By Nathan

There are 8 species of whales in Antarctica Blue Whales, Fin Whales, Hump-back Whales, Minke Whales, Orcas, Southern Right Whales, Sei Whales and Sperm Whales. This is some information about these Whales of Antarctica.

They are around 11,000 individual Blue Whales, they are located in all oceans across the world .

They can be 85 to 100 feet long and can weigh 85 to 150 tons. Their diet is krill and other small

crustaceans. The blue whale is the biggest animal to live on Earth and weighs 100 tons , easily out weighing most dinosaurs! Whales belong to the group of mammals called Cetaceans including

Porpoises and dolphins.

There are around 2.5 million pairs of Orca’s found in world-wide Oceans they’re known to be 25 to 30 feet long. Their diet is fish, birds and marine mammals.

Orca’s are the kings of the sea and are at the top of the food chain.

A diagram of the Antarctic food web.

There are around 500,000 individual Minke whales in world-

wide oceans. They can be up to 30 feet long and weigh up to 10 tons. Their diet is krill, fish and squid. Minke Whales aren't commonly known by most people but recently they have come up in news because of whaling.

There are around 100,000 Fin Whales left in the ocean. They’re located in World-wide Oceans. They can be 80 to 90 feet long and weight up to 70 tons. They diet consists of squid, krill and fish. Fin whales are the fastest of all baleen whales. Fin whales can eat up to two tons of food each day.

There are about 20,000 individual Hump-backs left in the World-wide oceans. They can reach 40 to 50 feet long and weigh up to 48 tons. Their diet is made up of krill and fish. The name ‘Hump-back’ comes from when they dive, once in air they get a high arch on their back. Hump-backs can also be recognized by their huge flippers that can take up to ¾ of their body length.

They are about 4000 individual Southern Right Whales left in the Southern oceans. They can be up to 50 feet long and weigh up to 80 tons. A Southern Right whale’s diet consists of plankton, krill and tiny crustaceans. Southern Right Whales are definitely slow swimmers which made them easy targets for harpoons, which is also why they have very low numbers in the wild. The researchers use the patterns of the hair on the whales jaw, blowholes, the top of and other parts of their body to determine each individual Southern Right Whale. ( Like a humans finger print)

They are about 70,000 individual Sei Whales found in oceans worldwide. Sei whales can be up to 50 feet long and weight up to 40 tons. Their diet consists of krill and other small crustaceans. Sei whales feed by skimming through water on their sides through hundreds of krill or crustaceans using their baleen plates to filter the water. Sei Whales are not very good divers and like to stay in shallow depths only staying underwater for 5-10 minutes at a time or they just stay at the surface.

They are around 750,000 individual Sperm Whales left in the World-wide oceans. They can be up to 50 feet long and weigh up to 40 tons. Their diet consists of Giant squid, fish, octopus and skate. They normally consume about 1 ton of food a day, using echo-location Sperm whales send out high pitch noises and hearing how they come back to find out where their prey is. Sperm whales barely comes to the surface of the water, the sperm whale is the biggest toothed whale in the Antarctic region. Sperm whales normally swim in groups of 20 to 25 individuals at the edge of the Antarctic border, normally at 600 feet under sea level.

Whaling is mostly for whale meat or whale oil, it Whaling went way back to 3000BC. In the l9300’s there were more than 50,000 whales killed each year. The I.W.C (international whaling commission) has successfully in stopping the extinction of some whales but barely saved the Blue whale leaving less than 1% of their normal population.

http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/wildlife/whales/whales.htm

http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/whales.shtlm