Balaenoptera musculus
Blue Whale
i
2026-08-05: itis_id 180528 via WoRMS external link
The blue whale is a species of baleen whale and the largest marine mammal in the rorqual family Balaenopteridae. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9–30.5 m (98–100 ft) and weighing up to 190–200 t, it is the largest animal known to have ever existed.W CalCOFI holds 162 observations of it in 1 dataset between 1987 and 2019.R
- 162
- observations
- 162
- records
- 162
- sampling events
- 1987–2019
- years
- 1
- datasets
- 33 m
- max length
Observed in 1 dataseti
One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same
strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses
(dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet
pill marks a name the authority does not accept.
i
One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses (dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet pill marks a name the authority does not accept.
-
name used: Balaenoptera musculus Blue Whale · code
BLWH
Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON
Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
library(calcofi4r) con <- cc_get_db() # the promoted release tbl(con, "obs_bio") |> filter(taxon_key == "worms:137090")
import calcofi4py as cc
con = cc.cc_get_db()
con.sql("SELECT * FROM obs_bio WHERE taxon_key = 'worms:137090'").df()Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.20, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.
How big is it 33 m max
Every mark is a measured length with its own source — hover one to read it. The reference objects are _data/size_reference.csv: two of them, the 505 µm bongo mesh and the net's ring, are CalCOFI's own sampling gear.
Lineage 14 ranks · Biota to Balaenoptera
Credits silhouette · photo · text · length
- Silhouette · T. Michael Keesey · CC BY-SA 3.0 · PhyloPic, drawn from Balaenoptera musculus · source
- Photo · NOAA Photo Library, no known copyright restrictions (public domain) · Public domain · inat · source
- Text · Wikipedia, “Blue whale” · CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1369279472
- Length · sealifebase
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · GBIF
The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.
Cite the release, v2026.10.20
Cite the release, v2026.10.20; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