Blue Whale in Costa Rica
October 30th, 2012
The blue whales in the Pacific Ocean are majestic creatures renowned all over the world. The scientific name given to the blue whale is “Balaenoptera musculus”. This whale is called a marine mammal which belongs to the family of baleen whales present in oceans all over the world. The blue whale is massive in length, mass and body. It’s length can extend up to 98 feet and it’s weight is more than 180 tons! Research believes that the blue whale may just be the largest existing creature in the whole world. The blue whale is described to have a long body that is slender with colors of blue and gray all over its upper side. The lower part of the blue whale has either pale shades of blue-gray or darkish white. The blue whale has three more subspecies branching out from its main family. The first is B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, the second is the B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and the third type is B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. The diet of the blue whale like most creatures of its family consists mostly of small crustaceans or plankton present in the waters of Costa Rica.
The blue whales were present in all major oceans across the world until the start of this century. Then they started being hunted by whalers all over the world. The hunts were so extreme in ferocity that the blue whale almost became an extinct creature of the sea. The most blue whales can be found in Costa Rica which is also known as ‘the kingdom of the blue whales’. To date, the blue whale is known as the largest specie to ever have been discovered in the world. Even the largest known dinosaur was lighter in weight and girth as compared to the blue whale. The exact size of the blue whale is almost impossible to determine, though. But in comparison to blue whales from the northern Atlantic, the blue whales in Pacific areas are found to be just a bit smaller. The body of the blue whale is shaped slightly differently from the other whales in the family. The head of the blue whale in oval or U-shaped and has ridge running across it from the blowhole to just above the upper lip. Baleen plates make up the front part of the blue whale’s mouth, ranging about 300 in number. 70 – 118 ventral pleats run along the blue whale’s throat right up to the length of the body. These pleats help in filtering out the food of the blue whale when it chooses to lunge feed. Lunge feeding is when the blue whale lunges into a school of fish with huge mouth wide open. The dorsal fin of the blue whale is pretty small. The blue whale inhabits most of the areas ranging around Costa Rica. It is present near the surface of the water and does not dive too deep.
Video for Blue Whale
Reference
Mackintosh, N. A.; Wheeler, J. F. G. (1929). “Southern blue and fin whales”. Discovery Reports I: 259–540.
“Blue Whale Fact Sheet”. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.