What is "blue whale"

n. A whale (''Balaenoptera musculus''), blue in color and the largest known living animal.

n. largest mammal ever known; bluish-gray migratory whalebone whale mostly of southern hemisphere [syn: sulfur bottom, Balaenoptera musculus]

The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whales ( Mysticeti). At up to in length and with a maximum recorded weight of and probably reaching over 181 tonnes (200 short tons), it is the largest animal ever known to have existed.

Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as krill.

Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales worldwide, in at least five groups. The IUCN estimates that there are probably between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales worldwide today. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere. As of 2014, the Eastern North Pacific blue whale population has rebounded to nearly its pre-hunting population.

Blue whale may refer to:

• Blue whale, the largest species of whale
  • Blue whale penis, the largest penis of any animal
• Blue Whale Harbor, an anchorage on South Georgia Island
• Blue Whale Mountain, a mountain on South Georgia Island
• Blue Whale Systems, a British mobile phone services software company
• An early, short-lived band featuring drummer Aynsley Dunbar
• Blue Whale of Catoosa a waterfront structure, just east of Catoosa, Oklahoma