Tag: Endangered Species Act

What’s the longest-lived marine mammal?

bowhead whale and calf

Bowhead whale and calf within the Arctic (Marine Mammal Allow 782-1719). The inset drawing reveals an 1884 illustration of a bowhead.

 Whales are the most important animals on Earth and stay longer than all different mammals within the up to date animal kingdom.

Whereas many ocean lovers can simply determine the enduring sperm whale, the charismatic humpback and the wily orca, not all are aware of the bowhead. In keeping with scientists, this colossal year-round Arctic dweller could stay 200-plus years. The bowhead’s lifespan will be the second-longest of all animals, topped solely by the 500-year span of a North Atlantic clam known as the ocean quahog.

The bowhead whale’s first declare to (scientific) fame was its humongous head, which homes the largest mouth of any animal—its extremely arched form provides the species its identify—and will comprise practically 25 toes of a mature male’s 65-foot size. The general size of the bowhead is lengthy sufficient to stretch throughout a four-lane freeway with loads of room on both facet.

Any bio of the bowhead wouldn’t be full with out mentioning its weight, which ranges from 75-100 tons, and its 1.6-foot-wide layer of insulating blubber, which makes it very “effectively suited” to its icy surroundings.

The bowhead additionally sports activities, at as much as 13 toes lengthy, the longest baleen (filter-feeding organ) of its dozen baleen-whale “cousins.” Bowheads additionally boast two blowholes, as do all baleen whales.

NOAA’s Nationwide Marine Fisheries Service has federal accountability for shielding marine mammals and threatened and endangered marine life. With an estimated inhabitants of roughly 10,000, the bowhead whale is listed as endangered below the Endangered Species Act and depleted below the Marine Mammal Safety Act.

How do sea turtles hatch?

Watch sea turtle hatchlings journey to the ocean in the course of the 2013 nesting season in Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park, Florida. This video was captured by a Nationwide Park Service skilled. Please keep away from nesting sea turtles and hatchlings, that are protected by regulation on all U.S. shores.


In summertime when the climate is heat, pregnant feminine sea turtles return to the seashores the place they themselves hatched years earlier than. They swim by the crashing surf and crawl up the seaside trying to find a nesting spot above the excessive water mark. Utilizing her again flippers, the reptile digs a nest within the sand. Digging the nest and laying her eggs often takes from one to a few hours, after which the mom turtle slowly drags herself again to the ocean. 

The ocean turtle lays as much as 100 eggs, which incubate within the heat sand for about 60 days. The temperature of the sand determines the genders of child sea turtles, with cooler sand producing extra males and hotter sand producing extra females. The phenomenon known as Temperature-Dependent Intercourse Willpower, or TSD, and governs the genders of different reptiles, too, together with alligators and crocodiles. Present NOAA analysis means that warming tendencies as a result of local weather change might trigger the next ratio of feminine sea turtles, probably affecting genetic range.

When the tiny turtles are able to hatch out, they achieve this nearly in unison, making a scene within the sandy nest that’s harking back to a pot of boiling water. In some areas, these occasions go by the colloquial time period “turtle boils.” As soon as hatched, the turtles discover their technique to the ocean by way of the downward slope of the seaside and the reflections of the moon and stars on the water. Hatching and transferring to the ocean all on the identical time assist the little critters overwhelm ready predators, which embrace sea birds, foxes, raccoons, and wild canines. Those who make it by the gauntlet swim to offshore sargassum floats the place they may spend their early years principally hiding and rising.