UK BLUE WHALE ALERT | #BigBlueLive

It's only been days since the entire British public was enthralled by the appearance of a Blue Whale on camera just off the Californian Coast, but it appears that they've been following us to the UK! In fact, this blue whale made an appearance 250 miles off the south west coast of the UK, which is actually a relatively small distance as far as scientists are concerned. Many Oceanographers have actually said they think it's one of the first images they've been able to capture since the Blue Whale was hunted to near extinction many years ago. The Oceanographers who saw the whale where actually doing a marine mammal survey when they saw seven fin whales when one of the researchers spotted the whale about a kilometer away from the boat.

Blue Whales are probably the biggest mammal which has ever lived on Earth - with one huge krill obsession! In one single day, they can consume about 3,600kg of krill! They spend most of their time underwater when they're diving for krill, then surface every few minutes to take a breath - lets face it, Blue Whales are AMAZING!

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An Athlete's Diet...

We've been launched into the days of continuous health warnings, from not drinking too much fruit juice to too much salt. The Commonwealth games start tomorrow - but what do athletes really eat?

Food means different things to different people. Although to athletes, it means fuel - essential for exceptional athletic performance. It's surprising the amount of variety and quantity of food they actually need. Even Wimbledon Champion, Andy Murray recently revealed that his girlfriend, Kim Sears, cooks him chicken, salmon or steak during the Wimbledon championships, so really, athletes aren't that restricted.

Anyone who followed Mo Farah's astonishing performance at London 2012 - probably didn't realize the secret of his success; consuming as many as 12,000 calories a day. Of course, most of us only need somewhere in the region of 1,600 to 3,000 calories. However, combined with training and the races themselves Mo Farah burned the 12,000 calories through blistering down the track at lightning pace.

It's not just swimmers for example that pound pancakes and pasta before competition, cyclists, marathon runners and rowers also have huge amounts of carbohydrates before competition - all in an effort to fuel their super intense continuous activity.

Although athletes follow their own specific routine, surprisingly wrestlers don't eat much before competition - they're at the completely opposite end of a pretty broad spectrum. So overall - what the athletes eat depends on their sport, even within sports, male an female athletes may eat very different amounts.

Prince George turns 1 today, so the members of the Royal family will be gathering at Kensington Palace - Happy Birthday George! Follow the rest of my #SummerofScience and me on Twitter @Sci_Sparks. Don’t forget to download my charity eBook, Science Bites: A Short Tour of the Universe HERE. 

#SummerofScience Day 5