You can learn more about whales at www.acsonline.org/ (American Cetacean Society), www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/ (Enchanted Learning) and www.panda.org/news_facts/education/middle_school/
species/whale_intro.cfm (World Wildlife Fund).

Stephen Palumbi has a Web site at www.stanford.edu/group/Palumbi/ (Stanford University). You can read about his research at www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/2005/pr-
aaas-palumbi%20-021605.html (Stanford University).

Ocean Alliance, which is dedicated to the conservation of whales and their ocean environment, has a Web site at www.oceanalliance.org/ (Ocean Alliance).

Follow the voyage of the Odyssey at www.pbs.org/odyssey/ (PBS).

You can learn more about the International Whaling Commission at www.iwcoffice.org/ (International Whaling Commission).

Witness for the Whales: Using DNA for the identification of whales, dolphins, and porpoises
www.dna-surveillance.auckland.ac.nz/html/mainIndex.jsp
University of Auckland

Bower, Bruce. 2000. Culture of the sea. Science News 158(Oct. 28):284-285. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20001028/bob10.asp .

Harder, Ben. 2001. New fossils resolve whale's origin. Science News 160(Sept. 22):180. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010922/fob1.asp .

Milius, Susan. 2000. How whales, dolphins, seals dive so deep. Science News 157(April 8):230. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000408/fob4.asp .

Monastersky, Richard. 1998. Fossil jaw tells tale of whale evolution. Science News 154(Oct. 10):229. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/10_10_98/fob3.htm .

Netting, Jessa. 2004. Sea otters, kelp, and killer whales. Science News for Kids (March 24). Available at http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040324/Feature1.asp .

Raloff, Janet. 2000. Cetacean seniors. Science News 158(Oct. 14):254-255. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20001014/bob10.asp .

Sohn, Emily. 2004. Noisy boats may bother orcas. Science News for Kids (May 5). Available at http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040505/Note2.asp .

______. 2004. A hangout for elusive blue whales. Science News for Kids (Jan. 7). Available at http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040107/Note2.asp .

Books recommended by SearchIt!Science:

Whale — Vassili Papastavrou Published by Dorling Kindersley, 1993. Scientists believe that the mighty whale, the largest creature on Earth, evolved from a much smaller, hoofed animal that lived on land. Today, whales are found in every ocean from the tropics to the Arctic. They are even found in five of the world's rivers. This book explores the different kinds of whales, the way they court each other and give birth, their skeleton and body structure, and the way they communicate. You'll also find information about whale relatives—walruses, seals, dolphins, and dugongs. Large color photographs and drawings focus on such topics as the whale's evolution, the whale in the wild, and the whale's skeleton. There are also sections that show some products made from whales, the myths and legends concerning these creatures, whale hunting, whale watching, and the efforts to save the whale from extinction.

A Whale Biologist at Work — Sneed B. Collard, III Published by Franklin Watts/Scholastic, 2000. Would you like to study whales? Meet a marine biologist who studies whales off the coast of California, where almost half of the blue whales in the world swim. Learn how can you identify individual whales. Explore numbers, migration patterns, and behaviors of blue whales and humpback whales. Find out about the world's largest animal. Observe whales spy-hopping, breaching, and playing in the ocean. Examine why whales are in danger and learn what people are doing to help them.

Watching Whales — John F. Waters Published by Cobblehill Books/Penguin Putnam, 1991. A blue whale grows to be 100 feet long and can weigh 160 tons. Although whales are the world's largest animals, they are gentle and graceful, as the fifth graders in this book find out. After learning about whales and participating in a whale adoption program, they take a whale-watching trip. They see whales jump completely out of the water and land with a huge splash. They watch as a newborn humpback waves its flipper, and they learn how their adopted whale, Salt, is faring. This exciting chronicle of a whale-watching trip contains color photographs and gives information about whale watching and whale adoption programs.

baleen A hard, flexible material that hangs in plates from the upper jaw of certain whales. Baleen is used by whales to strain food from seawater.

DDT Short for dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. A powerful chemical compound that kills insects and is also poisonous to humans and animals. Farmers used to use DDT on their crops but are no longer allowed to because the chemical is very harmful to the environment.

toxin 1. A poison that is made by a living thing. Toxins in snake or spider venom are used to kill prey. Toxins produced by bacteria can cause disease. 2. A substance that is harmful or poisonous to living things. Toxins from car exhaust cause air pollution.

whale A type of sea mammal that often grows very large. Whales have a flat, horizontal tail and nostrils on the top of their heads. Some whales, like the sperm whale, have teeth in their jaws, while others, like the blue whale and humpback whale, have baleen.

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