BLUE WHALE

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© Larry Foster, Earth Views

Balaenoptera physalus

Federal Status: Endangered (June 2, 1970)
State Status: Endangered (December 20, 1989)

Description: Very large (largest living mammal). Head broad, U-shaped. Body color is blue-gray throughout, mottled with light gray and white on the underside. Flipper tips and underside light gray. Dorsal fin small (less than 33 cm (12.9 in) tall) positioned posterior to body midpoint. Throat grooves extend beyond navel. Baleen black. Average length about 25 m (82 ft); maximum about 30 m (100 ft). Generally found singly or in small family groups of 3-4 individuals in open oceans. Feeds on a few species of zooplankton, especially krill; occasionally consumes fish.

Habitat: Marine deepwater.

Distribution: Found in all oceans worldwide, and undertakes extensive annual north-south migration, traveling from wintering grounds in low latitudes to summer feeding grounds in the Arctic or Antarctic. Northern and southern populations spend their respective winters in polar waters and summer in temperate or tropical waters. Only 2 records from the Gulf of Mexico, 1 of which was a stranded individual found near the mouth of Sabine Pass, Cameron Parish, Louisiana, December 1924.

Reasons for decline: Overharvest.

March 2004

Conservation efforts: Very little census data available since hunting of this species ceased in 1967. No evidence that the species is recovering.