A small boat drifts in the shallow waters of San Ignacio Lagoon in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The motor has been cut off. The six passengers sit in silence, bobbing in the gentle waves, scanning the waters in breathless anticipation.
Pooshh! Right next to the boat, a spout of water shoots into the air. It's followed by the booming exhale of a giant underwater beast. It's a Pacific gray whale breaking the water's surface.
Each year, Pacific gray whales gather in these waters to spend the winter months. For some females, it will be time to give birth to a single calf. The young will grow strong...and they'll need to.
Just weeks after their birth, the whales will feel compelled to go north to their summer feeding grounds off the coast of Alaska. Pacific gray whales complete an annual migration of more than 10,000 miles (16,100 km) roundtrip, making it one of the longest annual migrations in the entire animal kingdom.
But the Pacific gray whale's story is so much more than a tale of migration. It's an epic journey that has taken the species from the edge of extinction to becoming one of the world's greatest conservation success stories. Today, the Pacific gray whale is the only marine mammal to ever be removed from the endangered species list due to population recovery.
A Deadly History
Whales and humans have had a long and complicated relationship.
Whaling the hunting of whales for food or products-dates back more than 4,000 years. From Japan to Canada, Native communities relied on the giant animals for meat while their bones were fashioned into tools. For centuries, these small whaling efforts had little effect on whale populations worldwide. This was subsistence hunting, where people only killed what they needed to survive.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2023 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة March 2023 من Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
HOUSE OF CARDS
TRY THE PERFECT EXPERIMENT—AND THEN REFLECT ON HOW IT WENT.
ACCIDENTALLY Delicious
Have you ever been really hungry, but there wasn't much to eat in your kitchen? Did you throw together a bunch of stuff you had on hand and were pleasantly surprised when it tasted good?
IS YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEED TOO PERFECT?
EVERYONE'S LIFE CAN APPEAR PERFECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. On YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and similar apps, people tend to share their happiest, most picturesque moments. They carefully compose any text to get the message just right. They use filters and enhancements to glam up images and videos. The app sorts the posts with the most likes and comments to the top. The end result? All you see of others' lives is the best of the best.
Art ALERT!
THE CASE OF THE MASTERPIECE THAT WASN'T
MARYAM ZARINGHALAM
SCIENCE POLICY FELLOW AND WRITER
Lost Cat Treks More Than 800 Miles to Get Home
Rayne Beau (pronounced RANE-BO, as in \"rainbow\") is a two-year-old Siamese cat.
EASY AS ABC
But in number theory, well, it's complicated.
That Wanaka Tree Gets a Companion
\"THAT WANAKA TREE,\" AS IT'S CALLED, IS A FAMOUS WILLOW TREE THAT GROWS OUT OF LAKE WANAKA ON THE SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND.
Two College Students Devise Smart Glasses That Can ID People
YOU'RE WAITING FOR THE SUBWAY WITH A COUPLE OF YOUR FRIENDS.
Two Comb Jellies Can Fuse Their Bodies Together to Become One
COMB JELLIES ARE GELATIN-LIKE AND MOSTLY SEETHROUGH INVERTEBRATES, OR ANIMALS WITHOUT A BACKBONE, THAT FLOAT IN THE OCEAN NEAR SHORE.
