Behind the Book
Pictures from my research on Braving Red Waters.
This is a blue whale skeleton. These animals are humongous. They are the largest animal known to have ever lived. Can you picture Jonah hanging out in that belly?
This is a replica of a blue whale heart. Look how big and complex that baby is!
Soap used to be made from whale oil derived from blubber.
A blue whale eats up to 16 tons of krill per day. What are krill? They’re these tiny shrimp-like animals. Isn’t it crazy that the biggest animal in the world survives on these 1-6 cm long crustaceans.
That’s a lot of calories! Blue whales dive up to 600 feet to find patches of krill.
A newborn blue whale is between 16-24 feet long and weighs as much as two hippos. A full grown blue whale averages 80 feet long and 200,000 pounds!
While toothed whales have one blow hole, baleen whales, like the blue whale, have two. They don’t blow water from them, but rather air.
What you might have heard called “whale-bone corsets” weren’t made out of whale bones at all, but rather baleen from the mouth of blue whales.
A blue whale’s jaw.
I based the whale-watching cruise from Braving Red Waters on a real cruise offered to marine enthusiasts. Marine biologists like Rodney Duncan really do act as guides for these multi-day excursions.
A blue whale’s brain is actually pretty small considering its body size. It makes up .01% of the animal’s weight.
This is a picture looking up from standing inside the blue whale’s jaw. Do you see those baleen plates?
Blue whale for your garden?
Anyone want some blue whale steak?
A blue whale calf drinks between 50-150 gallons of its mother’s milk per day, allowing it to gain about 250 lbs per day. This milk is much fattier than cow’s milk.
A blue whale weights about the same as 1,200 humans.
A blue whale weighs about the same as 15 African elephants.
This newspaper article from the Globe Democrat on March 15,1902 shows that a distant relative of mine owned and piloted the Red Rover before it was commissioned during the Civil War. No wonder I’m drawn to steamboats. It’s in my blood!