A Blessing of Whales

There are 90 species of whales and every ocean is a whale habitat. They are the largest animals on earth with the blue whale weighing in at 140 tons and 100 feet long. They are extremely intelligent, social animals with close-knit family structures. They sing and play and have the capacity to teach, learn, grieve, and even scheme. Whale songs are complex and hauntingly beautiful. Most whales give birth surrounded by midwives who help the newborn stay at the surface to breathe while the mother recovers. The tusk of the narwhal is actually an oversized canine tooth that is full of sensitive nerve endings. It grows in a helix spiral up to ten feet long, which warranted the moniker “unicorn of the sea.”