Webinar: Natural History at Home – Exploring the Sharks of the Galapagos Islands
Aired June 5, 2021
Katie Derloshon:
Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's Natural History at Home Family Program. My name is Katie and I am an educator from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. And I am so happy that you can join us today for our program exploring the sharks of the Galapagos Islands.
Now, before we begin, we'd like to give a special thanks to our generous donors, volunteers, and other important partners who enable us to discover, create, and share new knowledge with the world today and every day free of charge. Now to get us ready, let's go over a few logistical things to help us navigate through our program today. So today's program's designed to last around 45 minutes to almost an hour. There will be a recording of our program posted on our website next week that you can refer to if you have to leave early or if you want to watch it again.
And since it is a webinar, your cameras and microphones are turned off, but you can still communicate with us through the Q and A that I see some have found already. And there will be some polls. So when we have polls, they'll pop up on your screen a couple times throughout the program. But the Q and A is the way to share your thoughts and your questions with us.
You can find that Q and A at the bottom or the top of your screen, and we'll do our best to answer as many questions as we can throughout the program. But we'll also stay for a few minutes after our program is officially done to answer any of those remaining questions that you might have for our experts today. We're also joined by Aaron, an American Sign Language interpreter. And depending on what device you're watching our program on, you might need to swipe over to view Aaron.
So let us know in the Q and A if you need any assistance. We also have close caption available. You can turn these on by clicking that CC button located near the Q and A feature. And we have an amazing team working behind the scenes in the Q and A. We have Juan Pablo, Christian, Silvana, Nicole, and Caroline. So welcome everyone. We are super excited that you're here helping us out today and you might interact with these friends behind the scenes in the Q and A. So thanks team for helping us out.
Now one very important thing for today's program is the supply reminder. So you will need some supplies today for our program because together as a family you'll be invited to create your own ocean artwork. So please make sure you have some supplies ready to go. You'll at least need some paper.
The larger the better because then you can draw more animals on it. You'll need a pencil, some art materials or coloring supplies like crayons or markers or even maybe paint. That might be fun. You can also have some scissors and tape. They might come in handy, they might not, but they're good to have around just in case. And we really enjoy hearing from you and seeing what you create together each program.
And speaking of loving what our viewers create, let's take a look at what some of our viewers created for our May's Family Program and for our Family Crafty hour. So during May's program, Gale and I talked about how naturalists make and record observations to share with their local and global community and how you can do that too using some apps like iNaturalist and Seek. We also had a family crafty hour during May when Meaghan and Lara joined us to take a closer look at the narwhal and to learn about some of its adaptations that help it to survive in the Arctic.
So thank you for sharing some of your observation stories and some of your narwhal creations with us. Now while the museum is closed, we're broadcasting from our homes. I'm joining you from Alexandria, Virginia, and we'd love to hear where some of you are joining us from too. So you can use that Q and A feature to let us know. And if you haven't told us your favorite ocean creature, tell us in the Q and A. I think I saw a dolphin in the Q and A was someone's favorite animal. I really like dolphins too.
Hello, Sophie in Pennsylvania and Stella in Florida. Daniel in Rochester. Well, welcome to our program Karen in Ottawa, Michelle and the family, like dolphins and seahorses. Octopus is Laura from California world. Sophie likes thresher sharks from England. Hello, Sophie, thresher sharks -- I think Lara also really likes thresher sharks. Very cool. Alice from Hawaii. Aloha.
Let's see. Oh, I see that someone is having trouble hearing me. Please let me know if you're having trouble hearing me too. You might want to turn your volume up just a little bit. Hopefully that might help. Let's see. The Lavender family from Springfield really likes sharks. They said Josie's favorite animal is sharks. And Josie sharks are my favorite animal too in the ocean. Awesome. Thank you everyone for sharing some of those favorite animals. Very cool.
All right, so hello and welcome to all those who have just joined us again. My name is Katie and I'm super excited to officially now start our program. So today we have two special guest experts. We have ocean educators Meaghan Cuddy and Lara Noren who work with me at the museum. Now throughout our program today, we will discuss some of the different life that's found at the Galapagos Islands and explore that a little bit, as well as learn about the whale shark and learn why this location has so many different living things.
As we go, you at home can work together as a family to create a mural throughout our program to celebrate the biodiversity of the ocean habitat surrounding the Galapagos Islands. Now be sure again to have some materials and supplies ready to go and maybe even a large enough space so that you all can get in on the fun of creating your artwork together.
So let's go ahead and get started by saying hello to our two guest experts, ocean educators Meaghan Cuddy and Lara Noren. Hi Meaghan. Hi Lara.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Hi Katie.
Lara Noren:
Hi Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. I'm so glad that you could join us again today. Now, can you both tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do at the museum and one of your favorite ocean animals?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, so Katie, like you said, we are ocean educators and that means our job is to talk to people from all over the world about the ocean and how amazing it is, which is truly the best job in the whole world. And I've loved the ocean ever since I was a little kid.
I grew up in New Jersey and my family used to go to the beach when we were little all the time, and I was always so curious about the ocean. And so I took that curiosity with me all through school and into my job. And now I get to do it every single day and talk about the ocean all the time.
Katie Derloshon:
That's so much fun. All right. So what is one of your favorite or maybe your current favorite ocean animal?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Oh, one of my favorites is called the sargassum fish, and it's right here. It's this really crazy looking fish. It lives in this algae called sargassum, and it has amazing adaptations that make it look just like the algae. You can't even really see it when it's swimming around. And I just think it's so cool and really pretty.
Katie Derloshon:
It is. It's very neat. Thank you for sharing. All right, Lara, I'm going to turn it over to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the museum as well as your current favorite ocean animal.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, of course. And hi everybody. Good morning and good afternoon and good night from wherever you are joining. This is a picture of me when I was a kid. I grew up in Minnesota, so that is in the middle of the United States, which is very far away from either ocean.
