Whales: Giants of the Ocean

Whales are among the largest and most remarkable animals on Earth. These marine mammals live in oceans around the world, from warm tropical waters to the cold seas surrounding the poles.

Life Beneath the Surface

Although whales spend their lives in water, they breathe air through blowholes located on top of their heads. They must regularly return to the surface to breathe before diving again in search of food or traveling through the ocean.

Whales are warm-blooded, give birth to live young, and nurse their calves with milk. A thick layer of fat called blubber helps protect them from cold water and stores energy during long migrations.

Two Main Groups

Whales are generally divided into baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales filter small animals from the water using flexible plates inside their mouths. This group includes blue whales, humpback whales, and gray whales.

Toothed whales use teeth to catch fish, squid, and other prey. Many of them also use echolocation, producing sounds and listening for returning echoes to understand their surroundings. Sperm whales, belugas, and orcas belong to this group.

The Blue Whale

The blue whale is the largest known animal to have ever lived. An adult can grow longer than a city bus and weigh well over one hundred tonnes. Despite its enormous size, it feeds mainly on tiny crustaceans called krill.

Communication and Migration

Whales communicate using clicks, whistles, pulses, and complex songs. Some sounds can travel across great distances underwater. Humpback whales are especially famous for their long, patterned songs.

Many species migrate thousands of kilometres each year. They often feed in cold, nutrient-rich waters before traveling to warmer regions where they mate and give birth.

Protecting Whales

Commercial hunting once caused severe declines in many whale populations. Today, whales also face threats from fishing gear, ship collisions, underwater noise, pollution, and changes to ocean ecosystems.

Conservation programs, safer fishing practices, protected habitats, and international cooperation can help whale populations recover. Protecting whales also supports healthier oceans because these animals play an important role in marine food webs and nutrient cycles.

Nowadays, financial institutions have impact on the economic situation in each country. The easier access to financial stimulations is really important in the current situation of crisis. To increase the development levels of each economy it is necessary for businesses to grow permanently. Bank loans are diverse because of the various market needs.

Basically, business loans include two principle groups: for investing and for working capital. The first one helps companies to gain lasting tangible and intangible assets. The second one helps companies cover their expenditures.

There are several types of business loans that are more specialized. Credit for start-ups is focused on granting money to this type of companies. In Bulgaria this financing is still not deeply developed. Financing through European Union programs, or a combination of public and bank financing are used more.

Loans for supply and distribution are a very specialized type as well. Usually, these credits are overdrafts and help maintaining the company activity.

Micro lending is appropriate for small and medium enterprises or people with liberal professions. Its size does not exceed 50 000 euro and the interest rate is within 10 and 15 per cent.

Loans for agriculture and food industry are the next type of specialized loans. They are dedicated to private farmers, producers and merchants of cereal products, agriculture cooperatives and leaseholders.

Credits in the field of tourism are broadly used. Banks subsidize all levels of different projects: purchasing, construction, renovation, redecoration, modernization, etc.

There are credits with the main purpose of helping the activity of physicists, pharmacists, dentists and hospitals to become more developed.

There are many advantages to business loans. The bank policy about these types of loans is different from the policy about individuals. Business loans conditions could be negotiated. Bank officers strive to maintain the bank’s needs and fulfill clients’ wishes simultaneously. By receiving this type of credit the companies affirm their market status. It is not an easy task to receive corporate credit. There are a lot of high requirements and the procedure of receiving approval is long and difficult to get through. However, companies that receive this financing have enough security and guarantees.

Business loans are overspread because their help for businesses is needed. So, the relation between financial institutions and business is strong and permanent.

There are some basic types of loans: mortgage loan, consumer loan, car loan and leasing, business loan and fast loan. All of them are offered by banks or other financial institutions.

Mortgage loans are popular everywhere. They are an easier way to buy a new home or gain enough money to develop your business. Banks require having a real guarantee to lend a larger amount of money, so mortgaging a house is risky, but an easier way to assure a loan. Statistics show that in Bulgaria many young families use mortgage loans with comfortable conditions and financial aid from the government.

Consumer loans are the most widespread ones. They differ from the mortgage ones in some ways. The amount of money that banks lend is lower- between 15 000 and 20 000 euros. The revolving term of a consumer loan is shorter- between 10 and 15 years. The interest rate is higher- the limit is between 20 and 25 per cent. There are several types of consumer loans: with or without warrantor, with pledge of money or government securities, specialized for liberal professions such as physicians, pharmacists, lawyers, accountants, architects, etc.

