The second largest animal in the world after the blue whale,
the fastest swimming of all the large whales (sometimes called the greyhound
of the seas) and the commonest of the large baleen whales. The fin whale is very
streamlined in shape, but rather "fuller" than the blue whale, then it's not so
long. Like the other fast swimming whales the Fin is generally free of external
external markings, scarring, callosities and parasites. The head colouring is asymmetrical
for some reason, even though the head is darkly coloured, the lower right side of
the jaw is always white, this colouration also extends to the baleen inside the
mouth which is differently coloured on each side.
The Fin whale has the characteristic Rorqual's pleating of
the throat region with anywhere from 50 to 100 pleats present that reach as
far down as the navel (being mammals, whales have a tummy button). The baleen or
whalebone is short, up to around 70cm long by about 30cm wide with from 260-480
plates on each side.
Fin whales are more sociable than the other rorquals often
being found in small pods of 2-7 individuals (but rarely up to 20). This kind of
behaviour is often associated with feeding techniques and it is likely that this
is the reason. Fin whales are known to dive deeper than most baleen whales, to 200m
again for feeding reasons. These behavioural characteristics and feeding behaviour
add up to Fin whales occupying a different "niche" to the other large filter feeding
whales and so allowing them to co-exist in similar regions as they feed on different
types or sizes of food.
Like other large whales, the Fin's feed in the spring and summer
at high latitudes in the Arctic or Antarctic and migrate towards warmer waters in
the winter months. Fin whales swim about 90 miles (144 km) a day when migrating
and have been tracked as travelling as much as 188 miles (300 km) in a single day
- pretty impressive for something that travels through the most difficult medium
of all - water.
Fin whales can swim at up to 30 mph (48 kmh) in short bursts
when alarmed and at up to 18 mph (30 kmh) when migrating and cruising. Their swimming
speed when feeding is much more
They often feed by swimming at the surface on their sides scooping
up water and prey as they go, this is done on their right sides so that the
white lower jaw and baleen are pointing downwards and may be the reason for this
asymmetrical colouration. Though smaller than blue whales and not having quite the
same prodigious appetite, Fin whales have been calculated as consuming as much as
2.8 tonnes of food a day while feeding in the Antarctic in the summer months.
