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78-638: Valentine Starbuck was born on May 22, 1791, in Nantucket. He died in England, but when is not known. A descendant of one of the first Anglo-European settlers of Nantucket, Valentine commanded various whaling ships (whalers) in the Pacific. In 1823 he was captain of the British whaleship L'Aigle , which Hawaiian King Kamehameha II chartered for a trip to Britain on a state visit. The passengers included Queen Kamāmalu and

156-573: A few other nobles. The Hawaiian king and queen died of measles while at London, and Valentine was sued by his employers for not completing his whaling voyage. Prior to his journey to London, Valentine had sighted an island in the Pacific, known as Starbuck or Volunteer Island. When Royal Navy captain George Anson Byron came across this island when returning the bodies of the Hawaiian king and queen to their homeland on HMS  Blonde , he named

234-571: A fin whale off western Greenland . In January 1984, seven were seen from the air circling, holding the flippers, and ramming a fin whale in the Gulf of California, but the observation ended at nightfall. The fin whale is a filter-feeder , feeding on small schooling fish, squid and crustaceans including copepods and krill . In the North Pacific, they feed on krill in the genera Euphausia , