BLUE WALE

Order : Cetacea
Suborder : Mysticeti
Family : Balaenopteridae
Species : Balaenoptera musculus



The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) was hunted almost to extinction until hunting was outlawed in 1966, and today humans still disturb these beautiful underwater giants. With the increase of the noise from ships and military sonar, blue whales have a hard time communicating with each other. Read about it on National Geographic. Furthermore, they are threatened by illegal whaling, pollution and fishing nets. The world population is estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 (source). They are considered an endangered species. Yesterday i saw an episode of Genographic Project on National Geographic, about the evolution on whales. According to the Genographic project, all cetaceans descended from a wolf-like creature. But a little search on google shows a lot of different views, including the hippopotamus. Did you know adult blue whales are about the same size as a boeing 737 ?

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