Baleen whales include humpback (in photos), gray, big blue, bowhead, and sperm whales. They are the only class of whales with an accordion-like structure, and it is crucial to their survival!

            They have large, pleated flaps of skin on their necks that expand when they eat. This unique design allows the whale to inhale as much water possible into its mouth. In the photo you can see the folded skin flaps on the neck of this humpback whale. Do you see them in the picture

            If you peeked inside at their upper jaw, you would see long bristly baleen plates made of keratin (our fingernails are made of keratin). This image you see is the upper mouth of a whale. The bowhead has the longest bristly plates! These plates can grow to a length from 1 foot, to over 11 feet in length and weigh as heavy as 200 pounds! That’s a lot of thick bristles!

            But why do they have flaps to make their mouths larger, and long bristly plates like this?

Lunge Feeding:

        Folded pleats on the whale’s throat allow them to open their mouths larger to “lunge feed”. The throat expands like a balloon to fill their mouths with as much water as they can to filter the tiny animals they want to eat. They tighten their neck flaps of skin and use their tongue to push the water through the baleen to filter out their tiny food. They can take in up to double their weight in water!

Baleen whales are equipped with these bristly “strainers” to catch their favorite of many foods: Krill! Krill are tiny plankton; they are only about the size of a larger paper clip about 2.5 inches in length so they will need millions of these little guys to survive if favoring these creatures exclusively!

  1 krill is only about 2 grams in weight (the weight of 2 paperclips!) Do some quick math and we figure out that it takes 226 krill to make only 1 pound of food and the big blue whale probably eats the most of all whales at about 8000  of food every day during the summer months! This means that your average whale must eat at least one million, eight hundred thousand krill every day! (1,808,000) They need tons at one time to satisfy their hunger! To do this, they must always do their best to feed in the areas with the most krill!

1. Folding is order:

       In the same way that the folds of an accordion were carefully purposed by hard work and serious planning, we can be assured that this was not a random chance incident that whales have special pleats that unfold.

Remember an account in the Bible where something else was folded on purpose?

        When Jesus was buried after his crucifixion, when he rose from the dead three days and nights later, they went into the empty tomb and found the grave clothes lying, but the napkin around his face was wrapped or folded in a place by itself! Most wouldn’t think that important.

        But a wrapped neatly or folded napkin sent a special message back then! When someone folded their napkin at a meal when they left, it told the servants that they would be returning and were not finished.

        When Jesus wrapped the napkin and put it in a place by itself, even if most people do not think that is extraordinary, we know that it is a sign telling us that Jesus is coming back soon! And that he will be returning to set everything right!

        It is incredible that even folds of a whale are important and intentional by our Designer! And he doesn’t miss anything! May we notice the little details in nature and remember how detailed our God really is and that everything has a purpose!

2. Enlarged to feed more!

        The whale being able to open its mouth wider so it can ingest more water and food, is a good reminder to us to expand our reading in the Word of God! As we are washed and fed by the Word of God. The more we ingest into our hearts, the more that it cleanses us, and we are helped by it! The more we tend to meditate on and read it, will determine how healthy we are spiritually!

     Just like the whale cannot live eating tiny amounts of little creatures, as God’s people we must take in lots of scripture to be successful in the Christian life!

                    REFERENCES:

• (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale)

• https://www.icr.org/article/organ-discovery-shows-why-whales-didnt

• https://www.icr.org/article/ways-that-whales-display-their-creator

• https://www.icr.org/article/clever-construction-rorqual-whales

• https://answersingenesis.org/aquatic-animals/isnt-the-whale-transitional-series-a-perfect-example-of-evolution/

• https://olympiccoast.noaa.gov/living/marinelife/mammals/specieslist/spp_humpback.html

• https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/quick-questions/what-do-blue-whales-eat.html

• https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2012/05/24/a-new-organ-discovered-in-baleen-whales/

• https://www.livescience.com/32780-whats-the-biggest-animal-in-the-world.html

• https://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/PDF/Ms.%20Blue's%20Measurements%20Summary.pdf