Blue whale
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
| Blue whale |
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Balaenoptera musculus |
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The blue whale is the largest animal to ever live. These whales can reach up to 110 ft in length. The blue whale is on the endangered species list having less than 1% of the original numbers of the whale. Blue whales travel alone or in small groups. Off the coast of California some groups as large as 60 have been spotted. They are baleen whales and eat krill; krill are a small shrimp like creature. These whales are a blue grey coloring and have a small dorsal fin on top. The blue whale has a balloon like throat that expands to take in water and krill. The whale has a twin blowhole that has a large splashguard over it so that no water will get into their lungs. This whale was not hunted extensively until the 1900's. After this the blue whale was hunted until it was near extinction. These whales were only protected after they became so hard to find in the wild. Now there are only 8 - 14,000 blue whales left in the world which is still under 1% of their original numbers.
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Anatomy
The blue whale is the largest know mammal in the world, it has baleen instead of teeth. Baleen is like a thick broom that siphons water and krill through it. When the whale opens its mouth it can fit up to 90 tons of water and krill into it. Even though its mouth is very large, it has to eat krill because its throat can only fit food smaller than a beach ball in to it. Krill is a small shrimp like animal that lives in all of the oceans. The tongue of the blue whale weighs 3 short tons while the heart weighs 1,320 lbs and is the largest known heart of all the animals. The whale can grow up to 33 meters long (around 110 ft). The flippers of the whale are three to four meters long (10 - 13 ft) The blue whale can weigh up to 177 tonnes (196 short tons). These whales can reach speeds upto 30 mph, but generly stay around the speeds of about 20 mph. The coloring of the blue whale is of a grayish blue color. The blue whales stream line body has no baracles on it except for the tips of the fluke and dorsal fin. The dorsal fin of the whale is very small compared to that of other whales. The blue whale has twin blowholes with a large splash gaurd that covers them when the whale dives.
Reproduction
Blue whales reach sexual maturity between the ages of 6 and 10. Calves are born in periods of 2 or 3 years. Blue whales have a gestation period of 12 months, when the calves are born they are 23 – 27 feet long and weigh 3 tons. The calves will nurse for around 7 – 8 months and stop when they reach 52 feet. When the baby whales are nursing they consume 100 gallons of the mothers milk each day.
Ecology
Blue whales are found throughout all of the earth's oceans. They live in tropical, artic, and temperate waters. During the winter months they migrate toward warmer waters to mate and have their young. These whales are able go anywhere in the worlds oceans because they can find there food every where in alomost any ocanic location.
Conservation
The blue whale is an endangered species, because blue whale is so large they were not hunted until 1868. During this time a Norwegian named Sven Foyn changed the whaling industry with his invention of the exploding harpoon gun, he started using diesel powered boats and catcher boats. After this the whale industry started to go after the blue whales, because they now had the ability could catch them. After the 1900 the industry started to focus mostly on the blue whales. They were used as sources of oil, one 90 ft whale could produce 120 containers of oil. In 1931 29,000 whales were killed in one season. After the blue whales became so scarce that they couldnt be found the whalers moved on to different whales. After this the International Whaling Commission stoped all hunting of blue whales. After all of this there are now only an estimated 5-10,000 blue whales left in the Southern Hemisphere, and 3-4,000 in the Northern Hemisphere. Only 1% of the origanal total of population blue whales is left now.
Gallery
 Blue whale (B. musculus) |
 Blue whale (B. musculus) |
 Blue whale (B. musculus) |
 Blue whale (B. musculus) |
Related References
- WikipediaBlue Whale information
- American Cetacean Society Fact Sheet
- Discovery SchoolBlue whale information page
- National Parks Conservation Association Blue Whale fact sheet
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