Chapter 698 Trapped Whale
A huge jet of air sounded over the vast ice field. Bifang pulled the reins, stopping the three idiots from moving forward.
The audience was also startled by the sudden noise and asked what it was.
【What sound? 】
What is that?
【Something exploded?】
Bifang rolled up the musk ox skin, got off the sled, stood on the ice, and looked into the distance. Under the faint starlight, he watched the water column spraying out again, as if something was constantly rising and falling, and he had vague guesses in his heart.
“It looks like a whale.”
whale!?
The viewers were shocked. The drone was flying much higher than the Bifang. Theoretically, they could see farther than the Bifang. But when they looked further away, all they saw was glaciers. How could a whale appear and spray water?
How do they spray out?
"We'll know when we go over and take a look." Bifang stepped back onto the sled, pulled the reins, adjusted the direction, and headed towards the direction of the water jet.
As the distance got closer, the audience finally saw through the drone in the air that on the vast ice field, there was a huge ice hole that had appeared at some point in time. The sea water was surging inside, and inside the ice hole, a giant beast was constantly rising and falling, spewing out columns of water.
【It’s a whale!!!】
【How did the whale get here? 】
[There are whales in Greenland, do you think? ]
[Wait, there seems to be more than one whale! ]
【Two ends! There are two ends! 】
"No, it's three heads."
Bifang drove the sled to the cave and finally saw what the huge monster under the heaving sea water was.
It is over ten meters long, grey in color with white spots all over, and its skin is bumpy and looks very mottled.
[What kind of whale is this? A blue whale? ]
[I don’t think so. Didn’t Lao Fang encounter this once? It feels a little different from the blue whale.]
"These are three gray whales. They appear to be a family."
Bifang, who was squatting beside the ice cave, gave the answer directly, and the audience was stunned.
【A family? 】
I can't recognize what kind of whale this is.
[So big, this is too big ]
To those who don’t know much, each large whale seems to look pretty much the same, but to those who are a little more professional, each whale has significant differences.
"Gray whales are between 10 and 15 meters long and weigh more than 30 tons. They are gray, dark gray or blue-gray with white spots, and their belly is lighter in color."
"See the bumps on their backs?" Bifang pointed to the back of the gray whale that had just surfaced and said, "Those are mainly scars left by scratches from rocks or gravel, as well as parasites such as barnacles. That's why some people call it the 'gray rock shore swimmer.'"
The mottled skin was not a good look and most of the audience had goose bumps to varying degrees.
Bifang went on to point out some unique characteristics of gray whales.
"In addition to these, the gray whale has many other characteristics that are not unique, but all of them are unique, such as its eyes are oval, located behind the corners of the mouth, higher than the eyes of other baleen whales, and the upper eyelids are slightly longer."
"The ear holes are large, big enough to fit a pencil through, and are located between the eyes and the base of the flippers."
"The baleen is light yellow, with about 140 to 180 pieces on each side, and a length of 40 to 50 centimeters. The baleen plates are thick, the hairs are rough, and the entire baleen plate gives people a heavy feeling."
"It also has a thick and fat body, especially near the flippers. Although it has no dorsal fin, its back is exposed, and you can see 8 to 15 small hump-like ridges on the back of the tail."
"And gray whales don't have grooves. Emmm, everyone knows about Thanos, right?" Bifang said suddenly, stroking his chin.
[I know, it’s purple sweet potato essence]
[Why is it related to Thanos? 】
"Yes, Thanos' chin is somewhat similar to the whale's folds, which gray whales do not have. Some people believe that the function of the folds is to help the chest cavity expand or contract when the animal breathes, and to increase the capacity of the mouth when eating. Gray whales are the most primitive shallow-water type of existing baleen whales, so their folds are not as developed as those of other baleen whales."
As if it saw the arrival of Bifang, the gray whale surfaced for breath and let out a sad humming sound like crying, just like a human sigh, which continued to spread on the ice field, and sprayed a column of water towards the ice cave. It was more like an icicle than a water column.
The foggy water vapor instantly turned into frost after coming into contact with the extremely cold weather in the Arctic. Part of it fell into the ocean and dissolved, and the other part fell on the ice surface and continued to accumulate. Bifang stretched out his hand and touched it, and it was already one finger deep, which showed that the gray whale had been here for a long time.
"Gray whales have two blowholes, both located slightly behind the highest point of the snout. The front ends of the two holes are closer, about 7 centimeters, and the rear ends are slightly farther, about 21 centimeters. What we just saw and heard was the blowhole."
"Because there are two of them, the mist column sprayed by the gray whale is short and thick, with a flat top and very close to each other. So from the back, it looks like two mist columns very close to each other, and from the side, it looks like there is only one mist column. The two combined into one makes the water column more obvious, which is why we can see it easily."
If it weren't for such a thick column of fog, even with Bifang's eyesight, it would be difficult to notice it at once in the Arctic at night.
【I see】
[Wouldn't it be dangerous to stand nearby?]
[I feel sad when hearing the whale’s cry]
At this time, the audience was filled with confusion, especially when they saw the scar on the gray whale's head, they were even more confused. The whale looked like it was torturing itself.
"It's not that dangerous. I once encountered a blue whale when I was trying to survive in the ocean. I don't know if you still remember what I said before, that there are two major categories of whales."
"One is baleen whales. Baleen whales have no teeth and mainly eat crustaceans such as krill. In terms of personality, they are quite docile to humans. The other is toothed whales. They have sharp teeth and like to eat large squid, octopus and fish. They are relatively ferocious. Gray whales, like blue whales, are also a type of baleen whale."
But this still cannot solve the audience's confusion, why the gray whale is here and keeps rising and falling.
Although Bifang said that the skin on the gray whale's head was scraped like this by rocks or something , there are obviously many new wounds on the gray whale's head now. Any normal person can see it, and it is impossible for Fang Shen not to know about it.
"It's simple. They're trapped."
Trapped?
What's the meaning?
The audience became more and more confused as they listened.
Bifang stood up and looked at the vast ice field. He squinted his eyes and said, "There are at least several kilometers of ice fields around. Gray whales cannot break through the ice directly like bowhead whales. They cannot break through the ice to breathe and swim to the sea. They can only guard this hole and breathe continuously."
