♪ ♪ From the wisp of a cloud ♪ ♪ to the seed of a song ♪ that talking to you, ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ telling you just ♪ how important ♪ ♪ it is to keep the ♪ earth growing strong.

♪ ♪ It's talking to you.

♪ ♪ Listen, ♪ ♪ pass it along.

♪ ♪ You got the message.

♪ ♪ Make it a part of ♪ this beautiful land.

♪ ♪ Pass it along, ♪ ♪ keep it healthy and strong.

♪ ♪ we've got to ♪ pass it along.

♪ (machine whirring) Lee> Charlie, how are you doing?

Charlie> Great.

How are you doing, Lee?

Lee> Just fine.

Charlie> Good to see you.

What's this?

Lee> I'm putting together an aquarium exhibit for the new nature center we're building.

Come inside.

I'll show you the construction plans.

Charlie> Great.

I'd love to see it.

Lee> It'll be passive solar, which means we'll use the sun for heat.

Although it won't generate electricity for us Here, This whole south wall will be... Charlie> Will be what, Lee?

Crescent> It's okay.

He can't see me.

Lee> Umm... Charlie> What's wrong, man?

Lee> Nothing.

I was just a little distracted there for a moment.

Charlie> Yeah.

This nature center's a very good idea.

I'd like to hear more about it.

Crescent> First, tell them about Ozzie Tollefson Lee> Ozzie Tollefson?

Charlie> What?

Who's Ozzie Tollefson?

Lee> Oh, he's...

He's... Crescent> He's a teacher and an actor.

He's really something.

Lee> He's a teacher, sort of.

Crescent> He uses drama to teach kids about the ocean and the animals in it.

Lee> Fish?

Charlie> What?

Crescent> No, whales and stuff.

Lee> Oh, he teaches kids about marine mammals, I guess Crescent> I'll show you.

Lee> No.

(magical chime) Lee> Oh, look, it's time for Ozzie's ocean.

♪ Ozzie> Well, my name is Ozzie And I'm traveling all around the east coast giving shows to nice guys like you.

I want to tell you now, it's okay to laugh when I do my boogie woogie stuff, okay?

I mean, I really want to hear you guys laugh today, and I'm really glad we had the kindergarten kids here.

Hi, you dudes and tootsies.

(laughing) Well, I hope you have a good time today, and I hope you are in a good mood.

Are you in a good mood, baby?

Children> Yeah!

Ozzie> Terrific.

Want to have some fun with me, okay, baby?

Children> Yeah!

Ozzie> Now, do you want a boring show?

Children> No!

Ozzie> You want a crazy, weird show?

Children> Yeah!

Ozzie> You got her, baby.

(laughing) ♪ Now, this is an eared seal.

Eared seals have a little ear that sticks out, and they are able to get their flippers back up underneath them.

Sea lions do that, as well.

Other seals cannot do that.

They have to drag their flippers behind.

Now, I guess you know that these guys are killed too.

Right?

They kill them to take their... Children> Fur.

Ozzie> To make fur... Children> Coats.

Ozzie> Right.

Do you know how they kill them?

That's pretty wicked, isn't it, (Children have several side comments) Ozzie> They take a big stick, don't they?

Big club?

They club them over the head.

They take the fur off, and they sell it to companies in Europe that make fur coats from that skin.

Can you imagine somebody clubbing this little ten day old baby fur harp seal?

They're pure white, except for this little black mask around the nose and around the eye.

They kill them before they're ten days old, then take that white fur and they use it for trimming on fur coats.

♪ Ozzie> Now, this is a model of a loggerhead.

Say it.

Children> Loggerhead.

Ozzie> Let's fill in some blanks.

In the water, she can swim very, Children> Fast.

Ozzie> But on the land, she's very, Children> Slow.

Ozzie> She spends most of her life in the, Children> Water.

Ozzie> But she comes up on the, Children> Sand.

Ozzie> Daytime?

Nighttime?

Children> Nighttime!

Ozzie>...to lay her, Children> Eggs.

Ozzie> She takes her flippers and digs a big pit for her body.

Then, she takes her back flipper, and she starts digging a, Children> Hole.

Ozzie> Hole.

She uses her flipper just like it was a... Children> Row.

Ozzie> Very good.

You guys are hot stuff.

Now, She backs over the hole and she starts to lay her eggs.

Now, she might lay... a loggerhead, might lay between 40 and 60 eggs in one shot.

Some sea turtles might lay even more than that, some up to 150 or 140.

Now she packs it down and she straightens up.

She's very good at housecleaning, you know.

Gets everything all organized and everything, you know, everything looks neat.

And then she goes back to the, Children> Sea.

Ozzie> But she leaves her tracks, doesn't she?

Right?

Children> Yes.

Ozzie> And for years people have followed those tracks, and they've dug up the eggs and they've used them in cooking, haven't they?

You can't eat loggerhead turtle meat, but you can eat the eggs.

Now, we're trying to teach people that you better not eat those eggs.

or you'll wipe out the loggerhead turtles.

♪ Ozzie> There's my sperm whale.

And he likes these kindergarten kids.

(Children laugh>) Ozzie> Well, boys and girls, if you take a look at this whale.

You'll see his long, strong jaw and his square head.

You'll know what kind of whale it is.

I might have already told you.

Raise a hand now, if you remember.

Yes, son.

Child #1> Sperm whale.

Ozzie> Say it.

Children> Sperm whale.

Ozzie> Now, he has a powerful jaw, and he needs that jaw when he eats.

And this guy eats squid.

(Children yell eww and laugh) Ozzie> Ewww.

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Well, maybe he doesn't like Fritos either, you know.

