{"id":417,"date":"2009-03-15T12:06:48","date_gmt":"2009-03-15T20:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/?p=417"},"modified":"2010-03-18T13:37:17","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T21:37:17","slug":"mysterious-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/2009\/03\/15\/mysterious-giants\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>National Geographic documentary on Bruce Mate\u2019s blue whale research receives record ratings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_471\" class=\"wp-caption thumbnail alignright\" style=\"width: 228px;\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-471\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/files\/2009\/03\/bruce-mate_p21.jpg\" alt=\"Bruce Mate\" width=\"228\" height=\"182\" \/>\n    <figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bruce Mate<\/figcaption>\n    <\/figure>\n<p>A blue whale\u2019s heart is the size of a Mini Cooper; its body longer than a basketball court. They are the largest creatures ever to live on our planet, and the sounds they make are equivalent to those of a jet engine. But despite their immensity, blue whales are so rare they remain mysterious. However, Oregon State University\u2019s Bruce Mate and his colleague John Calambokidis of Cascadia Research Cooperative are looking to reveal more about these elusive giants.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 496px;margin-left: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em;font-size: 0.9em;line-height: 1.2em\"><object width=\"496\" height=\"279\"><param name=\"name\" value=\"flashObj\" \/><param name=\"bgcolor\" value=\"#000000\" \/><param name=\"flashvars\" value=\"videoRef=06346_00&amp;autoStart=false&amp;shareURL=http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/channel\/videos\/satellite\/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/channel\/videos\/satellite\/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"496\" height=\"279\" src=\"http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/channel\/videos\/satellite\/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" flashvars=\"videoRef=06346_00&amp;autoStart=false&amp;shareURL=http:\/\/channel.nationalgeographic.com\/channel\/videos\/satellite\/satelliteEmbedPlayer.swf\" bgcolor=\"#000000\" name=\"flashObj\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p>People are eager to know more, which is why the National Geographic film, \u201cKingdom of the Blue Whale,\u201d which aired on the National Geographic Channel on March 8, became its highest-rated nature documentary ever. \u201cKingdom\u201d follows Mate and Calambokidis on their trek off the coast of California, where they tagged 15 blue whales, to their wintering grounds at the Costa Rica Dome.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-477\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/files\/2009\/03\/bruce-mate-sidebar1.jpg\" alt=\"bruce-mate-sidebar\" width=\"225\" height=\"124\" \/>\u201cIt was quite an adventure,\u201d Mate says. \u201cBut the more we learn about these great animals the better chance we have to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On their trip, Mate and Calambokidis discovered that the Costa Rica dome is a key location for blue whales\u2019 calving, breeding and feeding. They also learned that not all of the whales there came from California. \u201cThat suggests that some migrate there from elsewhere and we would like to know where that is,\u201d says Mate. \u201cThese are incredibly important finds about blue whales, which we know so little about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For more on Mate, see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.natgeotv.com\/bluewhale\">National Geographic\u2019s micro-site<\/a> on his work and the <a href=\"http:\/\/ngm.nationalgeographic.com\/2009\/03\/blue-whales\/brower-text\">article on his research<\/a> in the March issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Geographic documentary on Bruce Mate\u2019s blue whale research receives record ratings. A blue whale\u2019s heart is the size of a Mini Cooper; its body longer than a basketball court. They are the largest creatures ever to live on our planet, and the sounds they make are equivalent to those of a jet engine. But&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/2009\/03\/15\/mysterious-giants\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731],"tags":[1729,1797],"class_list":["post-417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marine-science-and-the-coast","tag-healthy-planet","tag-marine-mammal-institute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}