Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Blue whales
Blue whales are the biggest animals in the world, and the females are larger than the males. The longest female on record measured 110 feet (34 m); the heaviest weighed 190 tons.
All three subspecies travel in pods composed of thirty to fifty individuals.
These whales, as with other members of the family Balaenopteridae, filter some six to seven tons of krill at a time with their baleen plates, "gulping" water and krill, then closing the mouth and forcing the water back out through the baleen.
Blue whales were too big and too fast for whalers before the 1864 invention of the exploding-head harpoon.
That and the indiscriminate use of factory ships have led to the species' rapid decline. Now fewer than ten thousand remain.
All three subspecies travel in pods composed of thirty to fifty individuals.
These whales, as with other members of the family Balaenopteridae, filter some six to seven tons of krill at a time with their baleen plates, "gulping" water and krill, then closing the mouth and forcing the water back out through the baleen.
Blue whales were too big and too fast for whalers before the 1864 invention of the exploding-head harpoon.
That and the indiscriminate use of factory ships have led to the species' rapid decline. Now fewer than ten thousand remain.
