LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Whales (Ecotourism): Waters
built 805 days ago
The whale sonobuoy system is designed to allow people on the shore at the Hermanus Old Harbour Museum to listen to the underwater sounds produced by whales in Walker Bay. The underwater sounds produced by the whales travel through the water and are recieved by a hydrophone connected to the sonobuoy. The hydrophone converts the underwater sounds to electrical audio signals in the same manner as a microphone does in air. The audio signals from the hydrophone are transmitted to a shore receiver station by a cable or a radio link. The shore receiver processes the audio signals and presents the whale sounds on a loudspeaker system. The main components of the whale sonobuoy system are as follows:
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The way baleen whales feed differs per group. Rorquals usually have a gulping style of feeding: they take large mouthfuls of water with food items in it. In the process, the throat extends enormously. They then close the mouth and push the tongue up against the palate and press all the water out through the baleens. The small creatures in the water are caught in the baleen and are swallowed when all the water is gone. Right whales ... collect their food by swimming at or near the surface with their mouths open. The water then washes through their mouth, entering through an opening between the rows of baleen at the front and leaving through the baleen.
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Ninety percent of the migrating whales travel south to the waters off Los Cabos from late November through March. Their breeding grounds are primarily on the Pacific side, but some whales travel around the cape to the Sea of Cortez. Of the eleven species of whales found worldwide, eight venture to the waters off Los Cabos. Ideal climate, shallowness, salinity and abundant marine life make the bays and lagoons north of Los Cabos the perfect place for whales to birth and rear their young.
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If you take the ferry across Pentland Firth, from Scrabster in Scotland to Stromness on Orkney's West Mainland, keep a sharp eye for whales. Or book a coastal wildlife tour. Explorer Fast Sea Charters run 2 1/2 to 3-hour whale watching tours in June, July and August. They won't guarantee a sighting and they warn that you'd better have good sea legs because the waters can sometimes get rough.
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Some whales dive down near a school of fish and slowly circle around the school towards the surface. On their way up, they constantly blow bubbles. In this way, they trap the fish in a net of bubbles and the fish will be concentrated in the centre of the ring of bubbles. The whales then come up in the middle of the bubble ring with mouths wide open and scoop up water with very high concentrations of fish. This remarkable fishing technique is called bubble-netting.
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The grey whales of the Pacific Ocean have benn traveling to the warm lagunes of Baja california for thousands of years. In December the first groups of whales arrive from the cold waters in Alaska after a long trip at one of the three major whale sites. They travel back around April.
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