squid, follow them. They are an important source of water for marine mammals.
Toothed Whales — the Omnivores of the Ocean.
Those described as toothed whales represent about 90% of whales. There are 72 species, including sperm whales, beaked whales, orca, and dolphins. They all eat various kinds of meat: including fish, cephalopods (squid, octopus, and jellyfish) and crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, lobster).
Some, of course, eat other mammals like seals but their primary foods are squid and fish. Sperm whales are unmatched in their hunting of giant squid in the great depths of the oceans. While their diets vary, all these foods contain important levels of water content which are retained by whoever eats them. At the same salt levels as the predators, these foods are not adding to the salt to be filtered from the body.
Never Underestimate the Importance of Jellyfish.
For all marine mammals, some of their water needs are met from the simple digestion of the food they eat, because water is a by-product of metabolizing carbohydrates and fat. Jellyfish is a major source of water for marine creatures. They are 95% water!
While baleen whales can only eat jellyfish while they are exceedingly small, leatherback turtles eat great quantities of jellyfish.
It is this that puts turtles at elevated risk from plastic bags floating in the ocean –because few turtles are able to discern the difference between a plastic bag and a jellyfish until it is too late!
A Salty Tale of Peeing It Away.
Marine mammals, including whales, are believed to have a longer loop of Henle, where more water is reclaimed through the kidney function, resulting in very salty wee.
While it has not been done for whales, seals and sea lions have had their urine measured and it contains up to two and a half time more salt than seawater and up to eight times more salt than their blood.
When we add the ability of marine mammals to simply pee excess salt out of their bodies by way of additional kidney functions, we are getting close to the end of the story.
Food, digestion, and excretion. It wasn’t such an idle thought at all.
Just so you know this is all scientifically based, except for the YRR, here’s a couple of embeds.