But that did not stop me from really loving nature and wanting to learn more about lakes and rivers and ocean, and pretty much anything that had any water to do with it. I was very curious. So I took that with me through a lot of my life and I ended up going to college and studying marine biology. And now I work at the Natural History Museum where I get to talk about the ocean every single day.
Katie Derloshon:
That is so fun. All right. Now your favorite ocean animal or your current favorite ocean animal.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, it changes all the time. And I remember a couple of people had mentioned some of my other favorites. I saw someone say hogfish, which I love. I love hogfish. Sophie said a thresher shark. I love thresher sharks, but I think for today I'm going to go with the Christmas tree worm.
It is a beautiful worm that you can find in coral reefs, especially in the Caribbean. And they have these beautiful plumes that go out in a circle and they look like Christmas trees and they're really cool and fun.
Katie Derloshon:
That's so neat. Now, I think you were telling me earlier that they can change their body shape to protect themselves?
Lara Noren:
Yeah. So if they get scared or something like that, or if I know a lot of divers, they'll go up and they'll poke the worms and they'll go back inside of the coral or inside of the rock, because they get spooked and they can do it really fast. So if you guys are really curious, you should look up a video of them doing that on YouTube. It's pretty fun.
Katie Derloshon:
That's so cool. Thanks for sharing. All right, so Meaghan and Lara, today's program is a part of World Ocean Day. So what is World Ocean Day?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, so Katie, we are so excited to talk about World Ocean Day and it's one of my favorite days of the year. And because of that, this year we are celebrating it all week long. And World Ocean Day is a global event that celebrates our ocean and reminds us how important it is to all of our lives and to the wellbeing of our whole planet. And it helps us remember that we are responsible for taking care of the ocean and we need to protect it.
Katie Derloshon:
That's right. Now can you tell us a little bit more about why the ocean is important for our planet?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, I would love to. And the ocean is important for so many reasons, Katie. First of all, the ocean is huge. It covers 70 percent of our planet and it contains about 95 percent of all of the living space on Earth, which means that there are so many wonderful living things on our planet that are found in the ocean, like a lot of the animals that people were mentioning, like dolphins and sea horses and octopus and other fun fish.
And without a healthy ocean, we also probably wouldn't be able to live on planet Earth because the ocean is like the Earth's heart. Without the heart, the body wouldn't be able to function. And it's really the same for our ocean as it controls the entire climate by circulating moisture and heat. And of course, we cannot forget about all of the people all around the world that rely on the ocean for food and for work and also for play.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, well thank you again for being with us today to help us celebrate the ocean by talking about some neat creatures that live in it. So now that the ocean covers so much of our planet, but today you are here just to talk about one special part of the ocean, the Pacific Ocean that's around the Galapagos Islands.
Lara Noren:
Yeah so the Galapagos Islands are an island group about 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow. Lara, it looks like there's a lot of islands that make up the Galapagos Islands. So I'm wondering how many there are. Families at home, how many Galapagos islands do you see on the map? Take a moment to count them with your family. And then we're going to launch a poll in just a few moments and you can share your answer with us. But first, take a few seconds to see if you can count them all. Lara, there are quite a lot.
Lara Noren:
There are quite a few, Katie. There are quite a few.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. So let's go ahead and launch this poll and let's see what our families are thinking. All right. It looks like a lot of our families also agree that there's quite a few of these Galapagos Islands on [inaudible 00:11:31].
Two last ones coming in. Coming in. And let's go ahead and in the poll and let's share our results here. Okay, so Lara, it looks like a lot of families are saying they see between 10 and 15 islands. So how many are there actually?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that was a great job, everybody, at counting. There are 13 large islands and there are only four islands where people actually live, but there are over 100 rocks and islets that make up the Galapagos. So it is a pretty diverse and expansive little island set that we're looking at here.
And you can see some pictures of the islands here that are going to pop up on your screen and it looks pretty different than maybe some other islands people are familiar with. There's a lot of short bushes and grasses, and of course there's a lot of water because it's an island.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah and it looks like they're rather rocky too.
Lara Noren:
Mm-hmm.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, so I'm excited to learn about some of these animals that can be found here. So let's go ahead and dive right in and start with our drawing. So Meaghan and Lara are going to turn off their cameras so you can see me. Or so you can see my drawing. And I'm going to also be switching camera views throughout our drawing time together today.
So we're going to start by switching over my camera. And so you can see my marker board here. Awesome. Okay. So we're going to start by drawing our view or our setting, and it's going to be a diver's view or as if we were diving under the ocean and what it would look like if we were looking at it.
So we're going to be drawing by starting with the land line. And like Lara said, these islands were formed by underwater volcanoes. So our land line will be shaped like a volcano. And then I'll draw the sea line after that too, or if Lara forgot to mention it, they were formed with volcanoes. Is that correct, Lara?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that is. So that's great that you mentioned that. And that's a really important part of how this island looks because that's what makes it so mountainy.
Katie Derloshon:
Cool. So I have my volcanoish setting going here. So there's my land line, but then I'm going to draw my water line too. And actually I'm going to get a little fancy here and I'm going to use a blue line for my water line and it's going to go up to my land, but a little bit's going to be above the water. That way we can draw animals or life like plants that can be found either on the land, in the ocean, water around it, or even on the ground that's under the water, on the ground of the sea.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah. So Katie, it's really important that you drew your setting like this because we need to have a lot of space for our animals because there's a lot of life in the Galapagos, and a lot of the species that are found in the Galapagos are really unique. And we only find them in the Galapagos. They don't live anywhere else. And it is home to some pretty amazing species that some people at home maybe know about. And we call this variety of life that we find in places like the Galapagos, biodiversity.
