he blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whales (Mysticeti).

[3] At up
to 29.9 metres (98 ft)[4]in length and with a maximum recorded weight of 173 tonnes (191 short tons)[4] and
probably reaching over 181 tonnes (200 short tons), it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.[5][6]
Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter
underneath.[7] There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North
Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale)
found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another
subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill.[8]
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over
a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in
1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide,[4] in at least five groups.
The IUCN estimates that there are probably between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales worldwide today.[9] Before
whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to
311,000).[10] There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern
North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least
two in the Southern Hemisphere. As of 2014, the Eastern North Pacific blue whale population had rebounded to
nearly its pre-hunting population.[11]

Balaenoptera musculus

Contents
[hide]

1Taxonomy

2Description and behaviour

o 2.1Size

o 2.2Feeding

o 2.3Life history

o 2.4Strandings

o 2.5Vocalizations

3Population and whaling

o 3.1Hunting era

o 3.2Population and distribution today

3.2.1North Atlantic

3.2.2North Pacific

3.2.3Southern Hemisphere and vicinity to Northern Indian Ocean

3.2.4Subspecies' distribution
 o 3.3Threats other than hunting

4In popular culture

5Museums

6Whale-watching

7See also

8Footnotes

9References

10Further reading

11External links

Taxonomy
See also: Evolution of cetaceans
Blue whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that includes the humpback whale, the fin
whale, Bryde's whale, the sei whale, and the minke whale.[3] The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have
diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene (28 Ma ago). It is
not known when the members of those families diverged from each other.
The blue whale is usually classified as one of eight species in the genus Balaenoptera; one authority places it in a
separate monotypic genus, Sibbaldus,[12] but this is not accepted elsewhere.[1] DNA sequencing analysis indicates
that the blue whale is phylogenetically closer to the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and Bryde's whale
(Balaenoptera brydei) than to other Balaenoptera species, and closer to the humpback whale (Megaptera) and
the gray whale (Eschrichtius) than to the minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata and Balaenoptera
bonaerensis).[13][14] If further research confirms these relationships, it will be necessary to reclassify the rorquals.
There have been at least 11 documented cases of blue whale-fin whale hybrid adults in the wild. Arnason and
Gullberg describe the genetic distance between a blue and a fin as about the same as that between a human and
a gorilla.[15] Researchers working off Fiji believe they photographed a hybrid humpback-blue whale[16] including the
discovery through DNA analysis from a meat sample found in a Japanese market.[17][18]
The first published description of the blue whale comes from Robert Sibbald's Phalainologia Nova (1694). In
September 1692, Sibbald found a blue whale that had stranded in the Firth of Forth a male 24 m (78 ft) long
that had "black, horny plates" and "two large apertures approaching a pyramid in shape".[6]
The specific name musculus is Latin and could mean "muscle", but it can also be interpreted as "little mouse".
[19]
Carl Linnaeus, who named the species in his seminal Systema Naturae of 1758,[20] would have known this and
may have intended the ironic double meaning.[21] Herman Melville called this species "sulphur-bottom" in his
novel Moby-Dick due to an orange-brown or yellow tinge on the underparts from diatom films on the skin. Other
common names for the blue whale have included "Sibbald's rorqual" (after Sibbald, who first described the
species), the "great blue whale" and the "great northern rorqual". These names have now fallen into disuse. The
first known usage of the term "blue whale" was in Melville's Moby-Dick, which only mentions it in passing and
does not specifically attribute it to the species in question. The name was really derived from the
Norwegian blhval, coined by Svend Foyn shortly after he had perfected the harpoon gun; the Norwegian
scientist G. O. Sars adopted it as the Norwegian common name in 1874.[6]
Authorities classify the species into three or four subspecies: B. m. musculus, the northern blue whale consisting
of the North Atlantic and North Pacific populations, B. m. intermedia, the southern blue whale of the Southern
Ocean, B. m. brevicauda, the pygmy blue whale found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific,[22] and the more
problematic B. m. indica, the great Indian rorqual, which is also found in the Indian Ocean and, although
described earlier, may be the same subspecies as B. m. brevicauda.[1]
The pygmy blue whale formed from a founder group of Antarctic blue whales about 20,000 years ago, around
the Last Glacial Maximum. This is likely because blue whales were driven north by expanding ice, and some have
stayed there ever since. The pygmy blue whale's evolutionarily recent origins cause it to have a relatively low
genetic diversity.[23]
Description and behaviour

A blue whale lifting its tail flukes

Adult blue whale

The blue whale has a long tapering body that appears stretched in comparison with the stockier build of other
whales.[24] The head is flat, U-shaped and has a prominent ridge running from the blowhole to the top of the upper
lip.[24] The front part of the mouth is thick with baleen plates; around 300 plates, each around one metre (3 ft) long,
[24]
hang from the upper jaw, running 0.5 m (20 in) back into the mouth. Between 70 and 118 grooves (called
ventral pleats) run along the throat parallel to the body length. These pleats assist with evacuating water from the
mouth after lunge feeding (see feeding below).
The dorsal fin is small;[24] its height averages about 28 centimetres (11 in), and usually ranges between 20 cm
(8 in) and 40 cm (16 in), though it can be as small as 8 cm (3.1 in) or as large as 70 cm (28 in).[25] It is visible only
briefly during the dive sequence. Located around three-quarters of the way along the length of the body, it varies
in shape from one individual to another; some only have a barely perceptible lump, but others may have
prominent and falcate (sickle-shaped) dorsals. When surfacing to breathe, the blue whale raises its shoulder and
blowhole out of the water to a greater extent than other large whales, such as the fin or sei whales. Observers can
use this trait to differentiate between species at sea. Some blue whales in the North Atlantic and North Pacific
raise their tail fluke when diving. When breathing, the whale emits a vertical single-column spout, typically 9
metres (30 ft) high, but reaching up to 12 metres (39 ft). Its lung capacity is 5,000 litres (1,300 US gal). Blue
whales have twin blowholes shielded by a large splashguard.[24]
The flippers are 34 metres (1013 ft) long. The upper sides are grey with a thin white border; the lower sides are
white. The head and tail fluke are generally uniformly grey. The whale's upper parts, and sometimes the flippers,
are usually mottled. The degree of mottling varies substantially from individual to individual. Some may have a
uniform slate-grey color, but others demonstrate a considerable variation of dark blues, greys and blacks, all
tightly mottled.[3]
Blue whales can reach speeds of 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) over short bursts, usually when interacting with
other whales, but 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) is a more typical traveling speed.[3] Satellite telemetry of
Australian pygmy blue whales migrating to Indonesia has shown that they cover between 0.09 and 455.8
kilometers (0.056 and 283.2 miles) per day.[26] When feeding, they slow down to 5 kilometres per hour (3.1 mph).
Blue whales typically swim at a depth of about 13 meters (42.5 feet) when migrating in order to
eliminate drag from surface waves. The deepest confirmed dive is 506 meters (1,660 feet).[27]
Blue whales most commonly live alone or with one other individual. It is not known how long traveling pairs stay
together. In locations where there is a high concentration of food, as many as 50 blue whales have been seen
scattered over a small area. They do not form the large, close-knit groups seen in other baleen species.