Blue Whale is a sea creature related to baleen whale. Whales are the largest animals in the modern world, and, probably, the largest of all speciesever existed on Earth. Its length reaches 33 meters, and the body mass can significantly exceed 150 tons. Blue Whale has an allied species such as Japan finner and Brydes whale. The largest animals of the planet belongto this family. Their head is wide and flat, the plates of the whalebone are short, and the small dorsal fin is shifted backward. Numerous belly bands on their belly can stretch, increasing the capacity of the abdominal cavity.
By the example of Blue Whales, we can consider the classification of cetaceans. Scientific name of Blue Whale steems from Latin words Balaenoptera musculus. So there are many other names we can hear, for example, light-blue whale, blue rorqual or great northern rorqual. Their type is Chordata, class Mammalia, order Cetacea and family Rorquals. Scientists also identify three more subspecies of the blue whale: northern,southern and dwarfish. All these types are closely approximated in sizefrom each other, but there is a difference in a habitat (Perrin, 2000).
The historical area of the blue whale existence occupied the whole world ocean, but nowadays it is severely shrunken. Compared with the way of life of many other cetaceans, the life of the blue whale has notbeen explored enough.The summer blue whales spend in cold circumpolar waters rich in plankton organisms, and for winterthey swim away into the warm waters of the tropical and subtropical belt. It is noted that the number of northern and southern species is widespread in the north part of planet and dwarfish down south.
Winter migrations of the blue whale have not been researched until this day, but in any case, this whale rises far enough to the north - southern blue whales were observed off the coasts of South Africa, Namibia, and Chile.
The diet of the blue whale is not fundamentally different from that of other minke whales. The blue whale is a typical planktonic species, in the composition of the feed small (no more than 6 cm long), forming mass accumulations, predominate - so-called krill. Fish plays a very small role in the ration of this mammal. Earlier sources indicated that the blue whale does not consume fish at all, but modern sources more definitely indicate that they still eat fish. Most likely, ingestion of fish and other small marine animals occurs by chance, when eating the masses of krill.
Whales do not have enemies among animals due to their impressive size. They have only one enemy - people who hunt these large mammals for thousands of years to get meat and other raw materials. Back in 3000 BC. Inuit (known as Eskimos) killed gray whales, using only stones, snags and body parts of other animals as weapons. Today, the International Red Book states that there is no huge danger to the life of whales. But because of the last decades of catching this species, their number has sharply decreased to 5 thousand individuals for the whole world ocean. Today, according to the estimates of international commissions, there are 10,000 blue whales.
Like all mammals, whales are warm-blooded and maintain a body temperature that is similar to the temperature of a person's body. In cold water, whales maintain their body temperature due to the thick layer of fat under the skin (Blue Whales, 2010). This layer protects internal organs from hypothermia. A feature of the blue whale is that this animal has a very poor sight; it also has an undeveloped sense of smell and, apparently, there is almost no sense of taste. However, it has excellent hearing and touch. Thanks to such sensory system, blue whale can perfectly navigate in the sea space. Whales and other cetaceans move along the water, submerging their tail up and down with vertical movements. This action distinguishes them from fish that move their fins from side to side during swimming.Blue whales are able to sink to a depth of 3.5 kilometers under water. They limit the work of the brain and other vital organs. For example, they slow the heart to 10 beats per minute to conserve oxygen and compress the lungs in the chest to withstand the pressure of the water.
Since ancient times, has been highly valued the whalebone (baleen) and because of trade and high price of this very many individuals died.At the end of the 19th century, one of the shops in Boston, specializing in the sale of whale products, offered an assortment of 53 types of household products from the whalebone (corsets and other details of womens and men's clothing, brushes, springs for beds, etc.)
References
Perrin, William and Geraci, Joseph. "Stranding" (2000) Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals (Perrin, Wursig and Thewisseneds).
"Blue Whales Spotted In Unusually Large Numbers Off Southern California Shore". The Huffington Post. 21 September 2010. Retrieved on 2 April 2012.
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