Tahora with Year Four

Year 4 continued their SeaWeek studies today with a deep dive into the world of the whales that live in the Hauraki Gulf.  

We began by estimating 15 meters outside - that's the length of a Bryde's Whale. 

What do you already know about whales?

Archie "They are very big.  They holes that they breathe through and shoot out water. Some whales can eat the colossal squid."

What have you learnt about the whales that live in the Hauraki Gulf?

Timothy "Brydes whales like to go into a feeding frenzy to eat fish from the size of plankton to pilchards"

Riley "Bryde's whales are tahora nui"

Louie "When they eat food they drain all the water out"

Hector "They don't really mind what they eat"

Savannah "When they eat they spit the water out and eat the fish"

Alexander and Dihan "The whales like to feed to close to the dolphins and fish and birds"

Amandi "We're looking at Bryde's Whales"

Scarlett "They are 15metres long"

Tom "I didn't know there were Brydes whales in our ocean"

Max "Their teeth are made with the same stuff as our fingernails"

Bianca "Their noses are on top of their heads"

Irina "They are endangered"

Logan "They are endangered from boats"

Esther "The teeth are made out of carotene"

Paige "They put water in their mouth when they eat their food"

Kai "Brydes whales like to hang out in the Hauraki Gulf"

Boreer "I saw sea life and dolphins"

Kavishka "Some water comes out when they breathe"

Maicah "There are 200 Brydes Whales in the Hauraki Gulf"

Paige "Tahora is the Maori name for whale"

Ben "They are long and their tail goes down"

We sketched the Bryde's Whale

The shipping community has slowed down to protect the Bryde's whales.  What can we do?

Sammy & Jacob "Bring a litter free lunch"

Kai "Take your litter home"

Bianca "Use more paper than plastic"

Kybah "If you see rubbish pick it up"

Louie "Use reusable plastic"

Hector "Open the plastic at home and put the food in your lunchbox"

Charlie "Have a reusable lunchbox"

Logan "Write a letter to the Council to tell the sailors to slow down to 5 knots"

Erika "If you see plastic in the ocean take it out"

We took action by going on a litter hunt.  Sadly we found SO MUCH litter.  Most of it was plastic and most of it was food packets from lunchboxes. We estimated that we had collected 80 -100 pieces of litter in just 10 minutes. We then actually counted each piece and discovered we had collected ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO pieces of litter.  

PLEASE BRING A LITTER FREE LUNCH.