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Give this little guy a Frito corn chip, he'd probably go ewww.

Oh, he loves squid.

He really munches out on it.

Let me show you how he eats his squid.

I'll put on a little play for you.

Okay?

Let's pretend my hand is the squid hanging out down in the bottom of the ocean.

Duh, duh, duh, duh.

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Kind of a cool rock and roll squid.

(Children laugh) Here comes the sperm whale for his breakfast.

Okay.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Ah, here comes trouble.

(Children laugh) Ozzie> You know, I just thought of something that must be a problem for the whale.

Because they have to dive into deep water to get the squid.

And how about that water, kids?

Is it warm or cold?

Children> Cold.

Ozzie> It's almost freezing, isn't it?

So how the heck does he live in cold water?

Does he wear thermal underwear?

Children> No.

Does he wear underoos?

Children> No.

Ozzie> No, he doesn't wear anything.

But he has something.

Right?

A big thick layer of fat on the body.

Raise your hand if you know it starts with a B.

Yes, son.

Child #2> Blubber, Ozzie> So the blubber keeps the whale warm when he's in the water.

But you know, kids, blubber can also kill a whale.

Yeah.

That's right.

Think about it now.

Sometimes whales get too close to the beach.

They get stuck in the sand during a high tide.

And if whales get trapped or stranded on the beach, they're going to die, aren't they?

Huh?

And it's because of the blubber.

The blubber makes their body so hot, their flesh will actually begin to cook inside.

And after about two days, the lungs collapse and the whale dies.

So the whale needs the water.

They've never had trouble with any enemy until about a thousand years ago.

And then the whales' enemy started hunting them and still hunts them today.

It's not the shark or the killer whales.

They don't kill lots of whales.

The only enemy the whale has had to worry about is whom?

Children> Man Ozzie> And here's the point, kids.

We don't really need the whale products anymore because we have substitute products.

Okay?

There are 86 different kinds of whales and dolphins.

Hey, guess how many different kinds of whales and dolphins are there?

Children> 86.

Ozzie> 76 of them have teeth.

How many have teeth?

Children> 76.

Ozzie> Hot stuff.

How many don't have teeth.

Children> 10.

Ozzie> Very good.

Ten whales don't have teeth.

Let me check out this gal to see if she has teeth.

Okay?

Hey, what does the dentist always ask you to do?

Children> Open your mouth.

Ozzie> I'll try it out with you.

Here we go.

Open your mouth.

Come on, big girl.

Say, ah!

Ahhhh!

Let me check her out here, now.

What the heck?

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Wow!

(Children laugh) Ozzie> Guess what?

No teeth.

Absolutely.

They don't have anything at all, on the bottom of the mouth.

But they have something in place of teeth hanging down from the bottom.

They have these plastic like plates with little hairs or bristles hanging from them.

One name for it is whalebone.

The other name it starts with B raise your hand if you know.

Yes, son.

Child #3> Baleen.

Ozzie> Baleen.

You know you're whales, don't you?

Now let's check it out and see what it feels like.

Listen now.

(tapping) Ozzie> Hard or soft?

Children> Hard.

Ozzie> Okay.

Feel your thumbnails and fingernails.

See how hard that is?

Okay.

Your fingernails are made out of the same material as baleen.

You see, you're related to the whale.

Being a mammal, you have the same materials in your body.

Now, what is this?

Children> Comb.

Ozzie> Okay, see how the teeth hang down side by side?

Okay.

See the little space in between there?

Okay.

Now, would water run between them?

Children> Yes.

Ozzie> But how about food?

Children> No.

Ozzie> Food would get caught.

So, as she forces the water through there, she catches her food.

She doesn't chew it, she uses it to catch it.

And you know how much they'll eat in a day?

If she's, well, she's 100 feet long, she'll eat about 4 thousand pounds of kril each day.

That's like 16 thousand quarter pound hamburgers.

Lots of food.

Right?

Well, everything's big about the blue whale.

100 foot blue whale, you want to know how big the tongue is?

Okay, take a look at the seal there.

Okay.

Now, take a look at me.

100 foot blue whale.

is going to have a tongue as long as from me to the seal.

It weighs as much as an average sized elephant.

Hundred foot whale, that would have a tongue as wide as this stage.

The heart?

Let's talk about that.

The heart of 100 foot whale is the size of a Volkswagen Rabbit.

It pumps almost 4 thousand gallons of blood.

The blood vessels, some of them are so big they're like sewer pipes.

The aorta is about that big around.

To show you how big whales' bones are, take your thumb and feel this little dent in your chin.

Now take your other finger and feel the joint right here.

Okay, that is one bone on a whale, that's called the mandible.

Say it.

Children> Mandible.

Ozzie> Now pull your hand out here and take a look at how big it is.

Right?

Okay.

Mine is about that long.

Here's the same bone from a 30 foot humpback whale.

That's the same bone you are feeling, a 30 foot whale.

She has another one that comes around here.

I'm standing up inside of her mouth.

Right?

Now, is a 30 foot whale, a big whale?

Children> Yes...No.

Ozzie> Average whale.

A hundred foot whale?

Yes.

And a 100 foot whale, this bone would probably just about touch the ceiling.

(applause) ♪ (TV clicks off) Charlie> How?

Lee> Oh, it's on a timer.

Uh, He's great with kids.

Isn't he?

And those things he's teaching them, that's what they need to know.

They need to learn early about protecting those beautiful animals.

That's the kind of thing we'll teach them at the nature center.

Charlie> Sounds like you found yourself a cause, Lee.

Lee> I think I've found a way to help.

Charlie> Well, don't just sit there.

Let's go and see it.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