Blue Whales, Red Poop - Asha de Vos

When blue whale biologist Asha de Vos found red floating clods of poop in the Indian Ocean, she became curious. She immediately assumed the world's largest animals were mating, because the warm tropical waters typically are too warm for blue whales' favorite foods. But as it turned out, they had found enough krill to support something of a feeding frenzy. De Vos warns that despite the fact that there are about 10,000 blue whales around the world, the whales live in separate populations, each facing their own risks and difficulties of survival. Although blue whales aren't being actively targeted, the increase of global shipping puts the whales at risk of getting hit, because it's impossible for container ships to see or steer around the whales. De Vos explains that although it's assumed these collisions happen with some regularity, it's very difficult to accurately estimate how often whales are killed in this way.