interesting facts about blue whale
BLUE WHALE FACTS
- The largest living creature on Earth!
- The record appears to be at least 110 feet long and a weight of 209 tons (It was a female)
- Average Length: (Male) 82 ft (Female) 85 ft (Birth) 19 1/2 ft
- Average Weight: (Adult) 100-120 tons (Newborn) 2.5-4 tons
- Population: low thousands (2002 figure)
- Diet: Krill and Fish
- Range: All oceans of the world
- Lifespan: More than 80 years
- Threats: Loss of food, pollution
- A blue whale drinks 50-150 gallons of milk a day, adding about 8 pounds of weight per hour, or 200 pounds a day
- At about 8 months of age, when the calf is weened, it can measure close to 50 feet long and weigh about 50,000 pounds
- At sea, blue whales usually feed alone or in pairs, often widely spaced
- A blue whale's "blow" can reach as high as 30 feet!
- During the feeding period, a blue whale can ingest 4 tons of krill a day. They feed at the beginning and the end of the night at a depth of at least 130 feet (40 m).
- Pre-whaling population estimates were over 350,000 blue whales, but up to 99% of blue whales were killed during whaling efforts
- Blue whales have no known predators (other than humans during the whaling years)
- By the 1950s, blue whales were endangered
- Where to Look(Pacific): Channel Islands (near Santa Barbara, CA) during July & August, Also- warm, temperate waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. They migrate as far north and south as the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans during the summer.
- Where to Look(Atlantic): They migrate to the Arctic during spring & summer, to waters near Spitsbergen, Davis Strait and Southern Greenland & possibly Baffin Bay. Wintering grounds are not well known. On the eastern side of the Atlantic records exist from the Cape Verde Islands & west Africa & seasonally off Europe and the British Isles. IF you live in Switzerland (Kevin...) - the best bet is West Africa, Iceland or Norway
