Blue whale

It’s our planet too
Ruling the oceans is what we do…

 
 

 

Learn all about the simply enormous blue whale with our super stats, wow your friends with some truly fascinating facts, read about how huge they really are, where they live, how they spend their day and what they eat. Understand what makes these mighty creatures so important and why they are threatened.

 
 

Amazing BLUE WHALE stats

Name

Blue whale

Latin name

Balaenoptera musculus

Type

Mammal

Group

Pod

Population

Between 5,000 and 15,000

Status

Endangered

Weight

Up to 140,000kg

Length

Up to 30 metres

Diet

Carnivore

Lifespan

80 to 90 years

Habitat

Ocean

Geography

All oceans except the Arctic and closed seas

 
 

Amaze your friends with these awesome facts, remember to scroll ← or → for more

  • A blue whales tongue can weigh as much as an elephant

  • Female blue whales are a little bigger than males

  • A blue whale can stay under water for around 30 minutes but they usually come to the surface for air every 2 to 5 minutes

  • A blue whales’ blood vessels are so wide you could swim through them

  • Blue whales look blue underwater, but on the surface their colour is more a blue-grey

  • It’s heart can weigh as much as a car and can be heard 2 miles away

  • Blues whales are also the loudest animals on the planet, their cries can be louder than a jet plane. Their calls can be heard underwater for hundreds of miles

  • When a blue whale breathes out, the spray from its blowhole shoots nearly 30 metres in the air. If you are close enough it can smell a little fishy!

  • In just one day a blue whale will eat between 30 and 40 million krill. That’s the same in weight as an African elephant!

  • The average lifespan of a blue whale is between 80 and 90 years but the oldest blue whale found was determined to be around 100 years old!

 
 

All about blue whales

Wow, that’s big!

Blue whales are simply ginormous! As the largest animals ever to have lived on earth, these marine giants can grow up to 30 metres long, the same as three buses and weigh up to 130,000 kilograms, that’s heavier than 25 elephants or 115 giraffes. Their heart can weigh as much as a car and their tongue as much as an elephant!

They are also the loudest animals on earth, their calls can reach 188 decibels and are even louder than a jet engine, they can be heard many hundreds of miles away.

Where do blue whales live?

Blue whales live in all the world's oceans occasionally swimming in small groups but usually alone or in pairs. They often spend summers feeding in polar waters and undertake lengthy migrations towards the Equator before the winter.

How do blue whales spend their day?

Blue whales are graceful swimmers and cruise the ocean at more than five miles an hour but can reach speeds of more than 20 miles an hour when needed. Despite their size, their body is relatively slim and streamlined for efficient long distance travel.

Blue whales travel alone or in small groups, but have also been found in much larger pods of up to sixty individuals, particularly during periods of feeding.

They migrate to the Poles for the summer months to feed, returning to the calm warmer seas near the Equator for the winter.

Male and female blue whales tend to mate during the winter months, the babies are born a year later. Blue whale calves are already amongst the world’s largest creatures when they are born, weighing up to 2,700kgs and are nearly eight meters long. It gorges on nothing but its mother's milk for its first year and gains about 200 pounds every day - its growth rate is astonishing and probably the fastest in the animal kingdom.

A blue whales’ call is so loud that it can travel for thousands of miles through the sea. Scientists believe that these calls are used to navigate, detect food and also to communicate with each other.

Blue whales are amongst Earth's longest-lived animals and typically live for between 80 and 90 years. However, scientists have discovered that by counting the layers that have formed in a deceased whale's waxlike earplugs, they can estimate their age. The oldest blue whale found using this method was estimated to be around 110 years old.

What do blue whales eat?

Blue whales eat krill, a tiny pale pinkish shrimp-like creature that is around the size of your little finger. Due to their enormous size, a blue whale must eat huge amounts - during certain times of the year an adult blue whale can eat around 30 million krill in just one day!

Billions of krill live in the waters around the north and south Poles; in the summer months the sea can look pink because there are so many. At this time of year, the whales travel to the Poles to feed, growing a thick layer of blubber, or fat all over it’s body and creating a food store for the winter when the sea has frozen over.

Blue whales are part of a group of ‘baleen’ whales; instead of teeth they have hundreds of baleen plates hanging from their top jaw. Baleen is a tough bendy, fibrous material used to filter their food. To get enough food, the whale takes a huge mouthful of seawater and krill, its throat will expand to let the water in. It then uses its giant tongue to push the water back out through its baleen plates, leaving the krill caught in the plates, just like a sieve.

Why are blue whales so important?

Blue whales are at the top of the food chain and have an important role in maintaining the health and balance of the marine environment.

 
 

➳Threats to blue whales

In the past, blue whales were abundant with an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 in the worlds oceans. However, as whaling grew, their population declined dramatically, with an estimated 360,000 whales hunted and killed between 1900 and the mid 1960s. This left the blue whale on the brink of extinction.

The 1966 International Whaling Commission gave the species some protection and their numbers have started to recover. Today the blue whale is a protected species and it is estimated that the current population is between 5,000 and 15,000 and continues to increase. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) now classify the blue whale as ‘endangered’.

Blue whales have few predators but may be occasionally attacked by a group of killer whales or sharks. Many are injured or die each year from impacts with large ships or from becoming entangled in fishing gear.

Like other large whales, blue whales are threatened by environmental change including habitat loss and toxins. Climate change and its impact on sea temperature could have a hugely detrimental effect on the abundance of krill - the blue whales' biggest food source. Krill are reliant on sea algae but as the sea ice disappears, fewer algae are released therefore dramatically affecting the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

 
 

Did you enjoy learning about the enormous BLUE WHALE?

Take a look at our Brilliant blue whales activity kit, packed hours of fun

 

Get in touch

If you have any feedback on the page or even if you have another fascinating fact that we can add then please let us know.