Kelise Hilliard, Public School # 20
Hudson County
Second Place, Hudson County, Humpback Whale (c) Kelise Hilliard
Humpback Whale
Hello my name is Jack and I'm a Humpback Whale. We whales are not harmful to people so I don't know why they treat us like garbage. We don't even do anything wrong. Yet, we are endangered because of hunting and loss of our habitat.
Well let me tell you a little something about myself. I have a brother named Jacob and a little sister named Jennifer and let's not forget my father Mike and my mother Alison. We are really kind to people. Even though we smell like sweaty dogs we still are kind to people. Did you know that we could grow up to 13-15 feet long at birth? We weigh about 1500 pounds at birth too. There's one more thing about us Humpback Whales and that is that we have 270-400 baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Isn't that AMAZING?! The color of our skin is black
above with a highly variable white, black or mottled below. We whales make one of the longest migrations of any mammal. We can even perform tricks. Have you heard about sky hopping? It is when we go to the top of the water and stick head out like we are spying on someone. It's awesome to see. We enjoy playing around like that.
So you might be asking why we are endangered or how is our habitat being destroyed. I will tell you because there are many reasons. Fishermen like to throw their nets into the water to catch their fish. Sometimes we swim into those nets and get tangled. Most of the time, we are unable to get out and would die. Then there are the ships that sail in our habitat. These ships can hit and injure us, sometimes killing us. Please tell the people to be more careful of our habitat. We don’t mind sharing the waters but you have to know we are swimming about too.
Written By: Kelise Hilliard
PS #20, Jersey City,NJ
Teacher: Erica Redmond