Much unlike their toothed cousins, the Mysticeti are much larger in size and have plates of baleen in their mouths as opposed to sharp, knife like teeth. Much like full fledged humpbacks, these giants of merpeople have throat grooves that go right down to their chests, allowing them to take in massive gulps of krill swarms. Although their mouths are large enough to fit a car, their throats are no wider than a baseball (despite what a certain talking puppet might lead you to believe).

John here is no exception, but he does stand out from the rest of his pod in one major way. His singing could be heard from miles away, even to the human ear. "Now wait a minute!" You ask. "Whales don't have vocal cords, how is it possible for a merperson to sing?"

It's all in the larynx y'know? As merpeople can communicate through either the large bone in their throat or the phonic lips in toothed merpeople, they don't need to constantly go up for air if they ever wish to communicate with one another, meanwhile the nose like structures on their faces are in fact melons. No not the fruit, sacks of fat and wax that are key for echolocation and communicating with one another while submerged. You're welcome for the little science fact on mythical creatures, and now back to the story.

"Um.. Hi John.. You're very big, even bigger than the solid metal fish that glide above water." Paul mumbled, still in awe at such a large creature.

"Heh, you really think so? I've seen plenty of those way bigger than me, mostly those ones with all those land dwellers swimming in their own little oceans. I don't see why, it's not like our home is off limits from them."

"Maybe they don't like seeing anything bigger than them! I don't think I've ever seen a land dweller myself before, Mum always told me they're all tiny and like to watch us bow ride their metal fish."

"Well that's not what my family says, my auntie tells me they still hunt us without their metal teeth. They keep throwing their hollow long shells, their fake jellyfish and those demons that can wrap around your tail and never come off.."

"Demons that ensnare you?. I never knew they would be throwing those out too.."

"Yeah! They use them to steal our fish and then they don't even think to take those things with them once they're done taking what's ours! Grr, I hope I never meet those pale, legged land mammals, if I see them dumping their waste into our home, I'll ram them over!"

"Wow.. I hope so too after hearing all that about them. I don't want to be snatched by demons!"

As the two chatted away, Paul's pod overheard everything about the humans and their trash. As you can probably tell the 'demons' in question were none other than fishing nets floating through the currents, they could easily wrap around the pectoral fins and flukes of an unsuspecting merperson. Many of them ended up drowning or being crushed from sinking down to the midnight zone if they weren't freed in time. The plastic cups and bags would often be ingested alongside shoals of delicious tuna or a bountiful swarm of plankton, leading to nasty indigestion and stranding ashore as they try to push the solid plastic through their systems.

"Well then, if the land dwellers think they can mess up our home, we'll just have to take matters into our own hands." A dolphin declared. "I'll use my flukes to toss their trash right back onto their metal fish!"

"What about their demons?"

"I'm not frightened by any old demon!" The largest humpback shot up, approaching the Risso's dolphin pod. "My long, low echolocation can detect big shoals of fish, so I can find them too before they trap any other merperson! I, Julia Lennon promise this."

More voices shot up from the ocean, hearing the song of the brave humpback mermaid. Together they would form the Aqua Crew, dedicated to keeping their oceans clean from plastic trash and drifting ghost nets. However as the years would go on, new problems would arise.