| | |
| whitish; bristles | | |
| grayish white. | | |
Bowhead whale |Black; anterior | ? | None | XX
| side of some is | | present.|
| whitish; bristles | | |
| black. | | |
Right whale |Dirty or yellowish gray;| 35-70 | None | XX
| some anterior plates | | present.|
| all or part white. | | |
Minke whale |White to yellowish | 15-25 | 50-70 |End short of
| white. Posterior plates| | | navel; often just
| may be brown or black. | | | behind flippers.
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[Footnote C: As stated in the Index to the species, these figures
represent maximum sizes recorded for the W. N. Atlantic. For all species
exploited by whaling industries' current maximum sizes will be
substantially smaller than these figures (see species accounts).]

DIRECTORY TO SPECIES ACCOUNTS

LARGE WHALES

(40-85 feet [12-26 m] maximum overall length)

With a Dorsal Fin

All five species of large whales with a dorsal fin belong to the same
major baleen whale group, the balaenopterid whales or rorquals. All are
characterized by the presence of a series of ventral grooves, usually
visible on stranded specimens and the length and number of which are
diagnostic to species. In addition, all species, with the exception of
the humpback whale, have at least one distinctive (though often not
prominent) ridge along the head from just in front of the blowhole to
near the tip of the snout. (The humpback whale, on the other hand, is
distinguished by numerous knobs, some of which are located along the
line of the head ridge, with others scattered on the top of the head.)
In Bryde's whale, the single head ridge characteristic of the other
rorquals is supplemented by two auxiliary ridges, one on each side of
the main ridge.

At sea, these whales often appear very similar and must be examined
carefully before they can be reliably identified.

In general, though the characteristics of behavior may vary from one
encounter to the next, based on the activities in which the animal is
engaged, whales in this group may be disti