Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 130, October 2015, pp. 1-18. | Page 4

4

because newly-born blue whales are about 7 meters in length at birth. The second
whale has a length of less than 7 meters. The second and the third whale could be
fin whales or any other smaller Balaenoptera species (Khalaf, June 1987).
Al-Robaae (1982) mentions that the whales recorded from the Arabian Gulf are:
the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus Linnaeus, 1758), the Fin Whale
(Balaenoptera physalus Linnaeus, 1758), the Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera brydei
Olsen, 1913 and Balaenoptera edeni Anderson, 1879) and the Humpback Whale
(Megaptera novaeangliae Borowski, 1781) (Khalaf, June 1987).
Basson, Burchard Jr., Hardy and Price (1981) in their book “Biotopes of the
Western Arabian Gulf” write: “Baleen Whales are occasionally found in the Gulf
and sometimes become stranded on the beach or trapped in shallow bays. None
of the specimens have been positively identified but they are probably either the
fin whale Balaenoptera physalus, a widely distributed species, or the Bryde’s
Whale Balaenoptera brydei” (Khalaf, June 1987).

Prof. Dr. Norman Ali Bassam Khalaf-von Jaffa standing infront of the Skeleton of the
10.5-meters Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) which stranded on Umm Al-Maradem
Island coast in Kuwait on 23.03.1978 and is displayed at the Educational Science
Museum in Kuwait. Photo by: Nora Norman Ali Khalaf. 24.06.2014.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/14648617216/
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 130 – October 2015