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The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale.Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 m (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 t (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known ever to have existed.
This led to the extinction of the Steller's Sea Cow and the Caribbean monk seal. [3] Today, populations of species that were historically hunted, such as blue whales Balaenoptera musculus and B. m. brevicauda), and the North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica), are much lower compared to their pre-exploited levels. [4]
Whales are fully aquatic, open-ocean animals: they can feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. Whales range in size from the 2.6 metres (8.5 ft) and 135 kilograms (298 lb) dwarf sperm whale to the 29.9 metres (98 ft) and 190 tonnes (210 short tons) blue whale, which is the
A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) A leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), sea otters and polar bears.
Rorquals (/ ˈ r ɔːr k w əl z /) are the largest group of baleen whales, comprising the family Balaenopteridae, which contains nine extant species in two genera.They include the largest known animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach 180 tonnes (200 short tons), and the fin whale, which reaches 120 tonnes (130 short tons); even the smallest of the group, the northern minke ...
Blue whale with calf off the coast of Iceland. The blue whale is the largest living animal in the world in the present epoch. Its summer range extends from the east of Canada to Svalbard, and this range is potentially occupied by two separate groups. [10] Like other rorquals, blue whales appear to migrate further south during the winter.
An orca breaching in Hood Canal. The marine mammals of the Salish Sea are numerous and diverse, both in taxonomy and morphology. A total of six species of pinnipeds, eight species of baleen whales, seventeen species of toothed whales, and one mustelid (the sea otter) inhabiting the local waters of the Salish Sea and the outer coastal waters over the continental shelf off Washington and British ...
Blue whale Dolphins in Al Bandar bay Risso's dolphin The order Cetacea includes whales , dolphins and porpoises . They are the mammals most fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater.