Digestive system of humpback whales stretching like an accordion. They allow whales to open their mandible to 90 degrees to gulp water and prey. They expel saltwater through the baleen plates, leaving behind krill and plankton. The whale's tongue plays a vital role in filter feeding, as it is used to push the water out of its mouth while keeping the prey trapped in its baleen bristles. As humpback whales do not have teeth, their food is swallowed whole and travels down the esophagus into the preliminary stomach (known as the forestomach) to be ground. Baleen whales have a multi-chambered stomach, divided into three distinct
Baleen basketry after whaling ended and before the intensification of the North American fur trade. so this is one of the youngest basketry traditions in North America. Kinguktuk (1871–1941, also spelled "Kiŋaqtaq" in Iñupiaq; and his wife: "Qusraaq") is recognized as the first baleen basketmaker with his first pieces made between 1914 and 1918 in Barrow. He was perhaps the only baleen basketmaker as late as 1931. Today, most baleen basketmakers live in Point Hope, Alaska. Kinguktuk's early baskets were woven in the single-rod coiling of their willow-root prototypes, and already had starter pieces, the perforated ivory discs used to attach beginning