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A Whale Of A Tale

As a scientist studying gray whales, Jim Sumich needs a lot of patience. He has spent years out at sea quietly waiting for baby gray whales to come to the surface. Sometimes he uses small balloons to trap the air from their blowholes, the openings on the tops of their heads. By studying their breathing, Sumich hopes to learn more about how a gray whale's body works.

One day in January 1997, Sumich got a big break. A 1,660-pound newborn gray whale washed up on a California shore. Animal-rescue workers brought the tired, hungry orphan, a female, to Sea World in San Diego and named her J.J. "Suddenly we had this week-old gray whale drop in our laps," Sumich says. J.J.'s arrival gave scientists the rare chance to study one of the sea's great giants up close. They learned new information about how gray whales breathe, hear and feed. But the scientists had an even bigger plan for J.J. They decided that someday they would try to release her back into the ocean.

J.J.'s Jumbo Progress
Before she could return to her natural home, J.J. had to grow strong. She needed to gain a lot of weight, so workers cooked up a high-fat formula that was like whale's milk. The recipe? Heavy cream, clams and powdered milk. It may sound fishy to you, but J.J. gulped it down and started growing and growing and growing. Since arriving at Sea World, J.J. has been gaining about two pounds every hour! She now weighs more than 17,000 pounds and is 29 feet long. And she's not nearly full grown.

J.J. is so healthy that scientists think she is almost ready to return to the ocean. They hope to release her in the next few weeks, when gray whales are migrating from southern Pacific waters near Mexico to colder waters near Alaska. "She'll have other gray whales to follow and to teach her where to feed," says Kevin Robinson, J.J.'s chief caretaker at Sea World.

A Risky Return
But J.J.'s release won't be easy. For one thing, she's huge! A 32-foot-long sling has been designed to load her onto the back of a truck and then onto a boat. "Anything could happen," says Keith Yip, Sea World's supervisor of animal care. "Nothing like this has ever been done before."

Scientists are also concerned that J.J. may have problems eating on her own. J.J. is a baleen (buh-leen) whale, which means she has stiff bristles instead of teeth. The bristles trap tiny, shrimplike creatures called krill, as well as small fish and worms. It takes a lot of krill to fill a gray whale's giant belly--2,400 pounds a day! It's too hard for scientists to collect that much krill, so they've fed her squid and fish instead. Now they are hoping that J.J. will learn to eat krill once she's back in the ocean.

Even if J.J. does develop a taste for krill, scientists are worried she may not realize that killer whales have a taste for her! Killer whales are a natural enemy of gray whales. But J.J.'s tank at Sea World is near the killer-whale tank, and she may not fear them the way she should.

Riding A Wave Of Support
Still, J.J.'s sheltered life at Sea World may give her some advantages. "She is probably the healthiest, best-rested 14-month-old gray whale on this planet," says Sumich.

Scientists have come up with an unusual way to film some of J.J.'s journey. They have trained two sea lions fitted with special video cameras to follow her. And scientists are planning to attach electronic markers to her back that will also help keep track of her.

If J.J.'s release goes well, it may lead to the freeing of other captive whales, including Keiko, the killer whale from the Free Willy movies. Keiko now lives at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. His caretakers are hoping to release him as early as this fall.

Even if J.J.'s return is a success, visitors to Sea World will be a little unhappy. "I think she'll be happier in the ocean, but I feel sad that people won't get to see her anymore," says Karen Henriquez, 10. Karen's fifth-grade class in Los Angeles folded 1,000 origami cranes as a good-luck present to J.J. "She's a very special whale."

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Did You Know?

• The blue whale is the world's largest animal. An elephant can fit on a blue whale's tongue!
• Gray whales were hunted almost to extinction during the 19th and early 20th centuries. But their population has bounced back since they gained legal protection in 1946. Today there are more than 20,000 of them.
• A whale's skin is coated with oil to help it slide through the water. The skin feels smooth and rubbery, like a hard-boiled egg.
• A whale's tooth forms a new ring every year, just like a tree. Scientists can tell a whale's age by cutting a tooth in half and counting the rings.
• A blue whale's heart weighs as much as a Volkswagen Beetle car!
• Whales are able to grow to such a huge size because their weight is held up by the water in the ocean. Their bones are lightweight and full of holes, like sponges.
• Killer whales are the fastest whales--they can swim as fast as 34 miles an hour! They got their name because they rule as the ocean's top hunters. They eat fish, seals, dolphins and other whales. But they do not eat humans.
• Whales cannot see well underwater, but they have very good hearing. Whales and bats are the only animals to use a system called echolocation. They find their way by following sounds and echoes. They also use sounds to find food.
• Male humpback whales sing to attract females. Each whale has his own song. A recording of humpback songs flew onboard the Voyager spacecraft as a greeting from Planet Earth!
• The humpback has the longest flippers of any whale, up to 17 feet!
• Whales, like humans, are mammals. Baby whales are called calves, and they drink milk from their mothers.

Next: Water, Water, Everywhere