habitat_narrative
Marine
The Blue Whale is the largest of the mysticete (baleen) whales, with lengths exceeding 30 m, and is the largest mammal that has ever lived (Skinner and Chimimba 2005). Blue Whales feed on euphausiids and other crustacean meso-zooplankton. Dives are mostly less than 16 m or between 97 and 152 m, up to a maximum of 200 m (Best 2007). They feed both at the surface and also at depth, following the diurnal vertical migrations of their prey to at least 100 m. Antarctic Blue Whales feed predominantly near the edge of the pack ice zone during summer. They generally stay far from the shore (40â60 nautical miles) but occasionally come within a few kilometres, especially in mid-winter (Best 2007)Antarctic Blue Whales are larger than Pygmy Blue Whales (> 30 m compared to 24 m). Evidence is emerging that Blue Whale songs can be used to determine population structure, as different regions have distinct and temporally stable song types (McDonald et al. 2006).
Ecosystem and cultural services: Marine mammals integrate and reflect ecological variation across large spatial and long temporal scales, and therefore they are prime sentinels of marine ecosystem change; migratory mysticete whales may be used to investigate broad-scale shifts in ecosystems (Moore 2008).
