stories

A long time ago there were stories of sailorsthinking that a whale was land. So they got out of the boat andstepped onto the "land" and built a fire to cook on. They were reallysurprised when the whale got too hot and dove into the water.

The best known whale story is from the Bible. Itis about a man named Jonah who doesn't listen to God and runs away ona ship. A really bad storm came and all the sailors knew it wasJonah's fault so they threw him overboard.

Then he was swallowed by a whale. He was in thewhale for three days and nights. Finally the whale spat him up on thebeach. Then Jonah went Ninva and preached to them. And in the end thepeople came to know God, and God spared the city.

One of Aesop's fables was about a rabbit and aturtle. There is a Japanese folk tale very similar to the fable.Here's how it goes.

Once there was a great whale and a small but verysmart sea slug. The whale loved to brag. One day the whale challengedthe sea slug to a race. The race would be in three days.

The sea slug asked his friend sea slugs to go toevery finish line and wait. So the race began and the sea slugs juststood at the finish line while the whale was racing far ahead. Whenthe whale got to the finish line the sea slug's friends said " Youjust got here?" Then the whale had a race at another beach and thesea slug won again. This went on and on. Finally the whale gave up.He had been beat and never bragged again.

One day in a far away land a great black whalelived in peace. The whale was happy... until a school of fish ontheir way to class came by and said "Teacher, why doesn't that whalehave any color like us? The teacher then replied " He probably fellin a bucket of paint." The fish laughed all the way to school.

The whale's friend the otter felt sorry for thewhale and said " Whale, why don't you go to the white water?" Thewhale then answered " I would if I could." The otter didn't get it sothe whale explained.

" The evil sea god Peara was about to eat me for awhale sandwich, but I made a deal I would never go to the whitewaters."

The otter had an idea. Quickly, she went and founda bucket then swam to the white waters. The otter came back with abucket of white water. Then the otter accidentally spilled it at thevery same time the white water tides had gone back to the ArcticOcean.

Sara the good sea goddess saw what happened andmade the spilled white water fall on the whale. She named the blackwhale Orca, after her father Orcinus.

Peara the evil sea god heard of this and got mad.He made 10% of the whales' seven offspring smaller and brownishblack. That was how the killer whale and the false killer whales cameto be.

Omu wants to find out how to make beautiful whalebone carvings. He also wants to find inspiration on his harp. Hefinds that inspiration when he stands beside a dying killerwhale.

This story tells about an Indian totem pole thattells the story of how Thunder Bird punishes a whale for chasingsalmon and scaring frogs.

The three investigators try to find a kidnappedwhale, but they end up looking for buried treasure!

Tony sees beached whale following each other toland. So the scientist tries to find out why there doing this.

A baby whale disobeys his mother and goes up tothe surface to see a human boy and becomes stranded.

Amos is a mouse and Borris is a huge whale. Theyhave one thing in common, they're mammals.They end up saving eachother.

Maude and Claude are going to France when theyfall out of the boat. They meet a whale being chased by harpoons.They try to save the whale.

INTRODUCTION| | THE ORCA'SBODY | | ECHOLOCATION

THE ORCA'SSIZE | | WHAT THEY EAT| | WHERE THEYLIVE

MOTHERS &BABIES | | SEA SHOW| | INTERESTINGFACTS

FAMOUSORCAS | | WHALING || BOOKS &STORIES

CREDITS

BACK.................NEXT

This site has been developed by studentsfor

ThinkQuestJunior '98