Fin whale

After the minke whale disappeared from the Mediterranean, the fin whale remained the only representative of the mysticetes present in our sea. Fortunately, its sightings are quite common, thanks to the large migrations and the large size that make it easy to spot. This mysticet, after the Blue Whale, is the largest animal on Earth with an extraordinary length of 27 meters and a weight of about 80 tons. An adult individual eats almost 1000 kg of food a day, filtered by baleen. The baby at birth measures more than 5 m with a weight of around 2 tons. Every day this is fed with 100 kg of breast milk, to grow by 3 cm and increasing its weight by 60 kg. The life of these great mystics is very long, many individuals reach and exceed 100 years of age. The color of the mandible is typical: white on the right and homogeneous with the body on the left. This is due to a predilection of the left side to approach food, prolonging the mimicry of the pale belly on the right side of the mouth.
During the dive it differs from the Sperm Whale because it does not carry its tail out of the water.

FEATURES

Coloration - Gray / right mandible white

Adult length - 22 m

Adult weight - 60000 kg

Birth weight - 2000 kg

Diet - Plankton, Pisces

Group - 1 - 6 individuals

Status - Common

THREATS

Pollution

Nautical traffic

Back to the scheme