Lara Noren:
Wow. And I love talking and thinking about all of the different types of creatures that can live in the ocean. But Meaghan and Katie, we can't talk about biodiversity in the Galapagos without talking about sharks.
And that's because there are more than 30 species of sharks found around the Galapagos Islands. Because there are so many different species of sharks in the Galapagos and scientists, they can observe these sharks and find out more about what makes them the same and what makes them different.
So even though all sharks share some traits, every species has their own behavior, has their own favorite food, has their own activities, all of these things make them incredibly unique. And today we are going to look and draw one species of shark that can be found here, which is the whale shark.
Katie Derloshon:
That is so cool. There's more than 30 species of sharks at the Galapagos Islands.
Lara Noren:
[inaudible 00:15:52] It's sharky.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, I know, right. Lara and Meaghan, it sounds like I need to take a trip there because sharks are my favorite animals. So I think I need to head down there in the future. All right. So I'm excited that you're both here to share with us about the whale shark.
And I'm ready to learn more about the whale shark and draw this animal with the families at home. But first, let's make some observations or take a closer look at this animal. So here are a few pictures of this shark. So share with your family what you notice and then share with us in the Q and A too.
Wow, Lara, we've got some different views of this shark here. Michelle's saying that it looks spotted. Yeah, I noticed that it is kind of spotted and it looks like it has polka dots all over it. Yep, Uvraj is also saying there's white spots, and Brett is also noticing all the spots-
Meaghan Cuddy:
Spots are very popular. We all notice the spots-
Katie Derloshon:
[inaudible 00:16:45] has a big mouth or big lips. Claudia, Liam and Eleanor are also noticing that flat mouth. So is David. Stella says it has lots of spots and it looks cute. I agree. The Lavenders are also saying it's spotted and huge. Yeah. Look, Lauren and Meaghan, is that a scuba diver in that top one next to that whale?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that is a scuba diver.
Katie Derloshon:
Whoa. They are huge. Okay-
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, a lot of people are noticing how big it is.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, they're saying it's big. And Augustine is saying it doesn't look like it has any shark teeth. And Meredith says it's underbelly is white, so underneath the shark is white, but the top is spotty or has spots. Excellent. Okay, thank you for sharing some of those observations.
So we are going to be drawing this shark as we learn about it. So you can draw either right on your Galapagos Island mural or you can practice on a separate sheet and then cut it out and add it later to your mural that you're creating with your family. So before we start with the steps for drawing the shark though, Meaghan, can you tell us more about where it lives so we can put it in the right spot on our mural?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Definitely. So these whale sharks, Katie, they like to live in the open water in what we call the pelagic zone of the ocean. And they do come into the coasts, but we probably shouldn't draw our whale shark right next to our island. We should put it a little bit offshore.
And that's because unlike a lot of sharks that this whale shark is related to, it doesn't swim along the bottom of the sea floor. It actually spends a lot of time in shallow open water and even really close to the surface. But they have been known to dive as deep as 1,900 meters into the deep ocean.
Lara Noren:
Wow.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow. That's really cool. Okay, so once again, Meaghan and Lara are going to turn off their camera so that you can see my drawing. And I'm going to swap over my camera too. Okay. Now again, my camera will still be on and you can toggle the screen bar to see my camera if you need it, or if you're on a mobile device, you can swipe it so that you can get this screen back on.
So this animal stays near the surface. So I'm going to draw my whale shark near the surface of the water. And if I was going to draw on this board, I would draw about right here probably. And I would draw it going away from the land because maybe it's migrating away or maybe it's wanting to go out deeper or farther away from the land, but I want you to be able to follow along.
So I'm going to draw it much bigger on a separate marker board. So I'm going to move this marker board and I'm going to draw on a fresh marker board right here, so that I can draw it nice and big. Okay, so let's see. I'm going to also be using a marker, but we would suggest that you use a pencil if you have one available, because that's going to make erasing lines much easier later on after we're done drawing it.
So let's go ahead and start the body. So to start the body, we're going to draw the top line or the back line of our whale shark. So to do that we're going to draw an arched line. I'm going to start here towards the bottom left. And I'm just going to curve it going up. Like maybe an arch for-
Lara Noren:
It looks like an eyebrow to me. If the eyebrow was-
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, like an eyebrow. You're right.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Or half of a rainbow.
Katie Derloshon:
Or half of a rainbow. That's right. And you know what, I'm actually going to put mine down a little bit. If you're doing yours on your mural, you probably have space, but I want to be able to make a big tail. So I'm going to actually move mine down just a little bit more so I have room to make its tail.
Okay, cool. So now that we have that back line, we're going to draw a diagonal line starting at the end of our half rainbow here, and we're going to draw it down towards the bottom corner. Now we're not going to touch it. We're just going to go in the direction. So follow or watch me first and then draw yours. I'm going to start here and then I'm just going to go down, so it's not touching it, but it follows it. Now the last part I'm going to do is I'm going to connect these two with a curved line, but not super curved, just a slightly curved.
And what I mean by a little bit or by slightly curved is just the corners are going to be rounded and then I'm going to connect it. So the view of this whale shark is that it's swimming towards me because I want to be able to see both sides or I want to see its mouth open, but I also want to be able to see some of its tails so we're drawing in a position where we can see lots of features. So it's going to look like it's swimming at us. All right, great job drawing the body outline.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that was really interesting and fun to watch you do that, Katie. And it makes me excited to think about all of the details that we're going to be adding in just a little bit. But Meaghan, I saw so many people mentioning in the Q and A that this animal is huge, it's big. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? How big is this animal?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, that was a great observation, Lara, from everyone watching, and I'm so glad they noticed it because whale sharks are actually the biggest fish that currently lives on the Earth, which is amazing. They can be up to 40 feet long and they can weigh over 11 tons, which makes them longer than a telephone pole and heavier than an elephant. And the largest whale shark that was ever measured was more than 60 feet.
