Scientists estimate that blue whales can live for at least 80 years. The largest recorded length for a blue whale is 110 feet, but sizes tend to run more in the range of 80-100 feet. Females have been known to be up to 32 feet longer than males. Blue whales can weigh anything up to 180 tons. The blue whale is bigger than 25 elephants; bigger than a Brontosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex combined. They are the largest animal that has ever lived, their heart is as large as a car e.g. Volkswagen Beetle, its mouth is up to 6meters wide. The Blue whale’s heartbeat can be detected from two miles away and the arteries of the Blue whale are so large a human can easily swim in it.

Blue whales are known to live in three main areas, one is in the southern hemisphere, one is in the North Pacific and one is in the North Atlantic. Blue whales feed almost exclusively on krill, though they also take small numbers of copepods. Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a blue whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball. An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day.

The Blue whale can dive for 10 - 20 minute periods, and usually feed at depths of about 300 feet. Average travel speed is around 13 m/hr, although they may swim as fast as 29 m/hr if they perceive a danger. When feeding, they are known to slow down to around 5 kilometres per hour (3.1 mph). Blue whales most commonly live alone or with one other individual. It is not known how long travelling pairs stay together. In locations where there is a high concentration of food, as many as 50 blue whales have been seen scattered over a small area. However, they do not form the large close-knit groups seen in other baleen whales.

During the first seven months of its life, a blue whale calf drinks approximately 400 litres of milk every day. Blue whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as 90 kilograms (200 lb) every 24 hours. Even at birth, they weigh up to 2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb) this equates to the same as a fully grown hippopotamus. Mating starts in late autumn and continues to the end of winter. Little is known about mating behaviour or breeding grounds. Females typically give birth once every two to three years at the start of the winter after a gestation period of ten to twelve months.

Blue whales are believed to have excellent hearing, especially at low frequencies, which is valuable in the dark ocean environment. They are the loudest animals on Earth even louder than a jet engine: their calls reach 188 decibels, while a jet reaches 140 decibels.

Hunting these whales proved too difficult until technological advances between 1860 and 1920 made capture possible. The Hunting ban was introduced the 1960’s, population has improved however they are still listed as red listed endangered.   Illegal whaling by the USSR finally halted in the 1970s, by which time 330,000 blue whales had been killed in the Antarctic, 33,000 in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, 8,200 in the North Pacific, and 7,000 in the North Atlantic. The largest original population, in the Antarctic, had been reduced to 0.15% of their initial numbers. In the Antarctic, best estimates show a significant increase at 7.3% per year since the end of illegal Soviet whaling, but numbers remain at under 1% of their original levels.

The ever-increasing amount of ocean noise, including sonar, drowns out the vocalizations produced by whales, which may make it harder for them to communicate. Considering the Blue whale's migratory patterns are based on ocean temperature, a disruption in this circulation, which moves warm and cold water around the world, would be likely to have an effect on their migration. Blue whales are still threatened by pollution, and Blue whale meat still turns up on markets in Japan.

With the possible lift of the whaling ban throughout Europe the numbers of the Blue whale will drop significantly and they could be extinct within the next 40 years.

The whales' only natural predator is the Orca. Studies report that as many as 25% of mature blue whales have scars resulting from Orca attacks, however this does not account for their drop in numbers, that is purely at the hands of man.

*AWF - Elephant

 To sign a petition against the lift of the whaling ban or for further information on the other projects and AWF go to www.whalenation.org