The largest animal known to have ever lived, a baleen whale found in every ocean except the Arctic, reaching lengths beyond thirty meters and weights beyond 150 metric tons. Despite this size it feeds almost exclusively on krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, which it captures by lunging through dense swarms and filtering thousands of liters of seawater through the baleen plates in its mouth in a single gulp. Blue whales were hunted to the edge of extinction in the twentieth century before international whaling bans took effect, and populations remain a small fraction of their pre-whaling size despite decades of legal protection.
Facts
Classification
System (Realm) Relationship to People Living or ExtinctDerived from this species' own Conservation Status: this atlas's IUCN category list has no Extinct value, so a set conservation-status is itself evidence of living status (w-bfill-g5-0924 browse backfill). Disputed
Population Estimate10,000
Global blue whale population estimates range roughly from 10,000 to 25,000 individuals depending on which of several genetically and geographically distinct subpopulations are counted and how recently each ocean basin was surveyed; the lower figure recorded here is the more conservative published estimate, not a settled consensus number. Scientific Name Conservation StatusIUCN Red List, assessed by Cooke, J.G. in 2018 (errata version published 2019). Global trend Endangered but increasing in the most-depleted regions (Antarctic and North Atlantic), recovering from 20th-century whaling. Connections
Child Taxon Of
Demonstrates
The whale's streamlined, fin-bearing body shape is a classic example of hydrodynamic convergence shared with unrelated fish and extinct marine reptiles adapted to the same open-ocean environment.
Source Convergent Evolution (Wikipedia)
Blue whale feeding grounds and migration routes track current-driven upwelling zones, where cold, nutrient-rich water sustains the dense krill swarms the species feeds on.
Source National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
In Biome
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
In Ecosystem
NOAA's own text names Antarctic waters near the ice edge broadly rather than the Peninsula specifically; the Antarctic Peninsula's ice-edge waters sit within this described Southern Ocean summer feeding range.
Source Blue Whale (NOAA Fisheries)
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Antarctica, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Belgium, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Brazil, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Canada, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Colombia, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Comoros, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Denmark, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Ecuador, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Iceland, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Kenya, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Madagascar, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Mauritius, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Mexico, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Mozambique, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Namibia, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: New Zealand, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Norway, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Portugal, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Seychelles, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Taiwan, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Tanzania, found in there.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.https://www.britannica.com/animal/blue-whale
Blue whales are blue-gray with lighter gray spots.
System/realm (stated plainly in the entity own recorded description)
The largest animal known to have ever lived, a baleen whale found in every ocean except the Arctic, reaching lengths beyond thirty meters and weights beyond 150 metric tons.
- In Biome: Marine
- In Biome: Open Ocean
View the Source 2. Blue Whale (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationConservation sectionQuote, Conservation section
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed blue whales as endangered as of 2018.
3. Encyclopedia of Life
Blue Whale (NOAA Fisheries)
NOAA FisheriesPopulation Status section
The number of blue whales today is only a small fraction of what it was before modern commercial whaling significantly reduced their numbers during the early 1900s, but populations are increasing globally.
In Ecosystem: Antarctic Peninsula, Species page - Antarctic distribution
Antarctic blue whales occur mainly in relatively high latitude waters south of the 'Antarctic Convergence' and close to the ice edge in summer.
View the Source Wikidata: Blue Whale
Blue Whale (Wikidata)
WikidataWikidata Q42196 (P1034 main food source): EuphausiaceaQuote, Wikidata Q42196 (P1034 main food source): Euphausiacea
Main food source (Wikidata property P1034): Euphausiacea.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationDemonstrates: Ocean CurrentsView the Source Convergent Evolution (Wikipedia)
Catalogue of Life
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of LifeChild Taxon Of: BalaenopteridaeView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.