Blue Whale

Balaenoptera musculus (species), “B. Musculus”, “Sibbold’s Rorqual”, “Sulphur-Bottom Whale”, “Pygmy Blue Whale”

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The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whale parvorder Mysticeti. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 metres (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 tonnes (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can be various shades of greyish-blue dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. The Society for Marine Mammalogy's Committee on Taxonomy currently recognizes four subspecies: B. m. musculus in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia in the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale) in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, B. m. indica in the Northern Indian Ocean. There is also a population in the waters off Chile that may constitute a fifth…