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Blue Whales
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Past commercial whaling of Blue Whales is the main factor responsible for the population decline. Throughout the North Pacific between 1910 and 1965, commercial whalers harvested at least 9,500 Blue Whales, some of which were caught by shore-based whaling stations in British Columbia from the early 1900s to 1965. Since the end of commercial whaling, human threats have included collisions with ships, increasing whale-watching activity, entanglement in fishing gear, and pollution (especially oil pollution).
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Blue Whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that includes the Humpback Whale, the Fin Whale, the Bryde's Whale, the Sei Whale and the Minke Whale. The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene. However, it is not known when the members of these families diverged from each other.
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Blue Whales don’t have fur they have smooth, bluish-gray skin. The skin is covered in oil. This causing them to move swiftly through the water at speeds reaching 30 miles per hour. Blue Whales are, of course, huge with rounded bodies and a powerful tail. Blue Whales, like all whales don’t have arm, they have flippers that look like huge paddles. They use their flippers to change directions in the water.
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Blue Whales are difficult to weigh because of their size. Most Blue Whales killed by whalers were not weighed whole, but cut up into manageable pieces first. This caused an underestimate of the total weight of the whale, due to the loss of blood and other fluids. Nevertheless, measurements between 150 and 170 tonnes (160 and 190 short tons) were recorded of animals up to 27 m (88 ft 6 inches) in length. The weight of a 30 m (98 ft) individual is believed by the American National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) to be in excess of 180 tonnes (200 short tons). The largest Blue Whale accurately weighed by NMML scientists to date was a female that weighed 177 tonnes (196 short tons).[7]
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Blue Whales are very difficult to weigh because of their massive size. Most Blue Whales killed by whalers were not weighed as a whole, but cut up into manageable pieces before being weighed. This caused an underestimate of the total weight of the whale, due to loss of blood and other fluids. Nevertheless, measurements between 150 to 170 tonnes (160 and 190 short tons) were recorded of animals up to 27m (88ft 6in) in length. The weight of a 30m (98ft) individual is believed by the NMML to be in excess of 180 tonnes (200 short tons). The largest Blue Whale accurately weighed by NMML scientists to date was a female that weighed 177 tonnes (196 short tons).
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Blue Whales were abundant in nearly all oceans until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over 40 years 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 located in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggest this may be an underestimate. Before whaling the largest population, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000) was in the Antarctic, but now there remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the North-East Pacific, the Antarctic, and the Indian Ocean. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.Pygmy Blue Whale From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Pygmy Blue Whale Conservation status Data deficient (IUCN) Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Family: Balaenopteridae Genus: Balaenoptera Species: B. musculus Subspecies: B. m. brevicauda Trinomial name Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda Ichihara, 1966
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Blue Whales