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What's all the "whale" about? [from Georgio's Volgegat Nature Reserve newsletter, July 2004]
It's Whale Festival soon and the influx of tourists to the little town of Hermanus begins. Just to remind you, a majestic giant visits these shores every winter too. Southern Right Whales seek refuge in our bays where they mate and give birth to their young tail first so as not to drown before it is lifted to the surface for its first breath, with the proud father breeching and landing with a splash, as he expresses his happiness. The Hermanus Cliff Path is the ideal viewing point; however, breaching displays can be seen with the naked eye all the way from Vogelgat. The young cannot suckle underwater, so milk is squirted into their mouth. These whales don't have teeth, instead they possess baleen plates. They filter feed by gulping in water and squirting it out through the hairs which trap the krill. Whales echo-locate by making high pitched clicks which in turn bounce off solid objects, sending echoes back to their ears to identify rocks etc. They are highly sociable animals, using many noises to communicate. Some noises are louder than the roar of a jet and can be heard kilometres away by other whales.
Southern Right whales inherited their name as they were the "right" whale to hunt because they floated once they had been killed. They were sought after because oftheir long baleen plates and very high oil yield. They have the longest whalebone plates (up to 13 feet), which is also the strongest and most flexible. These qualities made this whalebone much in demand for use as an elastic element, particularly in corsetry and
even if it was possible to take an entire ton of whalebone from one individual, the market was apparently insatiable for stays, hoops, parasols and umbrellas. The female vanity became the ruin of the whale, and whalebone was referred to as "the plastic ofthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 11 .
During the war whale oil became doubly important, not only because of the scarcity of supplies of vegetable oils and fats, but also because the glycerine in whale oil was at that time a pristine necessity for the manufacturing of explosive nitro-glycerine in the armaments industry. Whale oil was also used to make candles, margarine and soap.
Whales were often referred to as a IItreasure house of pharmaceuticals" insulin extracted from the whale's pancreases was used to treat diabetes. The thyroid gland, adrenal gland and liver were used for research for new medicines. Hormones detected in the pituitary gland affected blood pressure, uterine contraction, urinal secretion, etc. Other hormones adjusted human growth and sexual functions.
"This high and mighty God-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it. .. you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other living object in living nature". - Herman Melville, Moby Dick. Extracts from Whale Nation, by Heathcote Williams.
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