Katie Derloshon:
Whoa. Their bodies are huge. And Meaghan and Lara, I also noticed that it has a lot of fins and it looks like it has these fins on the top of its body. It also looks like it has them on the sides of its body and it even looks like it has some on the underside of its body too. So before we add them to our drawing, Lara, can you tell us a little bit more about the fins?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, most definitely. So we need to make sure that our whale shark can move around. We want it to move around in the mural, and we also want it to be able to move around in the ocean. And the fins are, is going to be what is going to help our whale shark do this. So we need to make sure that we give it the tools to do that.
And we have a couple of different fins that we're going to draw here. We've got the pectoral fins, that's really for steering. We've got the dorsal fin, the pelvic fin, we've got the back dorsal fin, we've got the caudal fin. And the caudal fin is really what is going to propel that whale shark through the water on its journey and throughout its life.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. But Lara, are these all the fins that it has or does it have any more that we can't see?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, there's a couple that we can't see here. So this whale shark has two pectoral fins, you just can't see it because of the angle of this photo. And it also has two teeny tiny fins on the bottom of its body in between the pelvic fin and the caudal fin. And those are called anal fins. So we can't see those either. And you might want to include those in your drawing.
Katie Derloshon:
Excellent. All right. So also I'm going to swap out, so I have got the same shape, but I'm actually going to do it ... I forgot, I want to do it in blue to be my pencil so that then I can outline with my black later on so we can really see which lines to erase. So here is my whale shark now in blue.
I'm going to continue with blue so I can outline it in black later so we can see those lines to erase. Okay, so Lara, thank you for sharing those fins of the whale shark. So let's go ahead and add some of these fins on now. Let's start with the caudal fin or the tail. So I'm going to go towards this upper right corner where it comes to a point where the two lines meet.
And as I was watching Meaghan, or as I was listening to Meaghan talking about these whales and their fins, I noticed lots of the same types of shapes were popping up. So I saw lots of triangles or Vs or even some U shapes. So those are the shapes we're going to draw when we're drawing in these fins. So for the tail, I'm going to draw it by doing two either large triangles or you can think of it as V. So I'm going to do one on top upside down, an upside down V or a triangle. And then I'm going to do another one on the bottom. So there for my two Vs or two triangles for my caudal fin.
Lara Noren:
That's a great looking caudal fin, Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
Thank you. Thank you. Now the next one we're going to do are the dorsal fins. So those are the fins that are on the whale shark's back. Now, scientists and artists at home, I have two options for you. Now if you want to add a little bit more depth to your whale shark, you can draw it like me. If you want to just draw the fin right on it, you can do that as well.
So what I'm going to do to add a little bit of depth, I'm going to come to the back line of my whale shark, that first arch we drew. I'm going to draw an upside down V or two lines of a triangle here in the top. But I'm going to go over the lines. Now it looks like having uppercase A. So you can either draw it like that with the lines hanging over a little bit on the body, or you can draw them straight on the back, like that. Artist's choice. However you do that one, I want you to do the second dorsal fin just like it, but it's going to be a little bit closer to the tail and it's not going to be as big as that top dorsal fin.
So I'm going to draw the same shape a little bit further back. Now that we have the two dorsal fins, let's draw the pectoral fin. So those two large fins that are on the side that help that animal to ... Or does it help them to move or steer, Lara, those pictorial fins?
Lara Noren:
Those pectorals are really great for keeping that animal straight up and down in the water and for steering really. So moving all around and navigating.
Katie Derloshon:
Let's help this animal move all around and navigate. So to do that, I'm going to draw sideways U shapes on the side of my animal. I'm going to do the one on the right side first. So to do that I'm going to find the spot on its side, a little bit maybe underneath the dorsal fin. And I'm going to draw. There's one, and then I'm going to go across to the other side and I'm going to draw another one, but I'm not going to draw it as big because to add depth it's on the other side.
So we're not going to be able to see the whole thing. On this one, we can see the whole thing. On this one, we can't. So we're not going to draw the whole thing, just a little bit smaller. Now we need to draw those ones on the underside. So Meaghan said it has the pelvic fin, so I'm going to do that by just drawing a little V underneath.
And she also said that it has other fins underneath like the anal fins, but we can't see them from the view that we were looking at. So I'm going to decide not to draw them. If you want to draw them, you can add another tiny little fin underneath. Artist's choice. I'm going to choose to keep it off of mine.
Lara Noren:
Wow, Katie, that looks really great and I think we should give everybody joining us a little bit of time to continue drawing these fins. And while we do that, Meaghan, I have a question for you. And it is about behavior. And I noticed that a lot of people in the Q and A were also mentioning this and talking a little bit about where they might move to or do they just stay in the Galapagos all the time? Can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Oh yeah, Lara, that is such a good question. And we have to remember the ocean is really big. There's a lot of places to go. And something that's really cool about these whale sharks is that they don't actually live in the Galapagos all year round. They migrate, so they move from place to place.
And scientists hypothesize, which means they make an educated prediction, that the Galapagos are an important place for these whale sharks to stop while they're migrating because there's lots of food here. And we see a lot of whale sharks. And in one study scientists even identified 82 individual whale sharks.
So that's a lot of very big sharks in one place. And most of the sharks that come to the Galapagos are actually pregnant females. So we know that the Galapagos is a really important place for these expecting moms because there's so much food for them to eat while they're here.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow, okay. So that's really interesting that whale sharks migrate all the way to the Galapagos Islands because all the food that's available to them there. So it makes me wonder a little bit why maybe there's so much food for them there. All right, so let's get back to our drawing though.
