"BLUE GUY - MELON HEAD"

To visit observation points for viewing Beluga Whales across the world.

(Original TB went missing so re-using it's number and keeping it's "MISSION" the same. Thanks.)

Original TB went missing so when I found this fun toy I decided to re-use the TB number but keep the same description and mission for everyone's information. THANKS.

In the Disney/Pixar film, “Finding Dory”, the character “Bailey” is a beluga whale. The beluga is also called the “white whale” due to the adult’s final white color. They are also called “melon head” due to the protruding front of their forehead referred to as “it’s melon” or, they are called the “sea canary” due to their vocalizations which can be a high-pitched twitter similar to canary bird call with other squeaks, clucks and whistles.

Belugas are members of the group of toothed whales similar to the narwhal and killer whale. They are also from a group of whales that lack a top dorsal fin, relying on wide pectoral fins and skin ridges to keep them swimming upright. By counting rings of dentin in their teeth, belugas life expectancy was found to be around 30 years. It was also found that males are up to 1/4 larger than females.

The beluga is one of a few whales that is capable of rotating or moving it’s head to look around without moving the rest of its body. This is especially useful in echolocation where the whale can point its forehead melon in the direction of a sound and get to “hear” it. Truly though, the whale actually feels the sound as the melon contains fatty tissue that receives vibrations reflected off its lower jaw which are then sent to the brain for interpretation. The beluga can also send out a focused “pulse” by changing the shape of the melon with air in its sinuses. This is helpful in locating food in the dark waters or hiding in the mud, finding breathing holes in sea ice and maintaining contact with other members of its pod. Belugas do have eyes on the sides of their heads and it is believed they can see color equally well in or out of water.

Belugas are sociable and form small groups or pods that in summer concentrations can number thousands in river estuaries feeding and baring young. In these shallows they are also observed to rub themselves on the bottom sand and gravel to remove the dead outer skin layers that develop when in the salt water. Belugas are slow swimmers with a cruising speed of 3-9 km/h with bursts of up to 22 km/h. They have been recorded as being able to swim backwards using the front fins. When traveling, belugas normally travel just under the surface and when feeding dive to depths of 20m but have been recorded down to 400-600 m with the greatest depth being 870 m. When diving, their heart rate drops from 100 to 20 beats per minute.

Belugas are opportunistic feeders with a varied diet. In open water they feed on fish such as cod, halibut, salmon, smelt, and herring. When feeding off the bottom they find shrimp, squids, crabs, clams, octopus and sea worms. Their teeth are used to catch and crush food that is then sucked into the mouth and swallowed whole.

Belugas live circumpolar in arctic and sub-artic waters of the northern hemisphere in Canada, Greenland, Russia and Alaska. They seasonally migrate as sea ice melts and freezes going far inland in some areas following food or for berthing. Females may have calves starting at 8 to 25 years of age. Calves are born dark grey and lighten up as they get older, are about 1.5 m long and weighing 80 kg. Calves nurse for the first year until their teeth appear and then start to supplement their diet until weaned at around 20 months.

Like other populations of whales, the beluga population is variably threatened around the world. Small pods and populations may stay in the same area year round with minimal migrations and these can be severely affected by over hunting, pollution and other natural disasters. As larger whale populations decreased due to over harvesting, the focus turned to the smaller whales that included the beluga. Over the whole world the declining populations of whales became an issue and country-by-country soon developed regulations to protect populations. In 1928 the government of Quebec even put a bounty on the beluga to protect some of its fish stocks. Unrestricted killing of belugas continued into the 1950s. Some populations have been severely affected and as recent as 2008 they have been listed as “near threatened”. The information I used for this article indicated within the next 5 years some populations might be listed as “vulnerable” with various forms of legislation passed though out the early 20th century.

There is still limited aboriginal hunting for subsistence food in most jurisdictions. Pollution contaminates continue to have a major influence even in isolated populations. The beluga is near the top of the food chain and this causes concentration of these poisons into the animals fats where they stay and adversely affect the animal.