Balaenoptera musculus
Matthew Jones
Facts:
- The largest animal on earth. Blue whales can grow up to 100 feet in length and weigh up to 200 tons.
- Eats smallest marine life, krill. A single adult blue whale can consume up about 4 tons of krill a day.
- Blue whales can live up to 90 years in the wild.
- Inaudible to humans, the blue whale is known to be the loudest animal on earth. Blue whales emit a series of pulses, groans, and moans that can be heard up to 1,000 miles away. Scientists believe blue whales use vocalization to communicate and to sonar-navigate the ocean depths.
- The blue whale spout can reach up to 30 feet in the air.
- Blue whales are graceful swimmers however, when threatened the blue whale can swim up 20 to 30 miles per hour.
- Blue whale calfs are about 25 feet long and weigh about 3 tons when they are born. Calfs will gain 200 pounds every day for a year drinking it's mothers milk alone.
- They reach sexual maturity between 5 and 15 years of age.
- Not much is known about the mating habits of these animals, but a new calf is usually born every 2 or 3 years.
- Blue whales have few predators but have been attacked by sharks and killer whales. Few deaths or injuries occur from impacts with large ships or fishing nets.
- The blue whale travels in small pods of 2 or 3, but some groups can get larger if food is plentiful.
- Approximately 10,000 blue whales exist in the oceans today.
- They are found in every ocean in the world, excluding the Arctic.
Classification:
Balaenoptera musculus are baleen whales (Suborder Mysticeti). One of 76 cetacean species, and marine mammals.
Phylum: Chordata (vertebrates) Class: Mammalia (mammals) Order: Cetacea (whales and dolphins) Suborder: Mysticeti (baleen whales) Family: Balaenopteridae Genus: Balaenoptera Species: musculus Subspecies: B.m. intermedia (from the southern hemisphere), B.m. musculus (from the northern hemisphere in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans), and B.m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale; Yochem and Leatherwood 1985). Amazing Blue Whale - the Biggest Whale in the World!Uploaded on Jul 11, 2011
Blue whales are the largest animals ever to have lived on our planet... even bigger than the largest of Dinosaurs!! In this unique footage, filmed by underwater cameraman Roger Munns, we have captured this massive creature near the surface, before it dives down into the deep blue.
Blue Whale Songoceannetworks canada
Published on Nov 25, 2013
17 October 2013: A singing blue whale was recorded by an Ocean Sonics icListen low frequency hydrophone deployed at 2662m depth in Cascadia Basin (http://www.oceannetworks.ca/installat...). The audio has been sped up by a factor of 10 to make it audible, as blue whale sounds are subsonic (below the range of human hearing).
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Threats:
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After then, the species received legal protection worldwide. Despite being protected under the ESCA (Endangered Species Conservation Act) and the IUCN Red List, the blue whale still faces threats today. Similar to other whale species, the blue whale is falling victim to environmental change and the addition of toxic pollutants to it's waters. With the population at an all time low (only between 5,000 and 15,000 left) the species is very sensitive to changes and every mortality affects the species greatly. Climate change can affect the hypersensitive krill that make up the majority of the whale's diet. Rising ocean temperatures can affect the migratory patterns the whales take during the summer and winter seasons, as well as affect the abundance of krill for them to eat.Protection:
The blue whale gained protection from commercial whaling in 1966. However, the former Soviet Union still hunted and killed blue whales in their own waters.In 1998, the US Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the National Marine Fisheries Service made a recovery plan for the species. The ultimate goal of the program is to have them permanently delisted from the ESA's endangered and threatened lists. In order to accomplish this, the population size needs to reach a stable level, and human caused injuries, disturbances, and deaths of the blue whale need to drastically decrease. Short term goals are to figure out what may be limiting the populations and actions necessary to allow the populations to grow. This includes finding problem areas where collisions with ships are most likely, which areas of the species' habitat are most polluted, and where fishing gear is most likely to interfere with the whales' migrations. Since the animal does not remain solely in waters governed by the United States, international agreements have been made to protect the cetaceans no matter where they are in the world.
What can YOU do?
The blue whale has a long way to go before it reaches a sustainable population size, and every individual can do a lot to help. The WWF gives the public a chance to adopt a whale. By doing this, you will help fund the research and recovery of the world's largest animal, and one of the ocean's most important ecosystem regulators.
call home.WDC - Donate
Resources
National Marine Fisheries Service. 1998. Recovery plan for the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus). Prepared by Reeves R.R., P.J. Clapham, R.L. Brownell, Jr., and G.K. Silber for the National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, MD. 42 pp.
http://ecos.fws.gov/docs/recovery_plan/whale_blue.pdf
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/blue-whale/
http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=88
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