So we have our body and we have our fins drawn. Now let's outline our animal using a black marker or crayon over our pencil. For me over my blue marker. Now follow along with me so that you can see what to outline. And if you accidentally outline more lines, that's okay. Every whale shark is different and yours can be more outlined if you want it to be.
But let's go ahead and start by outlining the big dorsal fin in the middle of its back. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go right here and I'm going to just start by outlining the shape with my black marker or black crayon or black pencil. From here I'm going to then draw the back line where it meets that dorsal fin. I'm going to outline that line, then I'm going to do that upside down V shape again.
So I've got my two dorsal fins outlined. Then I'm going to outline that line where it just meets that first V of my tail. Now for the tail, we're just going to outline those V shapes. I'm going to outline going up and down and outline the other V shape as well. So I've got my two V shapes.
Lara Noren:
That looks really great, Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
Thanks. All right, so now let's outline the underlying body. Now for this one we're going to skip the pelvic fin. We're going to go all the way to where we meet up with our first pectoral fin. We're going to outline that U shape of the pectoral fin, and then we're going to draw down, outline around the face and actually have it go all the way up to where it meets that dorsal fin on top.
Now we didn't outline our other pictorial fin or the pelvic fin. You can do those now. I'm going to go ahead and do my pictorial fin and then the pelvic fin. Now all the lines that are blue for me or all the lines that are left in pencil for you. It's now come time to erase those lines. So I'm going to erase those lines and you can follow along with me. So I'm going to first do my dorsal fins-
Lara Noren:
Awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
... tail fin and then the pectoral.
Lara Noren:
And while everybody is erasing these lines that we don't need, we have a couple of questions coming in about this giant mouth that we are seeing on this animal. Uvraj is asking, what does this whale shark feed on? Karen is asking about how this animal eats with that giant mouth. Meaghan, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, look at this giant mouth. I am so glad that everyone is noticing this. And one thing that makes the whale sharks really unique is that they are filter feeders. So that is pretty special for a shark. So whale sharks actually feed by holding this giant mouth open and they catch lots of small fish and tiny animals called plankton, and they filter these tiny creatures out using filtering pads, which are at the back of their throat.
And these plankton are some of the smallest animals in the ocean, and they're feeding this giant whale shark, which is just crazy. So juvenile whale sharks, they've been known to eat up to 46 pounds of food in a single day. And that is before they're a fully grown shark. That's a teenager shark.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah and Meaghan, Augustina, in the chat is asking, do they feed like some whales do?
Meaghan Cuddy:
So that's a great question. Lots of whales are filter feeders, but the way that these whale sharks filter feed is a little bit different. Whales use something called baleen. Our whale sharks use these filtering pads.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh interesting.
Lara Noren:
Wow. So same concept, different method.
Katie Derloshon:
Awesome. All right. But you're right, because this animal is so large and it eats such tiny little animals. So let's add some final details to our drawing together. But before we do that, we need to learn a little bit more about some of these details that we haven't added in yet, such as its eyes and its gills. So before we add on the mouth, add in the eyes and add in its gills, Meaghan, can you share with us a little bit about these? Where are they at and how many gills should we draw?
Meaghan Cuddy:
All right. Yes. So first let's find the eyes. So these whale sharks, they have two eyes on the far sides of their head and they're really right on the ends, you can see there. And that helps them sense their environment. But unlike people, whale sharks don't have eyelids to protect their eyes from irritation and things in the water. And scientists recently discovered that these whale sharks have teeth-like scales, like little teeth on their eyeballs that protect them from irritation, which is super cool.
And they also have five gill slits on each side of their head. So 10 total, and they're located just in front of their pectoral fin. And just like most animals on land, including us, most animals in the ocean need oxygen to survive. And these gills are what our whale shark uses to pull oxygen out of the water.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, excellent. So thank you for sharing that. And I agree those teeth-like scales must be really interesting up close to see what they might look like. All right, but thanks for sharing that. And let's go ahead and add in the eyes, gills and mouth now.
So let's start with the gills. So Meaghan shared that it has five gill slits on each side of its head and they're in front of the pectoral fin. Now for our view of our whale shark or how I'm drawing mine, you can only ... I'm imagining clearly seeing one side, so I'm just going to draw one set and we'll imagine that the other one, the other set of five is on the other side in front of this pectoral fin. So I'm going to find this pectoral fin and I'm going to start by adding five gill slits. Now make sure you count them as you draw so you have the correct number.
So I'm going to add in five gill curve slits. Three, four, five. All right, now let's add its eyes. So Meaghan said it had two of them on the sides of its head, so I'm going to draw them really close to the edge on each side. And this is why I wanted to curve my whale shark so I could see both of its eyes. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to put a little dot close to the corner of each side and to give it a little bit more depth, I'm going to also put a little curve line on the outside just to make them pop out a little bit more.
And now our final thing we need to add is its mouth. And we can see here that we saw that its mouth is huge. So to draw it, I'm going to start by drawing a slightly curve line underneath the front of its face. I'm going to start at one eye and I'm going to end at the other eye.
Meaghan Cuddy:
That looks great, Katie. I love its eyes. They're like, whoa.
Katie Derloshon:
I know, right, and there is our whale shark. Very cool. [inaudible 00:37:17] So great job, everyone. And thank you Meaghan, Lara for sharing a little bit about this whale shark. Actually a lot about this whale shark. So that was a lot of fun drawing alongside everyone at home. And one very important thing that we did not do yet though was color in our whale shark.
So Meaghan, can you tell us a little bit about what colors we could use or what patterns we should color on our whale shark? And let's all get a good look together at a picture for some inspiration of a whale shark while we learn about it?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Definitely. And these whale sharks have some of the coolest color patterns I think that I've ever seen. And clearly a lot of you noticed it right away at home that they have this really interesting pattern. So they're a dark blue color and they have light speckles and stripes all over their body.
