T: Is for tails of whales

When I was little every year I went whale watching as part of my school off the Pacific. As I got older I use to sail to Catalina Island and looked forward to the whales that played tag with the dolphins. More recently I have gone whale watching in Provincetown. I have always had an infinity with the sea and with it's creatures. While in Provincetown the whales started to beach themselves. The whales who were energetic as of late seem tired and sad. Something is wrong. Tuesday something unique happened. Marine biologists were dispatched to investigate a report of a whale swimming off the Brooklyn shore but it was not known whether the animal was in distress. Whales are a rare sight inside New York harbor and it is not known when a previous sighting last occurred. The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation sent its rescue program director, Kim Durham,to the scene. The Riverhead Foundation specializes in cases involving whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles. The whale was reported to swimming near the shore off Pier 22. The whale is 12-foot baleen whale is able to leap completely out of the water. Channel 2 videotaped the whale "jumping in and out of the water several times." Today that whale died. The whale has beached itself at an oil depot dock and died suddenly after two days of swimming aimlessly in a small bay off an industrial section of Brooklyn. The whale turned out to be a year old minke whale who was too young to survive on its own. Kim Durham, who monitored the whales activities around the clock is cited for saying how sad this event is. She had expressed hope earlier that the whale would find its way back into open waters. The situation however took a turn for the worse
in the early afternoon, when the whale's swimming patterns changed. A police harbor boat secured the whale's carcass, estimated to weigh approximately between 3,500 to 5,000 pounds. Durham stated that "somethings not right" about the whale's condition and where it was. The whale was first spotted on Tuesday in Gowanus Bay a narrow 1.2-mile waterway once lined with pollution-generating coal yards, scrap yards and small industries. Due to environmental cleanup efforts the canal has improved in recent years after a huge underwater fan, designed to keep the water flowing, was reactivated. Crabs and other marine creatures began turning up. But Robert Guskind, founder of Gowanuslounge.com, said the recent major storm would have sent more raw sewage into the canal.


Minke whales are a subspecies of baleen whales, common in northern Atlantic waters, and feed on plankton and krill. They are not known for singing like their cousins the humpback whales. What makes them extraordinary is they look like their wearing a tuxedo. With white markings on their fins that look like gloves and white markings on their chests that look like bow ties, They are the gentleman of the sea. They also are rather small compared to other species. Minke's are my favorite as they always travel in two's or three's. Minke children do not leave their mothers, even when they find a spouse. They just enlarge the group. These gentle giants have much to teach us. Whales never fight their own, they are intelligent beyond measure and they love for life. Oh to be a whale and that is a F.A.C.T.