Cetacean Unit (Whales)

Suitable for 5th grade: with modifications may be used for 4th grades through High School Biology.

Objectives:

Things needed to help us along in this lesson plan:

Vocabulary: Orca, dolphin, baleen, cetacean, vestigal, canine teeth, cachelot, pod, echolocation, radar, sonar, fluke, dorsal fin, melon, blow hole, toxins, predator, prey, lobtail, spyhop, breach

Day One Introduction (all other lessons more or less follow in a non-linear fashion, as this is a "research" workshop)

Following days:

 

Notes from the field June 21, 2003: An Orca cruise: I got seasick of course, and the Skipper was kind enough to give me a device he was field testing, which changed its pitch depending on the roll of the ship! (Somehow was picking up signals from the inertials in the ship). Fed White Noise to me in one ear. It was kinda cool, and may have been some sort of expectancy effect, or hypnosis. But it did help a bit. The Dramamine I took sure didn't! BLUGH someone actually ate tuna next to me and I almost tossed on them!

Managed to come around long enough to see the whales, which were a delight! We apparently had come around the outside of the San Juans in the open ocean (which accounted for the rough seas!) but that was the only way to ensure we would encounter the pod. We stopped near Henry Island, next to a rookery of pelagic cormorants (which was exciting, as I had just been observing our identical colony that lives in my home town, under the Wheaton Way bridge). We drifted with the tide, and were in the right place at the right time, as the whales continued toward us, busy with their own agenda I have no doubt.

I do know, yes we are supposed to remain totally objective in our observations. But to ME it appeared that the mothers and calves went by us first, in a "sub pod". There was then a break, and behind them came a great group of frolicking (it looked like to me) females, and possibly younger males (I suppose the difference is only important to another whale!). I personally could only identify one mature male, he was VERY hard to miss, as his dorsal fin looked like it was about two stories tall! I also noticed he did no breaching or spy hopping!

With the exception of the male, there was a good deal of spy hopping at a distance from the ship, as well as breaching and leaping out of the water for the sheer fun of it, for all I could tell. Maybe they were trying to impress each other. As they got closer to us, and I also thought there was more of this the closer the animals were to the male orca, AND to our boat, there was a lot of lob-tailing, which is a "warning" thing (apparently this causes a good deal of percussion under water, sends out a warning). I got the impression some of the whales were a bit hesitant, and milled a bit before they passed our boat. Some appeared to deliberately pass to the outboard of us, while others passed between us and the boat, turning over a bit against the rocks (maybe scratching). I wonder how much of OUR human noises THEY could hear, we were pretty noisy tourists, much OooOing and AHH ing with each splash. (No bird watchers here!!!! A noisy excitable lot!) I wish we had an underwater microphone along!

In the spaces we were quiet we were able to hear them breathing through their blowholes, and I think I heard some very high pitched squeaks, rather like baby birds (I don't think it was the cormorants). I couldn't help but feel that spot was a regular cruising place for the whales, maybe hoping to nab a stray bird.

Apparently we were passed by the majority of the combined J, K, and L pod, which has grouped up for the summer. I couldn't help but think that bunch around the big male were doing a huge singles party, and I hope they were enjoying themselves! J According to our instructor, orcas do not have a "harem" society (that is one male, and a lot of females) but rather, males appear to be on the decline in general. Research has not answered this issue yet. As we are unable to observe the transient pods, the research is very incomplete, and it is difficult to draw conclusions.

One small note, one of my fellow classmates said he had found some brachypods on the North Shore of Whidbey, near Deception Pass. These are a very ancient order of shellfish which I need to research, but it was a rather exciting off-topic note in the day's activity.

 

Assessment:

1) Test, the "usual" involving matching for vocabulary words, multiple choice, fill in the blanks, no essay questions. Consult EALRs to align objectives as needed.

2) Written report, length of written material to be determined by age and relative ability of the class as a whole.

3) Short oral report "share your whale" encourage story boards, art work, and outlines. No more than 5 minutes.

4) Rubric to include the objectives, and how well they handled this for "their whale"

 

Bibliography (for fun and serious research, to use as needed):

 

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