™™Common name: bowhead whale
Scientific name: Family Balaenidae
Genus species: Balaena mysticetus
 | Size |
Bowhead whales can reach lengths up to 18.5 meters (60 feet) long and a maximum of 19.8 meters (64 feet). They can weigh as much as 75 to 100 metric tons.
| What do they eat? |
They eat zooplankton like krill, copepods, mysids, and amphipods. Bowhead whales are skimmers, like right whales. That means they swim along the surface with their mouth open skimming/trapping their food in their baleen. They also find food in the water and along the bottom of the sea.
| Right Highlights: |
Bowhead whales are baleen whales. These robust whales look very similar to right whales. They have the most blubber per body size and longest baleen of all baleen whales. Two reasons why people hunted them. Bowhead whales are black with a white chin. Adults can have 230 to 360 black or gray baleen plates which can be as long as 4 meters (13 feet) long.
They are found in the Arctic Sea, Pacific Ocean (northern), and Atlantic Ocean (northern).The estimated population of bowheads is 8,200 individuals. Depending upon the specific population, the bowhead whale is considered vulnerable to endangered by the International Conservation Union (IUCN).
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