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HELPING TO PROTECT THE FUTURE
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| Welcome to Help A Whale |
Toothed Whales: Toothed whales include
two families that are widely distributed, the beaked and bottlenose
whales (family Ziphiidae) and the sperm whale, or cachalot (family Physeteridae);
the beluga, or white whale, and the narwhal (family Monodontidae),
small polar whales with no dorsal fin and only a few teeth; the river
dolphins (family Platanispidae), which inhabit muddy rivers of India
and South America; and several families better known as ocean dolphins
and porpoises. The killer whale and pilot whale are types of dolphin.
The white whale Moby-Dick, of Herman Melville's novel, was not a beluga
but an albino sperm whale.Toothed whales range in length from 4 to 60
ft (1.3—18.5 m). They catch fast-moving prey, like fish or squid. Many
species use echolocation (sonar) for underwater navigation and hunting.
They have a single blowhole and a wide throat to accommodate large prey.
Some of the larger ones, like the sperm whale, can dive as deep as 1 mi
(1.6 km).
Toothless Whales: There are three families of baleen whales:
the right whale family (Balaenidae), including the bowhead, or Greenland
whale; the gray whale family (Eschrichtidae), with a single species (Eschrichtius
robustus) found in the N Pacific Ocean; and the rorqual family (Balaenopteridae).
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This site is dedicated to saving the world's
whales.
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