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What is the biggest whale?

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What is the biggest whale?

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The blue whale is found alone or in small groups in all oceans. It spends the summer in polar waters, feeding on shrimplike crustaceans (krill), and in winter moves toward the Equator to breed. Once the most important of the commercially hunted baleen whales, the blue whale was greatly reduced in numbers during the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century. It is now protected but is listed as critically endangered in the Red Data Book.

About the Blue whale

World's biggest whale

The Blue whale is a mottled, blue-gray baleen whale, belonging to the family Balaenopteridae. Sometimes called a 'Sulfur-bottom', it is the World's biggest whale. The name "sulfur-bottom" comes from the colour of the yellowish diatoms (algae) found on the bodies of some individuals. The largest of all known animals, the blue whale attains a maximum length and weight of about 30 metres (100 feet) and 150 tons; the largest known individual, a female 33.58 metres (110.14 feet) in length, was reported in 1922. It has a small dorsal fin near its tail, and 80 to 100 long grooves running lengthwise on its throat and chest. It also has short, black baleen, or whalebone, numerous horny fringed plates on the sides of the upper jaw that act as a sieve, removing plankton, on which the animal feeds, from water expelled from its mouth.

Taxonomy

News

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Blue Valentine: Shane James, collections manager with the Museum of New Zealand, stands by a life-sized model of a blue whale's heart. Featured in Whales Tohora, a visiting exhibit opening March 2 at the Canadian Museum of Nature, blue whales have the planet's largest ...
Blue Whales Keep Getting Bigger: Nearly all mammals have gotten smaller -- except for the blue whale. Blue whales, the largest mammal, may be gaining heft thanks to ocean currents boosting the amount of krill around Antarctica. The blue whale has grown larger than it has ever been, ...
Biologist talks whale tagging: ?When I first got into biology, my sense was I wanted things to be sustainable,? said Mate, now pointing to a picture of an elder female blue whale on the projector screen. ?That whale probably expects the same environment, the same feeding grounds.
Into The Blue: By Gazala Anver The ocean covers 70 per cent of the planet and a blue whale is 2000 times the size of a human. Mind boggling as these facts are, what is interesting is the fact that Sri Lanka, despite the tropical clime, is home to its very own ...

Blue Whale

Blue Whale: by Apexpredator11 | video info

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Blue Whales

by John Calambokid

Blue Whales (WorldLife Library Series)

by: John Calambokid

Amazon Price: $12.12 (as of 02/14/2012)

Calambokidis and Steiger do an excellent job of portraying the giant sea mammal in this book for all ages.

What is the biggest whale?