And this is a special kind of camouflage, actually. It helps the whale shark camouflage in the open ocean because it breaks up the outline of the whale shark's body and this color pattern we also see on animals like cheetahs with their spots and zebras with their stripes.
It's the same idea. And on whale sharks, this is really important also because their spots are like freckles on people. Every single whale shark has its own pattern and scientists can use the pattern to identify individual whale sharks and know who is who.
Katie Derloshon:
Very cool. Now did you say what color its body is besides the spots? Did you say it was blue? Is it black?
Meaghan Cuddy:
[inaudible 00:38:45] No, it is a dark blue and it does have a light bottom, a light stomach, which I noticed someone had mentioned in the Q and A as well. And that's a very common color pattern in the ocean, dark on top and light on the bottom. And we call that countershading.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, so I'm going to shade it in a little bit dark blue here, and I can finish color it in in a little bit. And I agree their patterns are really neat. It was actually fun drawing the little spots all over it. And I know that we all had a lot of fun coloring in and adding color to our whale shark that we made for our mural together.
So here's a picture of the whale shark that we made. So Meaghan and Christian did a great job of adding color and patterns to our whale shark and families at home you can keep coloring your whale shark too. But now that we've learned a lot about this one shark species, I have a question that maybe some of our folks can answer at home too.
We are wondering why are sharks so important? Is it because they're part of the food web? Is it because they've been on Earth for a really long time. They help maintain balance in the ocean because they're super cool? Or is it for another reason? You can share with us in the Q and A if you have any other reasons that you think that sharks in general are important.
Lara Noren:
I know I have a couple of opinions on this, so I can't wait to share with all of you once we get an idea of what you all are thinking. And I would also love to know maybe if people have a favorite shark that isn't the whale shark too, that would be fun to share. If you just want to let us know.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, these answers are coming in and it looks like every answer has at least one vote for it. So that's pretty cool. And Sophie likes the hammerhead. Stella likes the nurse shark, so we know some other sharks.
Meaghan Cuddy:
I love nurse sharks. They're my favorite shark.
Lara Noren:
I've always heard they're like the puppy dogs of the sea.
Meaghan Cuddy:
I know. They're so sweet. And if you swim up to them, they're just like, What's going on? Hi. I'm a nurse shark. I hope you're having a good day.
Lara Noren:
A lot of times you can find them on coral reefs and sometimes they'll lay under the coral. They'll just do do and take a little nap underneath and you'll look under the coral and they'll just be there snoozing. Not a bad life for a nurse shark.
Katie Derloshon:
Not a bad life. All right, let's go ahead and in this poll and let's share the results and see what our families at home are thinking, Lara.
Lara Noren:
All right, so it looks like a lot of people are saying that they maintain a balance in the ocean, but every single answer got a lot of representation. People chose a lot of these, which is really great because I have to say, this is a trick question. They're all true. Sharks are a super important part of the food web.
They're also very, very old, about 450 million years old to be exact. And this is just my opinion, but super cool also. So I agree with that answer, but I want to focus in on one of these answers here and talk about how important sharks are in the ocean for the ocean. Here are some more species of sharks that you can find in the Galapagos, like the silky shark and the black-tip reef shark and sharks are such an important part of this ocean ecosystem because they're top predators.
We know that when there are a lot of sharks in the ocean, that means that the ocean is really healthy. And those sharks, they control those larger fish populations. And if those larger fish populations aren't controlled, that means that it might have a spill down effect and it might impact a lot of the smaller animals that we can see on this lower level. So these sharks are really important for maintaining the balance of our food web. So we definitely need to keep them around.
Katie Derloshon:
I agree, sharks are very important to the health of the ocean and our planet. And I also think, Lara, that they're just super cool. So let's keep them around, right? All right, so Meaghan and Lara, thank you so much for sharing with us all about the whale shark. And now that we've finished drawing our whale shark, we want to encourage you and your family to continue to add and create your mural together.
We as a Natural Museum of Natural History family had a lot of fun creating our mural to show you. So we all added at least one more living creature that we knew lived or that we learned lived in the Galapagos Islands. And then we took turns actually coloring in each other's drawing. So it was a lot of fun. And we can't wait to see your murals too.
And don't forget to get creative in adding those species in because as you might remember, the Galapagos Islands have lots of different types of animals that live there. And here actually some of those creatures that we decided to add to our mural, you can see here's some of those images on the left and our mural again on the right.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah. So Katie, I chose to add a green sea turtle to our mural because there's lots of different sea turtles that live in the Galapagos, and I thought it would be a fun friend for our whale shark.
Lara Noren:
Yeah and I added a marine iguana, you can see right next to our volcano landline right there. That little green squiggly thing is a marine iguana, and they are so cool and awesome and weird looking when they swim. And I thought that had to be a necessity for our mural.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah and we also had to add another shark because remember, there are lots of types of sharks at the Galapagos Island, so we chose to add in the scalloped hammerhead, too. All right, that was a lot of fun working on that mural with both of you and Christian too.
So while everyone at home is adding some more creatures or thinking about what creatures they might want to add to their mural, Meaghan and Lara, I have a few more questions for you. So first, why is there so much biodiversity at the Galapagos Islands?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, there's so much biodiversity because it is located in a very unique place. The Galapagos Islands are located at an ocean upwelling site, an upwelling is an oceanography term, big fancy science ocean word. But basically all it is, is when cold deep ocean water is pushed to the surface of the ocean and that water, it contains a lot of oxygen and nutrients and minerals, which means lots of phytoplankton are able to grow. And these tiny phytoplankton feed fish, which in turn brings large predators like sharks and other species to the area.
