Blue Whales

by Avery Foley on May 2, 2016

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures . . . So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded.’” (Genesis 1:20–21)

On Day Five of Creation Week, God filled the oceans with living creatures. All of these creatures are well designed to live their lives in the water. One of these animals God made on Day Five is the biggest animal to ever have lived—the blue whale. It is very well designed for a life in the open ocean.

Blue whales have huge mouths and their throats are able to expand like a balloon so they can fill their mouths with gallons of water at once. Now, instead of teeth, a blue whale has baleen (buh-LEEN) plates. They will swallow a massive mouthful of water and then force the water out of their mouths, through their baleen plates. Thousands of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill get stuck in their baleen, and then the whale swallows a yummy meal. They eat up to 4 tons of krill every day!

Blue Whale

Blue Whale

Interesting facts

  • Blue whales were almost hunted to extinction. They are protected now but still endangered.
  • A blue whale’s heart can weigh as much as a small car and their heartbeat can be detected from two miles (3.2 km) away.
  • Their tongue can weigh as much as much as a whole elephant and their stomach is the size of a minivan.
  • Blue whales are the loudest animals on Earth; they are louder than a jet engine! They can be heard hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away. But they don’t make noise at a frequency we can hear with our ears, so we have to use special equipment to hear them.
  • Baby whales are 25 feet (8 meters) long and weigh 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) when they are born. They gain 200 pounds (90 kg) a day drinking their mother’s milk.
  • The spray from a blue whale’s blowhole can reach up to 30 feet (9 meters) into the air.

    • Features

    Class: Mammalia
    Order: Cetacea
    Family: Balaenopteridae
    Genus: Balaenoptera
    Species: musculus
    Length: 80–110 feet (25–32 meters)
    Weight: Up to 200 tons (181,437 kg)
    Diet: Krill (microscopic, shrimp-like animals)
    Habitat: Deep oceans all over the world

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