Fin Whale Essay

911 Words4 Pages
Fin Whale Razorback might sound like a name for a cool car, but it’s actually a name for the Fin Whale. Other names include Common Rorqual and Finback (Harrison, 2005). The Fin Whale is part of the species Balaenoptera physalus(Harrison,2005). The reason why I chose the Fin Whale is because it caught my attention on the hit television show “Whale Wars” on Animal Planet. “Whale Wars” is a show about a conservation society who protects whales in the southern ocean from the Japanese Whaling Fleet who hunts whales to sell the meat illegally on the Japanese Market. The Fin Whale is located worldwide from the North Pacific to the Southern Pacific to the Indian, Mediterranean and the Arctic Oceans as well as the Southern Antarctic (WWF, 2007). The Pelagic Zone is where the Fin Whale lives and is a coastal species sometimes living in shallow waters(WWF, 2007). It feeds through the baleen plates in taking large amounts water filtering it through its mouth to in take fish, krill and squid(Harrison, 2005). When it feeds on schools of fish it often lunges sideways in taking the school within several lunges. The water is then pushed back out of the mouth and the prey is kept in the mouth for consumption. A Fin Whale can consume up to two tons each day(Harrison, 2005). Fin whales tend to mate during the winter months and give birth after carrying their calves for a year(Harrison,2005). It is not known exactly where Fin Whales mate at this time. Sexual maturity for the Fin Whale is reached between six to eleven years of age(Harrison,2005). The Fin Whale reaches sexual maturity before it reaches physical maturity. For other whales it is reversed, where physical maturity is reached before sexual maturity. Calves are born every two to three years so the Fin Whale has a slow reproduction rate(Harrison,2005). When the calves are born the weigh in at about two tons, which is the

More about Fin Whale Essay

Open Document