The blue whale is the biggest mammel that ever lived. This is even more surprising because, from the great variety of creatures living in the sea, the blue whale feeds with the tiniest of plants and living organisms, a group generally known as plankton.

Even though it feeds in deep water, the blue whale must surface for inhaling air. The exhaled air is eliminated with a pressure burst, which can cause discharges as high as 18 feet.

It has been proven that the blue whale has evolved from aerial mammels. Even if theoretically it could move freely throughout all the oceans, it only lives in certain regions. This is due to the fact that there are few spots in the world's oceans where there is enough plankton to feed blue whales. The yearly forming of ice makes blue whales migrate to tropical warm waters.

Because of its size, the blue whale has become the most valuable prey during the infamous whale hunt. After its killing, the body was transformed into fat. In 1930-1931 over 300.000 blue whales were killed. Since then, their number has been slowly increasing, but still, there are only 2.000 blue whales living today. The biggest male ever described was 31 meters in length, and the biggest whale supposedly weighed 178 tonnes.

Presidents of 5 states from central Asia are going to take part in a summit in the city of Almaty, in Kazahstan. The summit it going to tackle the region's biggest concern, water.

The yearly meeting includes the 5 founding members of the International Fund for saving the Aral sea. Water is a very valuable resource in the semi arid areas of central Asia, and since the collapse of the Soviet Union, states in the region have not managed to find a solution to this problem.

The 5 regional leaders, who relly don't have great success stories to their names when it comes to cooperation, will talk the issue in Kazahstan. The scorching heat has created an ecological disaster in the area of Aral sea, which has lost 90% of its surface in the last few decades. Tadjikistan and Kirgistan own 80% of the water resources in central Asia.

The other 3 countries present at the summit, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazahstan need considerable amounts of water for irrigations. During the communist era, an exchange system permitted the 5 states to do trade: water for energy.