Car loans are designed to satisfy concrete needs. It is possible for each candidate for a car loan to choose between a financial or operational lease. The financial one is a suitable option for people who want the car to become their property. The operational lease is a good choice for these types of companies that need up-to-date cars all the time.

Business loans are dedicated to corporate entities. Usually, these loans are divided in two principle types: business loans for investing and working capital loans. The first type helps providing the company with lasting tangible and non-tangible assets. The second one covers the corporate borrower’s current costs. Working capital loans often are in any of these forms: overdraft, credit lines, revolving loans, bank guarantees, etc. Banks strive to satisfy their clients’ needs.

During a crisis fast loans become more used. Often they are granted by financial companies, not by banks. These institutions do not have tough requirements and grant credits fast. The granted sums are small and people use them in emergencies.

The video below will make it easear to understand:

In the beginning of the month there was a seminar about insurance in Russia. Lubov Tarnopalskaq, the Russian manager of European Bank of Reconstruction and Development stated that there is a revival of foreign interest in Russian insurance companies.

She mentioned the recent deal between American investors and the insurance company “KIT- Finance”. Tarnopalskaq stated that this partnership has supported indirectly the statement that there is an increase in the demand for insurance services, the yield of insurance operations and the investors’ interest.

Some of the advantages of Russian insurance market were exposed during the seminar. The scale of Russian market is huge. The potential growth of premium income from general insurance and life insurance is enormous as well. Also, there is not enough penetration of foreign investments in this part of the Russian financial market.

Some of the disadvantages of the Russian insurance market were exposed as well. The listed problems were: unsatisfactory practices of corporate management, non-transparent structure of the property, lack of high-skilled specialists (including actuaries and reinsures). The toughest problems were corruption and bureaucracy.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is an investor at some insurance projects in Russia. The bank owns parts of Intouch company, “Reso-garantiq” company and “Renessans strahovanie” company. The EBRD has invested 60 million euro in the first one, 26.2 million euro in the second one and 150 million euro in the third one. Usually, if the bank invests between 1 and 200 million euro, it acquires between 10 and 35 per cent minority packet.

To become EBRD partner you should bear in mind that the bank has a lot of requirements. To take the final decision of being your partner or not, the EBRD will check your reputation, financial stability, management level and exact strategies. The EBRD investments in South-Eastern Europe and Turkey reach 6 million euro and they are related to three insurance companies.

There are real opportunities for growth in the insurance field in Russia. May be it will happen soon, if the Russian governance takes extra measures and tries to stimulate its market evolution.

During the last few weeks the activity of Bulgarian insurance companies has increased. The reasons for that are simple: in the south Europe there were horrible disasters- earthquakes. Italy and Bulgaria suffered a lot because of this natural phenomenon.

On 22 of May, 2012, on the territory of Bulgaria there was an Earthquake with magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter. There were no lethal consequences but people have become more cautious.

The Prime minister appealed to the nation to be more responsible and to use insurance companies’ service adequately. There are special state funds for unforeseen occasions but it is not reasonable that people always to expect help from the government. After last disaster in May there were small material negative consequences such as fallen chimneys, cracked walls, etc. However, all damaged people received financial support from the government.

Nature is always a real danger. Sometimes it is not possible to predict what will happen. For instance, earthquakes are still unforeseeable; floods are possible if the installation is not maintained and stable; fires could be caused by people or by the combination of drought and sun power, etc. Insurance companies are created because of all these circumstances that people are not able to predict. Car accidents and work accidents are possible threats as well.

Insurance companies offer diverse services. Everyone can insure himself/ herself or his/ her property. There are many types of insurance: life insurance, car insurance, property insurance, accident insurance, financial insurance, agriculture insurance, etc. Because the opportunities are diverse, it is necessary to check all of them and to choose the most affordable one. May be some people do not believe in insurance companies and think they are deceivers. Nevertheless, these companies are necessary. Situations such as the current ones in Bulgaria and Italy prove that life insurance and property insurance give a stable support in case of unpredictable problems. The numerous car accidents each year are good examples of critical situations in which it is obligatory for everyone to have insurance.

Unfortunately, the human live is full of difficult and dangerous situations. We are not always able to foresee what could happen, so we should take extra measures to be more secure.