Marine mammals are thought to be number two on the animal intelligence scale right behind primates, so now there is even more reason to save these animals.  There are only 79 different types of cetaceans, and cetaceans are very slow breeders. Dolphins, porpoises, and small whales are often captured and trained for human enjoyment. Sea World is the top in this business. However, getting an animal to survive in an environment thats not their own is difficult. Annually hundreds of cetaceans are captured from the wild and brought into captivity, and in the past 30 years there have been 4,600 dolphins, porpoises, and killer whales taken.  Few of them have survived. 53% of dolphins captured die within three months of their capture and the other half usually doesnt live more than two years. The few that do survive and are trained usually dont live more than five years compared to at least thirty-five in the ocean.

One of the most amazing things about cetaceans is their echolocation. They have a built in sonar system that enables them to communicate and find food. Cetaceans actually have a quite large vocabulary. They communicate via grunts, moans, chirps, whales, clicks, whistles, breaching, singing, and underwater exhalation.

            Cetaceans propel themselves through the water with their fluke. They make their fluke go up, which moves them forward, and a down stroke following that brings the fluke to a position where it can make another up stroke to propel the animal further. They must have incredibly strong back muscles that enable them to do this. Most have a dorsal fin or ridge that helps stabilize them as they swim. They also have on their sides pectoral fins that help them steer.

There are 44 different types of whales. Whales are either baleen or toothed. There are 11 different types of baleen whales. They are grouped together because they all have giant plates of baleen in their mouth instead of teeth. They gulp huge amounts of ocean water and spit it back out, leaving all of the krill and other small fish to be caught in the tiny hairs on the plates and licked off by the whale. Among these are the blue whale and the humpback whale, probably the two most commonly known baleen whales. Baleen whales also have throat grooves, numbers ranging from several to one hundred.

            There are 33 different types of toothed whales. Toothed whales are categorized separately from baleen whales because they have teeth, like people, that they use to eat their food. Most toothed whales have cone shaped teeth, numbering from two 2-260. They are generally not as big as baleen whales, but are for the most part more common.

            All whales have a thick layer of fat, known as blubber, under their skin that insulates them as they migrate into colder waters. Baleen whales migrate from polar waters in the summer to warmer waters near the equator to mate and give birth. The longest known migration of any mammal is traveled by the gray whale annually, about 12-20,000 km.

            All cetaceans have at either one or two blowholes on the top of their head. A blowhole is the way they breathe because they cant breathe underwater. They must come to the surface, blow all of the stale air out of their lungs and take in new fresh air. What we see from the surface is called a blow. Different species of cetaceans have different sizes and shapes of blows. When they blow, they push almost all of the used air out. Cetaceans have very efficient lungs, unlike humans. Humans only exchange 10-20% of their air compared to cetaceans 100%. This way they can stay underwater longer than humans because they can use more air longer.

            Cetaceans are incredible animals that we need to make an effort to learn more about. If we dont stop destroying them and help them repopulate, theres no way therre going to be able to compete against humans for their right to be on the earth with us. Bottom line, many cetaceans are in danger, and its the human races fault. We need to fix what we can and do our best to make up for the damage.