1. What do Humpback whales eat in Antarctica?
BELL RINGER:
What do Humpback whales eat in Antarctica?

2. THESE VERY LARGE CREATURES OF THE OCEAN EAT SOME OF THE SMALLEST CREATURES OF THE OCEAN
Humpbacks are baleen whales that filter feed on krill and plankton.
Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. This is the startimage of the virtual microscopehttp:// of krill where you can click into details of the animal to get higher magnifications, like the gills, the feeding basket or the swimming legs. In natural hovering position - the red organs produce the bioluminescence - the hepatopancreas is filled with green phytoplankton, the food of krill, the strait gut in the back is filled with the empty shells of phytoplankton.

3. WHO IS DOING THIS RESEARCH IN ANTARCTICA?
Question: What is this researcher doing?
a. Dying of the cold, because he has been left behind on sea ice.
b. Acting like a student and catching a short nap between science tasks.
Mimicking a seal and trying to conserve calories

4. MULTI-SENSOR TAGS non-invasive suction cups up to 48 hours
time, depth, temperature
3-axis accelerometers,
magnetometers, gyros
sensors sample up to 400 Hz
audio to 242 kHz
2k Video
VHF
GPS

5. WHAT HAVE THE RESEARCHERS, LIKE ARI, UNCOVERED?
Humpback whales are typically staying around the Western Peninsula of Antarctica about a month longer before migrating out.

6. Why are Humpback whales “hanging” out longer in Antarctica?
Time to be a scientist. Write a hypothesis (a possible answer) to the following research question:
Why are Humpback whales “hanging” out longer in Antarctica?

7. NOW, LETS SEE WHAT THE DATA CAN TELL US BY LOOKING AT A DATA STORY

8. Time to make your mobile...
Draw just the Western Peninsula of Antarctica
Color and cut out your whales and krill. Remember to research coloration.
Use a hole punch or pencil tip to make a hole in each.
Using the krill and whale graph from the data story, fill in your data table, including your scale conversions.
On a piece of cardboard draw the outline of the Antarctica Peninsula. This should be two feet in length.

9. Mobile Instructions Continued...
5. Using the hole punch, put 12 equally spaced holes on the cardboard peninsula.
6. Using yarn or twine of appropriate length, hang the krill and whales on your Antarctica Peninsula, starting with the earliest time. Hang whales and krill in an alternating pattern with one whale and one krill for each data point.

10. LETS EXTRAPOLATE FROM THE PREVIOUS DATA STORY…
If krill is shaping whales’ daily behavior, could krill be shaping their seasonal behavior? Could the whales be hanging out longer around the Western Antarctic Peninsula because of the krill? Would you hang around for free food?
Lets cruise down and check out some more data…

11. SEASONAL HOME RANGES Jan → May Jan → May Home Range Size
Curtice et al. 2015
Home Range Size
Jan → May
Distance to Coast
Jan → May

12. SO, WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK CLIMATE CHANGE IS PLAYING IN THIS?

15. CONSIDER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANTARCTIC PENINSULA CLIMATE CHANGE DATA AND KRILL.
The sea ice protects the krill larvae and helps with their survival.

16. KRILL AND WHALES IN WILHELMINA BAY
500 humpback whales
300 humpback whales
~2.3 million tonnes of krill
~1.2 million tonnes of krill
Nowacek et al. 2010

17. WOULD IT BE EASIER FOR HUMPBACK WHALES TO FEED ON KRILL WITHOUT SEA ICE?

18. IS THIS WHY THE HUMPBACKS ARE HANGING OUT?