Sei

Sei (aka The Sei Hey Whale, aka Racer Number 24, aka Speed Demon,  aka The Athlete, aka The Sea Cheetah)

Male / the athlete / 19.5 meters (64 feet or 8.5 Yao Mings) / 31 tons (19.7 Porsche 911s) / Endangered Species

Sei whale species:

The sei whale name is either pronounced like the word "say" or like the word "sigh", but for the purposes of the book, The Pod, I've chosen to pronounce his name as "say".  The sei whale can be found all over the world minus just a few places like the Indian Ocean or the Arctic.  They've been clocked going as fast as 31 miles per hour (50km/h for my friends that prefer kilometers) for short bursts.  That number puts them towards the top of the speed list for whales.  An American naturalist deemed them the cheetah of the sea because they swim extremely fast, but then tire easily.  Sei whales are baleen whales so they filter feed the same way a blue or humpback whale would.  They have somewhat deep voices, but when whalers would hit them with their harpoons they would cry out with a much higher pitch.  From a side view, these animals have very thick caudal peduncles (area between the dorsal fin and the tail) but from above they look thin and sleek.  They have a pointed head that looks to me like it was designed to cut through the water like a speed boat.  They're slick looking creatures, yet enormous.

Sei the character:

The name of the sei whale in 'The Pod' is Sei, the common name of his species.  He's the fastest whale in the ocean and he's been undefeated for many years.  He trains every day in order to maintain his racing abilities and to race like a true champion.  Competition racing is his whole focus, but a lot of his character comes from great baseball legends like Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier with incredible poise, like Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays and how slick he was on and off the field, and Lou Gehrig who had to stop playing the game he loved at an early age.  Baseball is a great sport, but when you add the history of the game to an already great game, it's unrivaled.  It's not about the fast action of basketball or football or the constant motion of soccer, it's about the stories and the past that culminates into short bursts of incredible action, just like sei whales making these short bursts of speed only to slow down moments later.  This is the athletic legend all the other whales know about.        

"Sei Racing By The Dutch Dikes"

Lady Beluga

Beluga (aka Lady Beluga, aka Bell, aka Lady Bell, aka The Arctic Author, aka The Sea Canary)

Female / narrator / 3.5 meters long (11.5 feet or 1.5 Yao Mings) / weight (a lady doesn't share that sort of information) / almost threatened population

Beluga whale the species:

If you're in a foul mood, do an image search for 'beluga' whales.  I've seen golden retriever puppies that looked less friendly than a beluga does, so they will cheer you up.  Or at least a little. Part of what gives these beautiful creatures their faces full of personality is that they have a flexible neck. No other whale has a neck with the same capabilities.  Their upper lip curves in just such a way that makes it appear that they're smiling or grinning.  To me they just look happy.  During certain parts of the year, the Inuit are on the lookout for belugas.  They don't hunt them, but they do hunt the bowhead whale for sustenance and belugas frequently stay near a bowhead.  Scientists have said that the relationship is symbiotic based on their very similar migration pattern, but I don't know what the mutual benefit is.  Belugas are high up on the food chain, but they are hunted by polar bears. They're highly social animals so they're almost never found alone and they twitter like birds almost constantly chattering away.  Thus their nickname is the sea canary.  The white skin they adorn provides camouflage amongst the ice, but when they travel south for the winters, they'll gather parasites that alter their color some.  Before they head back to the sea ice, they molt (shed) their skin so they're shiny and sparkling white once again.  

Beluga the character:

When I created the Beluga character (name of her species), I had studied her species carefully. Belugas were always seen with other belugas, so I thought of this as her congregation and her white skin would work well for a christian because purity seems to be such a focus of christianity that I remembered from growing up.  That and I remember there being so many hang ups for progress in your life, ones that you must overcome to move forward.  Also, your outward appearance always seemed to matter so much to your inward divinity (think dressing up for church) so I decided she would be a Christian whale who wrote to her congregation at regular intervals.  Her need to feel like she was still amongst her congregation, drives her.  She is a very important character to the story, so I hope you'll like her.  

