Whale Food Chain
The
whale food chain is
different for baleen whales than it is for toothed whales.
Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to
buy
It can look like this:
Plankton eats the bodies of dead animals in the ocean.
Krill - small, shrimplike animals -
eat plankton
Squid and small fish eat krill.
Large squid and fish eat small squid and fish.
Toothed whales eat the fish and squid, and they also take crustacians and octopus.
The largest toothed whales which are killer Killer whales eat fish and some of them eat small marine mammals and sometimes even sharks and dolphins.Their diet varies between groups.
Squid and small fish eat krill.
Large squid and fish eat small squid and fish.
Toothed whales eat the fish and squid, and they also take crustacians and octopus.
The largest toothed whales which are killer Killer whales eat fish and some of them eat small marine mammals and sometimes even sharks and dolphins.Their diet varies between groups.
The Problem-
- Unfortunately, if the smallest of prey creatures is exposed to even low level toxins from pollution of the water, it moves up the food chain and becomes concentrated in the tissues of the larger predators like marine mammals. This is called "food chain magnification."
- Planktonic organisms and nektonic animals, (small creatures like krill), both range over great expanses. Both carry heavy metals, pesticides, sometimes even radiation and disease-causing organisms through all of the oceans on earth. More and more marine mammals are being poisoned by contamination of our oceans.
Poster by AllPosters. Click on thumbnail to buy
Baleen Whales don't have the some problem with "food chain magnification."
This is due to the fact that the large baleen whales that filter food with their baleens, take prey from very low levels in the food web.
The advantage of that is that they don't geta lot of poisons built up in their bodies as do the animals up on the top of the web.
Large baleen whales eat animals on the first, second and third level:
Plankton eat dead animals.
Krill eat plankton.
Fish eat krill.
Baleen whales eat mainly krill and plankton, but also eat small fish.
Custom Search
Disclaimer: Although
best efforts have been made to
ensure
that all the information on this
site is correct,
whale-and-dolphin-facts.com
is
not to
be blamed should
there be a mistake.
Copyright notice:
All contents of this website are strictly protected by the Law of
Copyright.
Copyright 2010-2014 whale-and-dolphin-facts.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