Katie Derloshon:
Okay, so this upwelling allows plants to grow that are the base of the food web, and then these plants feed the smaller fish, which then bring in the bigger fish, which leads into some biodiversity.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, definitely. It's that whole food web idea coming back again. And for a lot of migratory marine species, places like the Galapagos Islands are like gas stations where they can fuel up for their journey across the ocean. And because of all of this biodiversity and work being done to protect it, the Galapagos are called a Hope Spot.
Katie Derloshon:
That's really cool. So let's return to our mural drawing real quick. And I'm going to go to the one that doesn't have the little whale shark on it, my original one where I was showing you the land. And let's draw in those upwelling lines just so we can remember this ocean term as well as remember what it does. So I'm going to add those lines at the bottom of the water and I'm going to have them coming up. Is that about right like this, Lara?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, that looks awesome, Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. And you also mentioned Hope Spots. What is a Hope Spot?
Meaghan Cuddy:
So Katie, a Hope Spot is an important place, and these Hope Spots are all over the world. They've been identified by the Mission Blue organization as places that are critical to the health of our ocean. And they're also places where people are working really hard to protect marine life and keep it safe. And in the Galapagos, most of the land and the surrounding ocean is actually part of a national park and a marine reserve, which means that it's protected from harmful human activities and things like fishing.
Katie Derloshon:
So what else are we doing to protect or conserve biodiversity of the ocean, especially for the sharks?
Lara Noren:
Well, some of these sharks live in the Galapagos all year round, but many of them, like the whale sharks, they like to migrate. So they like to move to all different types of places in the ocean. And that means that once they leave the Galapagos, they are leaving a place where they are protected from fishing and other human activities that might be harmful to them.
Katie Derloshon:
Oh no. So are people doing anything to protect the sharks once they leave the Galapagos islands?
Lara Noren:
So there's this ... thing it's called a swimway, and that would create a protected corridor that would protect sharks as they migrate between the Galapagos and the Cocos Islands off the coast of Costa Rica, another place that they like to visit during the year. And creating these corridors or these pathways for safe travel that are protected from fishing is a really important part of keeping the shark populations happy and healthy.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah and one last really important piece of this is understanding where these sharks are going so we know where we need to protect them and where we need to make these swimways. So all over the world, researchers are tracking sharks to see where they go. And that's something that our scientists at the Smithsonian are doing too.
So researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland are tracking sharks that live in the Chesapeake Bay. And in 2018, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama actually tracked a female whale shark on her whole migration for 12,000 miles, which is the longest whale shark migration that was ever recorded.
Katie Derloshon:
That's incredible. Wow. Okay. And Meaghan, thanks for sharing that. But whale sharks aren't the only animals that migrate on our planet, right? There are other animals.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, there's a lot.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah and families, if you'd like to learn about even more animals and their animal migration paths or how they migrate, you can tune into another program on Tuesday, June 8th at two o'clock where Meaghan will be talking to Smithsonian scientists about seabird migrations.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, it's going to be really fun. And we are celebrating World Ocean Day all week next week. So you can also join us for our programs about deep sea octopuses and the Arctic, and even how fish swim, and it's going to be really fun.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. I'm personally excited for all four of these programs and we hope that you'll also join us here again at Natural History at Home next month. We had so much fun with you this month having Meaghan and Lara, and next month we'll be welcoming back museum technician Ingrid Rochon to learn about the rainforest canopy and some animals that are uniquely adapted to live there.
So Ingrid shared with us all about the platypus and its habitat in September of last year, and I'm super excited to see what animals she's going to bring with her to talk about next month. So we hope to see you all there. And though if you would like to continue your World Ocean Day celebration next weekend, you can join Odalys for a special Historia Natural en Casa as she works with a scientist and a dance artist to learn about how different fish move and even use some movements to create some dances inspired by fish.
And we also hope that you'll share with us some of your murals that celebrate the biodiversity found in the marine habitat of the Galapagos Islands. So today we looked at the whale shark, but we also learned that there are so many other animals and plants that are found there too. So Lara, Meaghan, Christian and I all had fun working together as a work family creating our mural, and we can't wait to see your murals too.
So please send them to our family programs email at nmnh-familyprograms@si.edu. We can't wait to see them. And Meaghan and Lara, I cannot wait to share them with you. And as we wrap up our program, and before we start the Q and A, we do want to give a special big thanks again to Meaghan and Lara and Aaron for joining us today. Caregivers, there will be a short survey for you to fill out.
So please take a few minutes to complete it using the link that will be in the browser window after we close the webinar. We are excited to hear your feedback as we continue to bring meaningful family programming to you and your family. So thank you again for joining us and we look forward to seeing you online again in the future. But if you can stick around, we have a few minutes for some questions and answers with Meaghan and Lara. So Meaghan and Lara, can I ask you a few questions from our families at home?
Lara Noren:
Yes. I love that idea.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, so let me go over to the Q and A and see what we have. Okay, so-
Lara Noren:
I have a question as well that I think would be very important to answer. One of the questions that we got was, are these animals fast? Do they move around through the ocean at rapid paces, like the Flash?
The Answer is no. They are so slow. They travel about three miles per hour. They are not a fast moving species at all. So I thought that that was a nice fact to share with all of you.
Katie Derloshon:
So they're really big. They have really big fins that help them to move around, but they don't help them to move very fast.
Lara Noren:
They go so slow, Katie.
Katie Derloshon:
That's all right.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Katie, we got a lot of questions about how these whale sharks reproduce. So do they lay eggs? Are they mammals? How many babies do they have? And these whale sharks are what we call ovoviviparous. That means that they produce eggs, but they don't lay them. So they produce eggs and the baby whale sharks actually hatch inside the mom. And then mom whale shark gives birth to live baby sharks, which is pretty common in sharks, but definitely not normal for mammals and people.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow. So the sharks are born live, but they hatch inside their mother?