"Bell sharing her smile with the world"

Pseudorca "The False Killer Whale"

Pseudorca (aka The False Killer, aka The Thunnus Throttler)

Male / skilled pack hunter / 6.1 meters long (20 ft or 2.7 Yao Mings) / 2.45 tons (1.1 chevy silverados) / insufficient population data

Pseudorca the species:

When the pseudorca was discovered, the scientist who discovered them believed they were an extinct species.  A few years later, a pod of living false killers were located and they're still found sporadically today.  The similar bone structure of the false killer to the killer whale led to a similar species name. Typically they're located in tropical climates but they will roam beyond their more common living spaces. They tend to be pack hunters and typically eat fish, but are also known to hunt fellow mammals.  When they do catch a fish, it's not uncommon for them to share their fish with one another, but the most fascinating is that they've been documented several times offering their catch to humans. It's happened on a boat at least once and divers/snorkelers have been offered fare as well. They sound quite hospitable to me.

The pseudorca is a species of whale that will occasionally beach themselves and when one beaches themselves, they all tend to do it.  In 1986, 114 false killer whales beached themselves in Flinders Bay, Western Australia.  A three day operation conducted by the Department of Conservation and Land Management and wonderful volunteers ensured that some of them would continue to swim freely in the ocean.  They were able to save 96 out of the 114.  Similar stories have occurred since that moment in 1986 and it seems to be making a human/false killer relationship a positive one for both species.

Pseudorca the character:

Pseudorca is named by the first half of his scientific species name, pseudorca crassidens. He knows that other whales might fear him because he's a type of killer, but he believes his pack hunting skills could be useful to whales going on a dangerous journey around the world.  Pseudorca doesn't have the same fear of humans that some of the others have, he trusts most of them.

"Pseudorca makes battle plans"

Sperm Whale

Sperm Whale (aka Sperm, aka Moby, aka The Essex Obliterator)

Male / known whaling-ship destroyer / 26 meters long (85 ft or 11.3 Yao Mings) / 73 tons (32 chevy silverados) / vulnerable status

Sperm whale the species:

The sperm whale uses something called echolocation to find its prey and their diet consists of almost entirely squid. To find the squid they nourish themselves with, they often have to plunge over a mile deep to get to a meal.  The way echolocation works for them, is by making clicking sounds that travel through the water, they can receive the sound waves that bounce back off of objects.  That information from the returning sound waves tell them where to look for their prey.  The sounds that they can make can be devastatingly loud.  My understanding is that if you were underwater and near a sperm whale when it was echoing at their loudest, it could rupture your heart and kill you instantaneously.  So getting in the water with sperm whales could be dangerous even if they have no desire to hurt you.  The organ that they receive the bouncing sound waves back after they create a clicking sound, is through an organ called the spermaceti organ.  The spermaceti organ acts like a satellite receiver, taking in the information and passing it onto the brain.  And it is the spermaceti itself that made them a target for whalers for so many years.  

Why whale oil and why spermaceti?  Well, any fat that you render from any animal or vegetable can be used to make a simple oil lamp.  I'm not suggesting you try it, but it does work.  I experimented with a simple vegetable oil lamp with a wick made from canvas and it sat in the liquid and burned. An hour later, my carpet was stained with black soot, but I learned a valuable answer to 'why whale oil'. Through my mistake, I researched and found that whale oil burned with a less offensive odor, burned brighter, and was less smoky than other animal fat.  Today, there are far better alternatives that are readily available that just weren't available to people during the peak period of whale hunting. Whale oil is a thing of the past, but when it was available, spermaceti was even better than standard whale oil rendered from the other animals and so the sperm whale was the species that whalers craved to get their harpoons into.

Sperm Whale the character:

Sperm (derived from his common species name) is based on the same whale that inspired Herman Melville to write the great novel Moby Dick. Sperm was hunted by humans but he got away by busting up the boats they used to harpoon him. Now he's very distrusting of others because of the incident.  He's grumpy, defensive, and talks a bit like the sailors who hunted him.

If you want to read about the real Moby Dick, here's a link kindly made available by the University of Denver.   Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex   

"The Old Life of a Sperm Whale"

"Vegetable Oil Lamp"

This might be what whale oil lamps looked like while lit.

Humpback

Humpback (aka Hump, aka The Entertainer, aka The Breaching Ballerino, aka The Assuaging Accompanist, aka The Acrobatic Israelite)

Male / follower of Moses / 14 meters long (46 ft or 6.1 Yao Mings) / 40 tons (17.7 chevy silverados) / healthy population

Humpback whale species:  

The humpback whale can be found in every ocean in the world and is a well liked species.  The humpback breaches frequently and it's songs have helped the Save the Whales movement in unmeasurable ways.  The famous cetologist, Roger Payne handed a recording of humpback songs to Judy Collins and Collins included the cetacean audio on her platinum selling album, 'Whales and Nightingales'.  There's a song on the album called "Farewell to Tarwathie" that includes the whale-songs. This song pulled on hearts of humanity and drove a movement fueled by harrowed concerns for our fellow creatures because the lyrics of the song are about lonely trips to Greenland to hunt whales for profits.  The dichotomy is touching as the two songs, one about the whalers and one by the whales, are brought together leaving you questioning yourself why.  Why hunt whales at all?

