Order: Cetacea.

Family: Balaenopteridae.

Size: Length- 75 to 85 ft (22-26 m) with females slightly longer than males.

Weight: 36 to 80 tonnes.

Key Features: Fin Whale, is the second largest whale after Blue Whale, has a large and sleek body with a narrow, V-shaped snout; head flat with a prominent median ridge, back (from the dorsal fin to the flukes) is distinctly ridged (thus also known as Razorback). The ventral grooves, numbering from 56 to 100, extend to the navel or beyond. The falcate dorsal fin is up to and sometimes more than 60 cm tall located about one-third of the body length forward from the fluke notch. Body is dark grey to brownish-black on the back and sides with head having asymmetric pigmentation; with the right lower jaw white and the left, dark; below the animal is white including the undersides of the flukes and flippers. There are 260 to 480 baleen plates on each side reaching a maximum length of 72 cm and width of 30 cm.

Voice: Make loud low-frequency sounds that are heard hundreds of kilometres away under the sea and is presumed to be the way of keeping in contact with the others, so that each pair or Fin Whale may be part of a herd scattered across the ocean.

Breeding: Single calf born after gestation period of 11 to 12 months. Females sexually mature at 7 to 12 yrs, males at 6 to 10 yrs. May live up to 80 to 90 yrs.

Diet: Small fish, krill and squid.

Habitat: Generally found in the open ocean, Fin Whales may also be seen near the coast.

Habits: Fin Whales have more and coarser baleen plates than do Blue Whales. They filter out the larger planktonic animals and small fish that travel in shoals. Fin Whales, the only known asymmetrically coloured cetaceans, have been reported as using their white right side to confuse and concentrate schools of fish so as to gulp down more fish and are also reported to frequently hunt in pairs. The dorsal fin, in travelling whales, appears on the surface shortly after the blow. The blow is tall (4 to 6 m high), and shaped like an inverted cone.

Conservation Status: Species listed as ‘Endangered’ on IUCN red list.

Distribution in Gujarat: Fin Whales which occasionally ventures in the coastal waters were recorded twice from the coastal region of Gujarat.24 The carcass of 14.05 m long whale found off Magdalla near Surat, about 8 km upstream in the river Tapti on 13th Aug 1971.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

• Karbhari, J. P. (2011). Stranded Fin Whale, Balaenoptera physalus (Linn.) off Magdalla (Surat). Indian Journal of Fisheries. New Delhi

• Marine Mammals Facts Courtesy: Animal Fact Files- Mammals. The Brown Reference Group Plc.