Black and white illustration of a sperm whale on a white background.

Sperm whales are easily identified by their enormous heads, which make up approximately 1/3 of the whale’s body. With an average length of 52 feet and average weight of 40 tons, these giants of the ocean are larger than the average school bus and consume about one ton of fish and squid per day. Though still an endangered species, the sperm whale population is growing due to stricter regulations in the whaling industry. Arguably the most famous sperm whale in popular culture is the mythical albino nemesis of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick; Melville’s leviathan was actually based on a real sperm whale that attacked the whaling ship Essex in 1820. 

Black and white illustration of a sperm whale on a white background.

Sperm whales are easily identified by their enormous heads, which make up approximately 1/3 of the whale’s body. With an average length of 52 feet and average weight of 40 tons, these giants of the ocean are larger than the average school bus and consume about one ton of fish and squid per day. Though still an endangered species, the sperm whale population is growing due to stricter regulations in the whaling industry. Arguably the most famous sperm whale in popular culture is the mythical albino nemesis of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick; Melville’s leviathan was actually based on a real sperm whale that attacked the whaling ship Essex in 1820. 

Black and white illustration of an orca whale on a white background.

The Orca, known colloquially as the Killer Whale, is the largest member of the dolphin family. Orcas are considered to be one of the world’s most ferocious predators, subsisting on a diet of other marine mammals—seals, sea lions, and other species of whales—as well as fish, squid, and sometimes sea birds. Orcas are easily recognizable due to their distinctive black and white coloring, and are highly intelligent and cunning. They travel in pods of up to 40, and use echolocation to communicate and strategize when hunting. Orca pods are led by a dominant female, and scientists believe that each pod develops its own unique way of communicating, similar to a dialect. Orcas have not been hunted extensively, however populations in North America, Iceland, and Japan have dwindled significantly due to live capture for placement in marine parks and aquariums. 

Black and white illustration of a grey whale on a white background.

The Oakland Whale Center offered an “Adopt A Gray Whale Calf” program to provide an opportunity for children to learn more about the large ocean mammals that migrate up and down the Pacific coast, between the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska and Baja California, Mexico. For $25, adopters received a photo of a whale calf, an official adoption certificate, quarterly updates, and activity pages. Pacific gray whales were targets of extensive hunting in the 19th and early 20th centuries, causing the species to be nearly extinct by the 1920’s. Thanks to conservation efforts, Pacific gray whales are now a protected species; in 1994, they were removed from the endangered species list. 

The Oakland Whale Center was founded by Maxine McCloskey, Ronn Storro-Patterson, Tom Johnson, and other environmentalists concerned with whale issues. During its ten years of operation, the Whale Center was an active presence at meetings of the International Whaling Commission and other international marine mammal organizations. Though now defunct, many of the activities and conservation work carried out by the Oakland Whale Center have been taken on by the Marine Mammal Center of Marin County, California and the International Marine Mammal Project. This includes the Whalebus—a popular outreach program  that brings educational programming about whales and marine life to Bay Area school children.