The Blue whale is a marine animal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales.At over 33 meters in length and 180 metric tons or more, it is the largest animal.The blue whale's body can be shades of bluish-grey and lighter.There are three subspecies of the North Atlantic and North Pacific,Southern Ocean and the pygmy blue whale found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean.As with other whales, its diet consists exclusively of krill.
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans.They were almost to extinction by whalers
until protected by the community. A report
estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales, located in five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an underestimate.The largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering 239,000. There remain only smaller concentrations in each of the Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic,and two in the Southern Hemisphere.