12. Read the text and fill in the words: extinction, population, conservation, areas, coast, krill, solution, breeding, theories. Southern right whales again in trouble?

Southern right whales were once mercilessly hunted, in fact in the first half of the 19th century whale hunters have killed close to 50,000 southern right whales, and they were on the brink of _________before they become listed as endangered in 1937. Thanks to ________ efforts their numbers have significantly recovered, and according to the most recent numbers there are 7,500 southern right whales remaining inhabiting ______ around South America, South Africa, Australia, and some islands.

But new problem is arising, namely the increased calf mortality. In the past five years in the waters off Argentina's Patagonian ______, which is one of the most important _______ grounds for southern whales close to 300 young calves were found dead.

Scientists still try to determine the possible reasons for these deaths and there are different ______ involved: possible reasons include biotoxins - naturally occurring poisons - disease, environmental factors, lack of prey, particularly the tiny ______ that make up the bulk of the southern right whale's diet. There is also the theory that blames the effect of gulls, which can act like parasites, gouging skin and blubber from the whales' backs.

Scientists realize that they need to examine all the possible causes for these deaths and find the adequate _______ that would stop further calf deaths.

Particularly worrying is the fact that many young dead whales have been found around the Peninsula Valdes in the province of Chubut, where approximately one third of the global _______ of southern right whales is thought to use the protected bays for calving and nursing between June and December.

This mystery needs to be solved as soon as possible or we could see a sudden decrease in southern right whale population. Southern right whales are ones of the largest animals in the world, when fully grown they weigh up to 90 tonnes.

Southern right whales – южный кит

Calf – детеныш

Breeding ground - место размножения

Prey – кормовой, пищевой объект

13. Read the text and answer the questions.

Endangered species – Whales

Whales belong to cetaceans together with dolphins, but they're usually much bigger than the dolphins. There are more than 70 species of whales and dolphins and the largest whale in existence is the Blue Whale, being also the largest known mammal that has ever lived, and the largest living animal, at up to 35 m (105ft) long and 150 tons. Whales live for 40 to 200 years, depending on species although there aren't many whales over 100 years. Their communication is fascinating because they communicate with each other using lyrical sounds which are extremely loud because of their size and female whales are giving birth to a single calf.

But many species, especially the large ones are endangered because of the commercial whaling, which took place during the 19th and the early 20th century. These large creatures have been hunted for oil, meat, baleen and ambergris (a perfume ingredient from the intestine of sperm whales).During the 19th century, whales were hunted primarily for oil and baleen, especially because before the electricity, many American homes were lighted with whale oil.

Whaling and other threats have led to at least 5 of the 13 great whales being listed as endangered and thankfully Commercial whaling is subject to a moratorium by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) but some countries are still legitimately hunting whales like for instance Norway, Iceland, Japan and Canada.There are at this moment seven species of whales in U.S. waters that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. These are the blue whale, the bowhead whale, the fin whale, the humpback whale, the northern light whale, the sea whale and the sperm whale. All seven species are listed as endangered. Luckily there are also some positive things happening as well, especially in the grey whale population that has recovered so well that is removed from the endangered species' list.

But for some other species it will take even more than one century to recover assuming there won't be further whaling so there's lot of uncertainties here. We can only hope for the best. It would be a real shame and disaster if these giants would disappear from the face of the Earth but unfortunately knowing humanity this isn't just some unreal possibility.