Moby
by Barbara McMahon
Title
Moby
Artist
Barbara McMahon
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
While spending time on a deserted shore in western Newfoundland, I tripped over a stump...or something. The mighty Atlantic Ocean had deposited something astonishing. Upon clearing away sand I realized I had uncovered the vertebrae of the largest mammal on earth, The Blue Whale. Although it had been worn down by time spent in sea and sand, I recognized it to be a vertebrae of a blue whale. If one looks down from the top there is an opening where the spinal cord was located. Next to the soda can is the facet of the vertebrae.
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales (called Mysticeti). At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 170 tonnes (190 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed.
Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill.[8]
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, located in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an underestimate. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.
Uploaded
March 26th, 2013
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Comments (5)
Susan Wiedmann
Barbara, this is amazing. I hope your brought it home since I think you'll take better care of it than the ocean! V.
Barbara McMahon replied:
Thank you Susan. Yes, I have it at home, although I did try to find a museum that might want it for their collection. There seemed to be no interest. I'm aware that it's rather a rare find and having been taking good care of it.
Darren Robinson
I wonder if an advocate for the whaling industry did the most recent survey saying the previous estimate is "under-rated" Anything to allow more hunting to continue is SO wrong. Awesome capture and find. V6
Barbara McMahon replied:
Thank you Darren for your comment. I'd like to think this whale died of natural causes..... I totally agree that the hunting of the magnificent creatures of the sea that are so low in numbers should be totally banned.