Have you ever been tongue-tied, feeling like your tongue weighs hundreds of pounds and just won’t let you speak correctly? Welcome to the world of the magnificent Gray whale.

These gentle giants of the ocean have 3,000 pound tongues, now that is a wet kiss!  Their massive tongues are used to lick off the amphipods (small shrimp-like creatures) which they suck up from the ocean floor that, in turn, gets stuck to their baleen “teeth” (baleen is bristle, a similar substance is found in human hair and fingernails). Gray whales also have hearts that weigh nearly 300 pounds. Maybe this is why their underwater callings sound so heavy-hearted and yet so confusing?