JANE: Top 11 facts about balaenoptera musculus.
DAVID: Also known as blue whales.
JANE: Because 10 facts wouldn't be enough.
BOTH: Number 11!
DAVID: Blue whales are the largest animal
that ever existed, even bigger than any of the dinosaurs.
BOTH: 10!
JANE: Blue whales live in every ocean on the planet,
except for the Arctic Ocean,
BOTH: 9!
DAVID: One blue whale weighs more than eight brachiosauruses.
BOTH: 8!
JANE: Blue whales can live up to 110 years old.
BOTH: 7!
DAVID: A blue whale is as long as three T-Rexes.
JANE: Are all your facts going to be dinosaur related?
DAVID: Yes.
BOTH: 6!
JANE: Blue whales breathe through a blowhole
on the top of their body.
BOTH: 5!
DAVID: A blue whale's tongue weighs
as much as a Triceratops.
BOTH: 4!
JANE: A baby blue whale is called a calf.
DAVID: Aw, they're so cute.
BOTH: 3!
JANE: [GIGGLES]
DAVID: A group of blue whales is called a pod.
JANE: No dinosaur facts?
DAVID: Just like a pod of Plesiosaurus.
Also, those are technically prehistoric marine reptiles
and not dinosaurs.
BOTH: 2!
JANE: Girl blue whales are bigger than boy blue whales.
BOTH: 1!
JANE: Blue whales are not only the largest
animal on the planet.
They're also the loudest, louder than a jet engine.
DAVID: Or a Corythosaurus.
JANE: We all need to work together to make sure blue whales don't
go extinct.
DAVID: Like the dinosaurs.
DAVID: And there's your 11 facts about
BOTH: Blue whales!
MARIA: (SINGING) Let's jam.
Pump it up while your feet are stomping--
JANE: Mom?
MARIA: (SINGING) --and the jam is pumping.
JANE: Mom.
Mom!
MARIA: Yeah, what's up?
JANE: Do you remember what you say to me
when you're on a work call?
MARIA: No screaming, roaring, or howling?
JANE: I think we should add singing to that list.
MARIA: [CHUCKLES] (SINGING) I disagree.
Wait, you have a work call?
JANE: Yep, with Asha de Vos.
She studies blue whales.
MARIA: Okay.
I'll make you a deal, I'll be quieter if you promise
to sing me what you find out.
JANE: Really?
MARIA: (SINGING) Really.
JANE: (SINGING) Deal.
MARIA: (SINGING) Have fun.
Pump it up a little more.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JANE: Hi, Asha.
ASHA: Hi, Jane.
MARIA: (SINGING) Get your booty on the floor.
JANE: That's my mom.
Ever since she and our neighbor sang to a blue whale,
she can't stop.
ASHA: Why were they singing to a blue whale?
JANE: He got a fishing net stuck in his mouth.
ASHA: Oh, that's not very good.
JANE: Have you ever found old fishing nets?
ASHA: Yeah, actually, I have.
Um, let me show you a photograph.
This first picture is of me with a giant fishing net
that I found floating in the ocean.
We also see plastic floating around.
But sometimes, we do find amazing things, like this.
JANE: What is that?
ASHA: That's blue whale poop.
Whale poop is a window into the lives
of these giants, when they're underwater
in places that we can't see.
JANE: Why is it so red?
ASHA: Because of what they feed on.
Here in Sri Lanka, our blue whales feed on shrimp.
But elsewhere, they feed on krill.
And this coloration comes from the food
that they're digesting, basically.
JANE: When was the first time you saw a blue whale?
ASHA: Let me just show you a map of Sri Lanka.
Right down here at the bottom, there's a place called Yala.
And that's actually where I had my first encounter
with six blue whales.
As you can see, these whales are pretty amazing and gigantic.
What a privilege for us to live side
by side with the largest animal that's ever roamed our planet.
JANE: That's incredible.
So when did you know you wanted to study blue whales?
ASHA: Ah, well, here, at about the age of 6,
my parents would go out and bring back second-hand
National Geographic magazines.
And I fell in love with the ocean.
And I wanted to know what was in there.
JANE: Asha, What does Ocean Swell
mean on the back of your shirt?
ASHA: It's an organization that I founded out here.
Because you know when I was 17 or 18 years old,
we didn't have marine biologists in this country.
And by creating Ocean Swell, it's
given me the opportunity to nurture that next generation
of diverse ocean heroes.
And that's what I'm trying to grow out here.
Because if we truly want to save our oceans,
every coastline needs a local hero.
JANE: Just like you, Asha.
When you're out there on the ocean,
do you see things that can hurt the blue whale?
ASHA: Let me show you a diagram.
The ocean is like a giant obstacle
course for these animals.
If they're in a shipping lane, they can get hit by a ship
and get killed.
If they swim through nets, they can
get entangled and drown or starve to death.
And also, the ocean is getting noisier.
And that disrupts how they find their food
or how they find their friends.
JANE: What can we do to help them?
ASHA: One of the key things I like to ask people to do
is share the stories of our oceans.
The more we can tell people the cool facts that we learned--
like, I hope today you'll go off and tell
someone, maybe your mom, about what color blue whale poop is.
And then we can share these amazing things
and create more ambassadors for our oceans.
Cause that's what I think we need,
MARIA: (SINGING) Make my day.
Make my, make my, make my--
ASHA: Ooh, your mom really does like to sing, doesn't she?
JANE: I better go before the neighbors complain.
Thank you so much, Asha.
I'm definitely going to tell everyone
about what we talked about.
ASHA: Have a great day, and don't forget to share the stories.
JANE: Bye, Asha.
ASHA: Bye, Jane.