Hi friends, do you know which the largest mammal in the world… It is none other than the blue whale. The Blue Whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. At up to 33.59 meters (110 ft 2.5 in) in length and 181 metric tons (200 short tons) or more in weight, it is believed to be the largest animal ever to have existed. The flippers are three to four meters (10 to 13 ft) long. The upper sides are grey with a thin white border. The lower sides are white. The head and tail fluke are generally uniformly grey. The whale's upper parts, and sometimes the flippers, are usually mottled. The degree of mottling varies substantially from individual to individual. Some may have a uniform slate-grey color all over, but others demonstrate a considerable variation of dark blues, greys and blacks, all tightly mottled.
These Whales can reach speeds of 50 km/h (30 mph) over short bursts, usually when interacting with other whales, but 20 km/h (12 mph) is a more typical travelling speed. When feeding they slow down to 5 km/h (3 mph).
They most commonly live alone or with one other individual. It is not known whether those that travel in pairs stay together over long periods or form more loose relationships. In locations where there is a high concentration of food, as many as 50 Blue Whales have been seen scattered over a small area. However, they do not form the large close-knit groups seen in other baleen species.
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 suggests this may be an underestimate. Before whaling the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the North-East Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups.
Thus let us join our hands to protect these incredible species from getting hunted. They are the treasures of ocean, so we do not leave the whalers to steal them…