These days, people travel for miles and then board vessels to get even closer views of these water ballet artists in their natural habitat.  Video after video of breaching humpbacks, you can see them breach high out of the water, spin and land, or leap upwards and arch backwards, over and over.  They slap the water with their flukes and enormous pectoral fins.  All the while you can hear sounds of awe, astonishment, fervor, and praise.  These sounds come from the people watching.  You can feel the pure joy of modern humanity as the excitement stops the heart of crowds and all onlookers.  These humpbacks sing and dance and swing their fins around in these performances that are jaw dropping and it almost seems as if it's all for you.  They are truly entertainers that share a piece of the beauty found below the surface with all of us to see, but only for a moment and then they're gone.

Humpback the character:

The name of the humpback whale in 'The Pod' is Humpback, the common name for his species. Humpback is a faithful Jewish whale with a heart that's easy to love. When times are at their worst, he shines the brightest. You will probably love him as much as I loved writing about him. He is as important to 'The Pod' as any whale on the journey.

"Slightly Improved Version of The Humpback"

"The Humpback"

Pygmy Right Whale

Pygmy (aka Pyg, aka Pygmy Right Whale)

Male / smallest baleen whale / 6 meters long (19.5 ft) / 4.4 tons (1.95 chevy silverados) / population unknown

Pygmy right whale the species:

Typical baleen whales are absolutely enormous, but this baleen whale is relatively small.  They're found only in the southern hemisphere and typically they spotted in the coastal waters of southern Africa or the south side of Australia.  This baleen typically eats copepods, but will also eat krill.  They're small but solidly built.  They have a relatively smaller head size than other baleen whales, but they have the hardest actual baleen (filtering teeth) and extra ribs that offer added protection.  Typically, whales will swim mostly with the use of their flukes, but a pygmy right was spotted using it's whole body to thrust itself through the water.  It's is believed that they're strong swimmers and probably fast as well.  There's little data out there about the pygmy right whale and a lot of what is known about them comes from studying the pygmy rights that are beached up onto the shores rather than behavior observed in the wild.  The lungs and heart are somewhat small which would suggest that this cetacean is not a deep diver.

Pygmy the character:  

Pyg is worried about his population becoming extinct and so he's decided to join The Pod to find an answer to his species woes.  He's on the small side of the group but he's got a can-do attitude.

Blue Whale

Blue Whale (aka Ol' Blue, aka Blue)

Male / 35% body fat / 30 meters in length (98.4 ft = 13 Yao Mings) / 199 tons (97 Chevy Silverados) / Endangered Species

Blue whale species:

The blue whale is the largest animal known to ever exist, however, it's diet consists primarily of one of the smaller and more common creatures in the ocean, krill.  Krill is only about 2 inches long and its weight is measured in grams, not kilograms and certainly not tons.  To maintain a blue's weight, an adult whale has to eat 7,000-8,000 lbs of food each and every day during the feeding season.  Their heart alone is the size of a car and its flukes would barely squeeze into a two car garage.  To say the least, they consume a lot because they have to.  Being the largest animal in the world, they also have the most fat on their bodies, but not the highest body fat percentage.  These guys are actually not even close to the highest body fat percentage.  At 35% body fat, a blue whale pales in comparison with the seemingly trim-looking polar bear that can push itself over 50% in body fat at the peak of feeding season.  But both of these creatures need their fat reserves in order to survive their environments.  What they're able to consume and consuming that much is just a sign of good health.

(If you bought every courtside seat on one side at a basketball game on, you still couldn't take a blue whale as your date.  You'd still need to buy 4 to 6 more seats to accommodate his length and another seat for yourself.  But bring plenty of mints, I understand their breath smells miserable.)

Ol' Blue the character:

Above all, Ol' Blue believes that he must consume to keep up his appearances, which is both his weakness and strength.  He's quite the sight to see if you're impressed by size.  There's certainly a good sense of humor about him and he's most definitely satisfied with his lifestyle.

"Ol' Blue Gorging"