Fishing Frenzy

Whale watching is an important activity in marine tourism. There are various places on earth where this activity is possible. It tends to be seasonal, so you should research where and when to do this. The Channel Islands, Oxnard CA, are one location, and whale watching Channel Islands is a recommended excursion if you are in the vicinity at the right time of the year.

It may not be a familiar fact to laypeople, but whales are also mammals, and not only that, they are the largest mammals in the animal kingdom. They are therefore not fish at all. They breathe through lungs, like other mammals do, and they are warm-blooded. Fish, on the other hand, breathe using gills and are mostly cold-blooded.

The gills of fish operate according to the mechanism of water passing through them as the fish moves through the water. Whales cannot rely on this mechanism because they do not have gills. Instead, they have a spout or blowhole on top of their heads. They need to surface constantly to allow used air in their lungs to pass out through the blowhole and new air to enter there. When they surface or breach, they exhale, causing the legendary spray or spout of disrupted seawater above them.

Once it has exhaled or spouted, it inhales new air and then dives beneath the surface again. Whales can swim to extreme depths and also stay underwater for long periods of time. Yet it must surface again at some stage to breathe, in the same way that people cannot stay underwater indefinitely either.

The key threat to whale populations in the world has always been hunting by human seafarers. The traditional name of this practice is whaling. It was a more frequent activity in previous centuries but nowadays it is illegal almost everywhere. Japan still asserts that their annual hunting expedition is in the interests of scientific research, even though it is vehemently opposed by observers. Japan remains the most notable exception to the modern attitude of prohibition, though.

Traditional hunting methods usually involve a device known as a harpoon. This is a specialized spear-type implement which is launched from the ship or boat. In older times, it was literally thrown from a small boat or dinghy which would be rowed alongside the breaching animal. Because the animal must surface regularly, the hunters would wait in anticipation of its next breach.

Modern harpoons would sometimes have a grenade attached to them. The harpoon would penetrate into the animal and the grenade would then explode deep inside the its body, inflicting serious internal injuries or killing it in this way. Other harpoons used in the modern era were electrified, and would electrocute it in the sea. These harpoons were launched mechanically from the ship at high speed.

The effect of whaling on whale numbers was profound, and whales are now an endangered species. Their reproduction is particularly slow. Larger whale species sometimes have a gestation period of about two years. Japan simply refuses to stop all whaling expeditions, and Japanese vessels hunt a pre-approved number of animals every year. Other countries, however, have banned whaling entirely. If you get the chance to watch the whales, it is worth your while to take it.