Atharva Institute of Management Studies

TEAM WORK

 MANINDAR YADAV A-61

 NARAYAN PAWAR A-31
 ARCHIT SHAH A-36
 PANKAJ SHARMA A-44
 BLUE WHALE
 Type: Scientific classification
Marine Mammal
Kingdom: Animalia
 Diet:
Carnivore- krill (euphausiids). 4-8 metric tons Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
 Average life span in the wild:
Order: Cetacea
80 to 90 years (longest lived)
 Size: Suborder: Mysticeti
82 to 105 ft (25 to 32 m) Family: Balaenopteridae
 Weight: Genus: Balaenoptera
Up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
 Group name:
Species: B. musculus
Pod Binomial name
 Protection status:
Balaenoptera musculus
Endangered (Linnaeus, 1758)

Its heart is as big as car.

The blue whale is named for its color, a bluey-grey that looks bluish.
    Balaenoptera musculus
            Balaenoptera means “winged whale”
                  musculus means “muscular” or “mouse.”

 Its young are called: calves

• Males are called: Bulls
• Females are called: cows  
 HABITAT

• Blue whales migrate great

distances toward the equator as
the winter approaches and are
often spotted off the costs of
California and Mexico.
 ADAPTATIONS
 Instead of teeth, the blue whale has a row of plates in its
mouth.
The front part of the mouth is thick with blue plates around
300 plates.

 Whales don't sleep , If they did, they would drown.

 More info
 The blue whale is among the loudest animals on earth. In
good conditions, their sounds can be heard up to 1,000
miles.

 They swim about 10 mph and up to 30 mph when alarmed

 When blue whales exhale, their spray (from the blowhole)

can reach up to 30 feet in the air.
 STATUS
 Before the 20th century, humans were not a threat to blue
whales because of their massive size. However, in the 1920s
(after factory ships and the exploding harpoon gun was
introduced), humans began a killing spree that almost caused
them to become extinct.

 Before they were protected in 1966 by the International Whaling

Commission, some 360,000 blue whales were killed. Today,
 Southern
North Pacific North Atlantic
Hemisphere

Pre-exploitation 150,000 - 200,000 4,900 1,100 - 1,500

Current 400 - 1,400 3,300 100 - 555

Table 1. Global abundance estimates for blue whales by ocean basin (IWC, 2009).

It's estimated that there are 10, 000-14, 000 Blue Whales worldwide
ENDANGERED
 COLLISION
 Blue whale has a biggest threat through collisions with
ships

 Speed ,volume and size of commercial boat contribute to

ship whale collision

 U .S navy has the highest rate of encounters

 NOAA have proposed ‘ship strike reduction’

 NOISE POLLUSION
 Whales are hit by ships and become beached

 Whale determine direction by echolocation and sea noise disturbs

accurate sound wave readings

Noise pollution increase due to

 Underwater testing by all the navies of the world

 Increasing number of commercial vessels

 Underwater earthquakes and eruptions

 THE IMPACT OF BY-CATCH ON WHALES

 Enormous fishing nets that are set that killed many marine
animals

 Almost 3,08,000 marine animals are killed every year

from entanglement in nets
 TOXIC
 High level of chemical damages both reproductive and
immune systems

 Research shown that whales are at greater risk because of

they are higher dependent on food chain and therefore
more prone to bio-accumulating toxics
 HEAVY METALS
 Mining ,metal processing , fossil fuel and dumping waste all
increase the level of metals transported by ocean air current to
the arctic

 They don’t degrade

 Micro-organism convert inorganic mercury

 It impacts on the brain

 It can cause also reproduction in mammals by interfering with

sperm formation
CONT…
 FISHERIES INTERACTIONS

 Despite the lack of observed fisheries interactions past

records of entanglements suggest that interaction
with fishing gear may affect blue whales
 Although direct observation of mortality is rare, at
least two documented cases of dead blue whales are
apparent
 WHALING

 Whaling plays a huge role in the death of blue whales. Many people hunt
blue whales for sport or food.

 Blue whales were hunted as early as the 19th century but were not
intensively hunted until the turn of the 20th century.

 In 1966, the IWC banned commercial whaling for blue whales and no whaling
(either "aboriginal subsistence" or commercial) occurs at present.

 Although whaling activity is illegal, many people still practice this event,
causing the blue whale population to diminish.

 Illegal whaling for blue whales has been documented or is likely to have
occurred in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Southern Hemisphere.
Natural mortality

 Ice entrapment is known to injure and kill some blue whales during late winter and early spring
Other potential non-primary threats
 Anthropogenic noise-anthropogenic noise is known to be a threat for blue whales

 Competition for prey resources-. Competition for prey resources is possible between blue whales and other
sympatric whale species

 Habitat degradation-Habitat degradation (e.g., chemical pollution) has occurred in some areas but the impacts
of this degradation have not been proven to affect blue whales and are understudied

 Vessel disturbance -,the effect of vessel disturbance (e.g., whalewatching boats) is of concern but there is no
direct evidence to demonstrate that persistent close approaches by tour boats has a negative effect on blue
whales.
 CONSERVATION EFFORTS
 Conservation actions for the blue whale are on-going, and the most recent efforts
nclude the following

 Monitoring the status via shipboard surveys, conducted every 3 years.

 Placing observers onboard vessels to monitor the take of protected species, including
marine mammals.

 Within the U.S. the blue whale is listed as endangered throughout its range under the
Endangered Species Act of 1973 and is listed as depleted throughout its range under
the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972

 Internationally, blue whales received complete legal protection from commercial

whaling in 1966 under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
SAVING WHALES WITH DNA
 SAVING WHALES WITH DNA
 EARTHTRUST: International nonprofit conservation
organization dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and
the natural environment.

 Earthtrust's  Saving Whales With DNA Project is a

strategy for ending the global black market in whale meat
through the use of DNA analysis.
 SAVING WHALES WITH DNA
 Each DNA contains a miniature library of information.
This information is enough to build a complete creature
from scratch.

 DNA analysis is the only practical way to verify if a

product in the marketplace is from a "legitimate" whale
species (under IWC regulations) or if it is from a highly
endangered species.
 SAVING WHALES WITH DNA
 It is a bold project and It seeks nothing less than the
immediate global reform of illegal whaling. To accomplish
this, it enlists internationally-renowned scientists utilizing
biotechnology on the cutting edge of what is possible.

 The scientists go "on-site" in the country where the samples

are available. They use state of the art miniaturized DNA-
cloning equipment, to do polymerase chain reaction
duplicates of the DNA. The results are analyzed using double-
blind checking techniques which establish species identity
using two different advanced mathematical models on
separate parts of the DNA molecule.
 SAVING WHALES WITH DNA
 The relatively new technique of DNA analysis has now
demonstrated itself as an extremely powerful tool of
tracking and exposing the underground whalemeat
industry.

 Earthtrust is taking the initiative to bring more scientists

and NGO's together to conduct these studies because
this is a strategy which can save the whales.