Meaghan Cuddy:
They come from an egg, but they're born live.
Katie Derloshon:
Wow. How long are they alive in their mother after they hatch? Or does it happen quickly or do they hatch right out of their egg and then are they-
Meaghan Cuddy:
Actually I don't know the answer to that. I'm not sure. Lara do you know?
Lara Noren:
I am not sure either. But that is a really great question, Katie, and that is something that I'm now very curious about. I'm going to have to do some research on my own to learn more about that.
Katie Derloshon:
Just sounds interesting because I'm wondering what are those little baby whale sharks doing after they hatch?
Meaghan Cuddy:
They're very mysterious. Whale sharks are still very mysterious animals and we don't know a lot about them still.
Katie Derloshon:
All right, excellent. So yeah, thanks. There were a lot of questions actually about that. Let's see. There was one fish ... Or let's see, wait a minute. I'm going back to our questions here. Let's see which ones.
Hammerhead sharks. We were getting a question about their shape of their head is so different than other types of sharks. So do we know why it has it or if it has other adaptations as to why it might have that shape of a head? Do they use it for hunting in a different way or we have a question about electromagnetism to hunt maybe?
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah, so hammerhead sharks are adapted to have this very specific type of head and their eyes are on the very of that hammerhead. So that's one of the reasons that their head is shaped that way. It helps them see. But almost all sharks, I think all sharks use electromagnetism to hunt, which means they can sense electric fields on our planet.
They have special organs called the ampullae of Lorenzini, which is a very fun name and that helps them sense things moving in the sand and little animals that they might want to eat and helps them find things. Hammerheads, use it to hunt stingrays, which burrow into the sand and they can sense where the stingrays are.
Lara Noren:
That's basically like having a metal detector in your face. The metal is everything.
Meaghan Cuddy:
The metal is everywhere.
Katie Derloshon:
All right. Let's see. Do whale sharks have any predators that aren't humans or are humans their predator? Or what predators do they have because they're so big, right?
Lara Noren:
Right.
Katie Derloshon:
Do they have any predators?
Lara Noren:
So when they are their full giant school-bus size, they don't really have that many predators. But as they are growing up and as they are moving from baby whale shark to adult whale shark, they definitely have to interact with some predators. And those are things like other sharks.
And Meaghan, I don't know if you have any more of specifics on that, but I know that in the juvenile and the baby stage, they definitely have to think about who is going to try and eat them.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Yeah so those younger sharks probably have some predators, but once you get as big as an adult whale shark, they're not going to have to worry so much about predation.
Katie Derloshon:
We have an interesting food question or question related to eating or their feed. How do filter feeder fish keep their filters clean? Do they have to brush? We would brush our teeth, right. What does the whale shark do with its filters?
Meaghan Cuddy:
That's a really great question. Yeah, so there are no toothbrushes, unfortunately. There's no CVS in the Galapagos ocean area. So these filter pads are self cleaning. So they're specifically adapted for whale sharks to filter things so they don't get dirty, like we would imagine dirty.
But there are also little fish that are called cleaner fish that will come into the mouths of large animals in the ocean and eat any remaining little bits and pieces and scrub them up. And Lara, if you want to talk a little more about that, maybe you know some more about it too.
Lara Noren:
I think that just about covered it, Meaghan. I think you did a great job.
Katie Derloshon:
In some of those pictures that we saw of the whale shark, it looked like there were other little fish that were either under it or near its face. Are those some of those examples that might eat some of the remainder stuff?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, definitely. So a lot of sharks have a relationship with animals called remoras, which are fish. But they are super interesting, because basically they have a suction cup on their head, these remora fish, and they attach to the whale shark and that's going to be beneficial for the whale shark and for the remora.
The whale shark is going to have a free cleaning service. That remora is going to eat all the parasites that are trying to attach to this whale shark. And the remora is going to have a benefit because it's going to have a free snack and a free ride through the ocean. So it's pretty great for both parties.
Katie Derloshon:
That does sound like a lot of fun to learn more about. I'd never heard of this relationship between the whale shark and remora. That's so neat. Thanks for sharing.
Lara Noren:
They're buddies.
Katie Derloshon:
Yeah and I think we have time for one more question and this one's about Hope Spots. So let's wrap up with this question to bring it back to our theme of Ocean Week, talking about these Hope Spots. Why are there not more Hope Spots off of Alaska?
Meaghan Cuddy:
What an interesting question. So one Alaska's a very important place for the ocean. There's lots of biodiversity is in the Arctic, and so I don't actually know why there are no Hope Spots there. They do have to be nominated.
So people who work in these areas and to have conservation programs and science programs and education programs, they nominate their area for a Hope Spot. But there are Hope Spots in the Arctic. The central Arctic is a Hope Spot and that's because it's a place where climate change is really impacting the ocean. So we definitely need to be protecting it. But maybe you can do a little research on Hope Spots at home and find a Hope Spot that you think should be nominated.
Lara Noren:
Yeah, I think that is such a cool part of this is that it's really communities coming together and saying, this is important. This means something to me and I want to do my part to protect it and have a conversation with places all over the world that are doing the exact same thing. So it's just really awesome.
Katie Derloshon:
That does sound like a good thing to think about and maybe even potentially see what other places might be. Great Hope Spot candidates, right?
Lara Noren:
Yeah, definitely.
Katie Derloshon:
Well, thank you again, families at home for joining us today. And thank you again, Meaghan, Lara and Aaron for joining us today and helping to facilitate this program. It was so much fun having you all three here with us and all of your families at home joining us today. And we hope that you can join us here again soon at Natural History At Home. Thanks everyone.
Meaghan Cuddy:
Bye everyone. Thank you for joining us.
