Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 128, August 2015, pp. 1-18. | Page 3

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Frontal view of the Skeleton of the 24-meters Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
which stranded on the Kazma (Kadmah) coast in Kuwait in 1963 and is displayed at the
Educational Science Museum in Kuwait. Photo by: Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalafvon Jaffa. 24.06.2014. https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/14379799867/
The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus Linnaeus, 1758) is a marine mammal
belonging to the baleen whales (Mysticeti). At 30 metres (98 feet) in length and
170 tonnes (190 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest existing animal and
the heaviest that ever existed (Wikipedia).
Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey
dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. There are at least three distinct
subspecies: Balaenoptera musculus musculus Linnaeus, 1758 of the North Atlantic
and North Pacific, Balaenoptera musculus intermedia Burmeister, 1871 of the
Southern Ocean and Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda Ichihara, 1966 (also known
as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific
Ocean. Balaenoptera musculus indica Blyth, 1859, found in the Indian Ocean, may
be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost
exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill (Wikipedia).
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning
of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 128 – August 2015