Abandoned Opening Bit from a Novel I'm not Writing

"Can you taste plankton, Baleen Boy?"

Thus the befuddlement floating in brain pan was released upon the unfortunately nicknamed lout (although the state of his teeth begged to differ). Would there be any flavor aside from briney nature of the fluids he sieved through his maw? Was it wrong to ask? And, considering his deformities and the lack of an apparent blowhole...was it possible that he could suck oxygen from some other orifice?

T