Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
Blue whale (photo credit: NOAA Fisheries)
Description: Blue whales are the largest animals in the world. They can be up to 33.5 m (110 ft) long and weigh 150 tons (330,000 lbs or around 30 African elephants)! They have a long slender body with a very small dorsal fin and, true to their name, they have smooth blue-gray skin. The blue whale’s heart is as large as a small car and several of their arteries are large enough for a person to swim through. Blue whales were heavily hunted during the whaling industry of the 19th and 20th centuries, and are still classified as an endangered species to this day.
Habitat: They can be found in 4 of the world’s 5 oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Southern. The subgroup of blue whales that can be seen in Oregon (the Eastern North Pacific group) range from Alaska to Mexico and Central America. They give birth to their calves in the warm waters of Mexico and Central America and then migrate to the nutrient rich northern Pacific to feed.
Diet: Like other baleen whales, a blue whales’ diet is primarily krill. They can eat up to 4 tons of krill every day.
Tide Pool Tidbits:
Blue whales can make noises that are almost 200 decibels (louder than a jet engine), making it the loudest animal on earth. This allows them to be heard for 1,500 km (almost 1,000 mi), communicating with other blue whales across the ocean.
Female blue whales are larger than males, males are typically 6 m or more shorter.
A newborn blue whale calf is more than 6 m (20 ft) long and while it is nursing it grows by an average of 90 kg (200 lbs) per day.