Derp

Sorry guys, I didn't do my research when writing the last chapter.

As a few have pointed out, it seems an Orca whale not only doesn't eat plankton, but is actually a crazy killer whale. Which kind of puts a wrench in the tone I was trying to set it in (as the whale is supposed to be unaware and docile at the time).

As such, the whale as been renamed to just a generic baleen whale.

Crowley - with the power to retcon "your" own childhoods!

Comments

[Luckysweep]

It was a baleen? I could have sworn it was it an Orca.

[Tarox]

Hehehehe ya that's a pretty big difference. Orca had me thinking 'I' was lucky to survive, no wonder 'I'm' terrified.

[Georg]

If it's good enough for Stan Lee, it's good enough for all of us.

[Crescent Wrench]

Yeah, an Orca is a killer whale... name kind of says it all... heh...

[CobaltMasquerade]

Why not just make it a Whale shark then? most people think it's a whale but it's acually a slow moving filter feeding shark and apparently the largest extant fish species....but then again it's your story so you do what you will.

[PacotheTac0]

Killer whales are not actually insanely aggressive. They can be, and have been in some situations, but they don't have a KoS humans (ponies) policy. So they can be pretty docile. "Killer Whale" is almost a misnomer.

[Dan]

1823906

They're in the dolphin family, so I hate it when people call them killer whales.

However, they're also sometimes called "whale killers" which they have been known to be. That's cool.

[593322]

Why not a whale shark?

They are certinaly big enough: hale sharks have a mouth that can be 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) wide. Its mouth contains between 300 to 350 rows of tiny teeth and 10 filter pads which they use to filter feed.[9] Whale sharks have five large pairs of gills. Their head is wide and flat with two small eyes at the front. Whale sharks are grey with a white belly. Their skin is marked with pale yellow spots and stripes which are unique to each individual. The whale shark has three prominent ridges along its sides. Its skin can be up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) thick. The shark has a pair of dorsal fins and pectoral fins. Juveniles' tails have a larger upper fin than lower fin, while the adult tail becomes semi-lunate (crescent-shaped). The whale shark's spiracles are just behind its eyes.
Photograph of captive whale shark in aquarium
Whale shark in main tank at Osaka Aquarium

The whale shark is the largest non-cetacean animal in the world. The average size of adult whale sharks is estimated at 9.7 metres (31.82 ft) and 9 tonnes (20,000 lb).[10] The largest verified specimen was caught on 11 November 1947, near Baba Island, in Karachi, Pakistan. It was 12.65 metres (41.50 ft) long, weighed more than 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb), and had a girth of 7 metres (23.0 ft).[10] Stories exist of vastly larger specimens – quoted lengths of 18 metres (59 ft) and 45.5 tonnes (100,000 lb) are not uncommon in the popular shark literature – but no scientific records support their existence. In 1868 the Irish natural scientist Edward Perceval Wright obtained several small whale shark specimens in the Seychelles, but claimed to have observed specimens in excess of 15 metres (49.2 ft), and tells of reports of specimens surpassing 21 metres (68.9 ft).

In a 1925 publication, Hugh M. Smith described a huge animal caught in a bamboo fish trap in Thailand in 1919. The shark was too heavy to pull ashore, but Smith estimated that the shark was at least 17 metres (56 ft) long, and weighed approximately 37 tonnes (82,000 lb). These measurements have been exaggerated to 43 tonnes (95,000 lb) and a more precise 17.98 metres (58.99 ft) in recent years. A shark caught in 1994 off Tainan County, southern Taiwan reportedly weighed 35.8 tonnes (79,000 lb).[11] There have even been claims of whale sharks of up to 23 metres (75 ft) and 100 tonnes (220,000 lb). In 1934 a ship named the Maurguani came across a whale shark in the Southern Pacific Ocean, rammed it, and the shark became stuck on the prow of the ship, supposedly with 4.6 metres (15.1 ft) on one side and 12.2 metres (40.0 ft) on the other.[12] No reliable documentation exists for these claims and they remain "fish stories".

The whale shark is a filter feeder that feeds on macro-algae, plankton, krill, Christmas Island red crab larvae and small nektonic life such as small squid or vertebrates. It also feeds on small fish and the clouds of eggs and sperm during mass spawning of fish shoals. The many rows of vestigial teeth play no role in feeding. Feeding occurs either by ram filtration, in which the animal opens its mouth and swims forward, pushing water and food into the mouth, or by active suction feeding, in which the animal opens and closes its mouth, sucking in volumes of water that are then expelled through the gills. In both cases, the filter pads serve to separate food from water. These unique, black sieve-like structures are presumed to be modified gill rakers. Food separation in whale sharks is by cross-flow filtration, in which the water travels nearly parallel to the filter pad surface, not perpendicularly through it, before passing to the outside, while denser food particles continue to the back of the throat. This is an extremely efficient filtration method that minimises fouling of the filter pad surface. Whale sharks have been observed "coughing" and it is presumed that this is a method of clearing a build-up of particles from the filter pads. Whale sharks migrate to feed and possibly to breed.

and since it looks like this : thebaumfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/WhaleShark_snorkeler_1.jpg

, it makes sense for our protagonist to be scared of them.

[Shpoople96]

Orca, huh? Yeah...

[Kagitaar]

I'd agree that whale shark would be the scariest of the mostly harmless large sea animals (mostly harmless because anything bigger than you can kill you by accident).

[Whirring Gears]

Crowley - with the power to retcon "your" own childhoods!

I would pay so much money for your services.

[Sneaky]

An orca actually isn't a whale at all. It's more related to dolphins.

Seriously, I'm not even joking. Its name really should be 'whale killer,' because that's what it tends to do.