To admire blue whales, you need to know which waters they prefer to be in during summer and winter. Most often, these animals are found in the Chukchi Sea, near Sri Lanka, in the Pacific Ocean.
The blue whale belongs to the group of baleen whales, which are the largest animals ever to exist on Earth. Moreover, this animal is its largest representative. Scientists estimate that the size and mass of these cetaceans exceed those of the largest dinosaurs.
Blue whale habitats
Representatives of this family live in all seas and oceans of the globe. They can be found in cold waters from the Chukchi Sea and Greenland to Antarctica. They feel no less wonderful at the equator, in the Indian Ocean, in warm waters near the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The largest individuals are representatives of the southern subspecies and live near the South Pole. In the waters of the Northern Hemisphere, on the contrary, there is a dwarf subspecies of these cetaceans. It is relatively small in size: its representatives, as a rule, are 2-3 meters smaller than their counterparts.
You can admire these animals in the Gulf of Anden and in the Seychelles region. However, water areas near Sri Lanka are considered the best place to observe them. Here blue whales appear with enviable regularity, which attracts the attention of many tourists.
The habitat of these animals can be called the territory from the American state of Oregon to the Kuriles. They often find themselves near Iceland, Norway, Svalbard. Navigators noted the appearance of large individuals off the Canadian coast, near Denmark and Nova Scotia. In Russia's territorial waters, blue whales are most common in the Pacific Ocean, the Chukchi Sea, northeast of Sakhalin.
Features of the migration of blue whales
These animals do not have a preference for any particular sea or ocean. They feel equally good in any of them. But the summer is spent in the waters of the Antarctic, North Atlantic, in the Chukchi Sea. With the approach of cold weather, they go to warmer places. In the northern hemisphere, blue whales winter at the latitudes of southern Japan, in the southern - near Australia, Peru, Madagascar.
To a large extent, these movements are due to the fact that calves of whales need warmth, which in a short summer do not have time to increase the thickness of the subcutaneous fat layer necessary for existence in cold waters. Therefore, females take them to more favorable conditions of existence. A whale engaged in foraging moves at a speed of 10-15 km / h. But if the animal is frightened and feels danger, it can increase up to 35-40 km / h.
