Blue whale
Balaenoptera musculus
Valid name. Maldivian animals are referred to the Northern Indian Ocean subspecies, B. m. indica (IMMA factsheet).
- English
- Blue whale
- Scientific
- Balaenoptera musculus
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Baleen whales
- Maximum size
- Up to about 30 m worldwide; northern Indian Ocean blue whales are smaller than Antarctic animals
- Depth and habitat
- Open ocean, often along the steep outer slopes of the atolls; deep diver for krill
- IUCN status
- EN · EndangeredEndangered (EN), assessed 2018 (species); the Northern Indian Ocean subspecies has not been assessed
Description
The largest animal that has ever lived: a long, streamlined, blue-grey whale mottled with paler grey, with a broad flat head, a tiny dorsal fin set far back and a tall column-like blow. It feeds by lunging into dense swarms of krill and other small crustaceans, engulfing huge mouthfuls of water and straining it through baleen plates. Its low-frequency calls can travel hundreds of kilometres. Populations were devastated by 20th-century whaling, including illegal Soviet catches in the Arabian Sea in the 1960s.
In the Maldives
Recorded mainly from November to April, most often on the 'upstream' side of the atoll chain as the monsoon currents shift; part of a population that moves between Sri Lanka and the Arabian Sea. Eight strandings recorded to 2012. All cetaceans are protected in the Maldives (since 1993).
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Balaenoptera-musculus.html
- mammalwatching.com /wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Maldives-cetaceans-review-2012.pdf
- mrc.gov.mv /assets/Uploads/2005-Observations-of-cetaceans-in-the-Maldives-1990-20
- marinemammalhabitat.org /wp-content/uploads/imma-factsheets/WesternIndianOcean/Maldives-archip
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Anim1754_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg
Dhivehi name source: No species-specific Dhivehi name found. Anderson (2005) reports that Maldivian fishermen do not generally distinguish whale species and call large whales 'bodumas' ('big fish').