For those of you wondering some basic facts on Blue Whales, I thought I would post some prior to your whale watching adventure on Harbor Breeze Whale Watching Cruises out of Long Beach, California. In addition to these facts, you can also learn tons of information from the people at The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach who is a partner with Harbor Breeze Whale Watching Cruises. Now, onto the facts:
- The Blue Whale is the largest living creature on Earth! Yes, even larger than an elephant!
- The record size of a Blue Whale appears to be at least 110 feet long and a weight of 209 tons (It was a female);
- Average Length of a Blue Whale: (Male) 82 ft (Female) 85 ft (Birth) 19 1/2 ft
- Average Weight of Blue Whale: (Adult) 100-120 tons (Newborn) 2.5-4 tons
- Population of Blue Whales: low thousands (best estimate in early 2000)
- Diet: Krill and Fish, and lots of them!
- Range: All oceans of the world;
- Lifespan of a Blue Whale: More than 80 years;
- Threats to the Blue Whale: Loss of food, humans and 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 Blue Whale 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, but have made a rebound because of conservation methods, which need to be continued.
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