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Message text written by Sue Shirley
"
The following questions are from half of my fifth grade (10-11 year olds)
science class. Thank you in advance for answering them.
from Audrey, Casey and Kaleigh: What kind of whales are there in Scotland?
What do you do with blind whales that you find? What would you want to be
if you weren't a whale researcher? What has been your favorite whale
related project?
from Katie and Roxana: How do you know so much about whales? When did you
decide to become a whale researcher?
from Josh and Davis: What type of fish is on the cover of "Creatures of
the Deep"? If you can would you please send us some pictures of the fish?
from Ian and Will: What is your favorite instrument for testing whales and
how does it work? What kind of work do you do with the Russian and
Japanese scientists?
from Alanna and Kristina: What is your favorite type of whale and why? Why
do the Japanese still hunt whales?
from Patrick: What was your most successful book? Do you take the pictures
for your books?
Many thanks,
Sue Shirley
Dedham Country Day School
Dedham, Massachusetts
"
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Thank you very much for your interest in whales and the sea. I'll try to
answer your questions.
Dear Audrey, Casey and Kaleigh:
- We have mainly minke whales in Scotland, plus a few killer whales or
orcas.
- I've never found any blind whales, but whales with poor or even no vision
might well do OK, at least some species that we know use sonar and
echolocation to find their food and navigate.
- I also work as a writer and if I didn't do any work with whales and
dolphins, I would write more books about all kinds of things - whatever I'm
curious about. That's the way I learn about things. Besides whales, I've
also written about ants and other insects, about plants and the deep sea.
- My favourite whale work was my time with orcas when people were just
starting to learn about them 30 years ago. In the last 3 or 4 years I've
returned to orca work again, collaborating with Japanese and Russian
researchers to work in far east russia where orcas have never been studied
before. That's exciting.
Dear Katie and Roxana:
- I've just learned about whales as I went along, by spending a lot of time
with them in the sea, by reading about them and talking to lots of other
researchers. I first got interested in whale research when I got involved
in a film project to work with orcas 30 years ago in British Columbia. But
before that I knew almost nothing about any whales, had never seen them or
read about them.
Dear Josh and Davis:
- The fish on the cover of my book Creatures of the Deep is a deep sea
angler fish. You are welcome to print out a copy of the cover. If you
can't, I can send it to your teacher by an attachment. There are some other
pictures of this fish inside the book, too. Some sample spreads with photos
are available through this website: www.fireflybooks.com/Nature/HOYT.html
Hi Ian and Will:
- I'm not sure what you mean by "testing whales". Most of the work we do is
photographing whales to get identifying marks on their dorsal or top fins
and their backs. Then we can use these marks to identify the individuals.
We have names and numbers for most of the whales. Then we record their
sounds and note which whales travel with each other. Following them year
after year, we start to get an idea of the families, how long the whales
lives, how many calves they have, and many other things about their
behavior and biology.
Dear Alanna and Kristina,
- My favorite whale is the orca, but close seconds are humpback whales and
right whales. However all whales and dolphins are interesting in their own
right and different from all the others.
- Whaling has all but died out in Japan. Young people are not interested in
eating whales or killing them and in fact whale watching is very popular
now in Japan, with more than 25 villages and towns offering whale watch
tours and more than 100,000 Japanese going whale and dolphin watching every
year. But the Japanese government keeps whaling alive because there are a
few ships and towns that continue with it as a business, even though very
few people in Japan eat whale meat regularly. Whaling has a long history in
Japan, as it does in many western countries including the United States. In
fact the Americans helped bring modern whaling to Japan and after World War
II encouraged the Japanese to restart their whaling and use whale meat for
cheap protein in school lunches.
Hi Patrick,
- It's difficult to say what is my most successful book. Orca: The Whale
Called Killer was published 21 years ago and it still is in print and still
selling a few copies as new people discover the magic of orcas. It was also
translated into Japanese a few years ago so Japanese people are now reading
it. One of my other whale books was translated into 12 languages and
published in about 20 countries. In terms of an advance from the publisher,
my book The Earth Dwellers which is about leafcutter ants in the rainforest
did the best, and it too has been translated into Japanese and the film
rights were bought by a film company although it still hasn't been made
into a film. One day, perhaps.
- I take a few of the photographs for some of my books, but mainly I am a
writer, researcher and conservationist.
Good luck to all of you and thanks for your interest in whales and the sea,
and in my work. For more on the above and to follow the orca work in Russia
check out these websites:
www.russianorca.narod.ru [we'll be adding more to this site in a week or
so]
www.wdcs.org
www.fireflybooks.com/Nature/HOYT.html
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Erich Hoyt
The Gannetry
29A Dirleton Avenue
North Berwick, Scotland
U.K. EH39 4BE
Senior research associate, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Co-director, Far East Russia Orca Project
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