| Humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae, Hawaii | Blue shark, Prionace glauca, under drift kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, California, offshore | Typical head-down posture of Guadalupe fur seals.
The recent history of Arctocephalus townsendi is both a sobering account of wanton killing and greed and an encouraging tale of resilience and recovery. Although it once numbered perhaps 200,000 across its 1500 mile range :: from the Revilligigedos and the Baja peninsula to California's Channel Islands :: the Guadalupe fur seal nearly passed into oblivion before being recognized by science. At one time, Guadalupe Island alone was home to probably 30,000 fur seals, so many that its western shore has long tracts of waterline lava rocks polished smooth by centuries of hauling-out fur seals. With the onset of North Pacific whaling in the late 1700's, the seals' beautiful fur pelts :: black outer fur over an underfur so dense that the seal's skin remains dry :: became liabilities, and the seals were taken in vast numbers by Russian and Aleut hunters to adorn Chinese royalty and Parisian society. | Scientists estimate that the largest blue ever to have lived probably weighed more than 200 tons -- 400,000 pounds -- and was more massive than an entire herd of thirty African elephants. A truly impressive beast, indeed. Blue whales dwarf even the largest dinosaurs, being nearly twice the size of the largest prehistoric land dweller Brachiosaurus. A small child could crawl through the chambers of a blue whale's immense heart, or out one of its twin blowholes. Scientific accounts cite individual blue whales nearly 100 feet in length while less reliable whaling records reported giants up to 110 feet long. The largest subspecies of blue whale, intermedia, inhabits Antarctic regions while the slightly smaller musculus is found in northern hemisphere oceans. | Mola mola is found in all oceans in tropical and temperate climes, and is known to eat gelatinous zooplankton (jellyfish) and probably small fishes and algae. In the eastern Pacific, Mola mola is normally found from British Columbia to South America, although in El Nino events it has been recorded as far north as Alaska. | West Indian manatee, Trichechus manatus, Florida | Juvenile Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, Bahamas | Juvenile treefish, Sebastes serriceps, under drift kelp, California, offshore | Blue whales are also known to feed on aggregations of pelagic red crabs, Pleuroncodes planipes.
Pelagic red crab, Pleuroncodes planipes, Mexico | Brown booby, Sula leucogaster, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Samoa | Scalloped hammerhead shark, Sphyrna lewini, Isla del Coco, Costa Rica | Green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, Hawaii | Galapagos sea lion, Zalophus californianus wollebacki, toying with puffer fish | Sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, Azores | Atlantic spotted dolphin, Stenella frontalis, Bahamas | Blue-banded goby, Lythrypnus dalli, California | Galapagos sea lion pup, Zalophus californianus wollebacki, Galapagos | Whale shark, Rhincodon typus, Galapagos | Juvenile frigate, Fregata sp., Galapagos | Coral hawkfish, Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus, Galapagos | Female California sea lions, Zalophus californianus, Baja California | Garibaldi, Hypsypops rubicundus, California | Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica, Nova Scotia |
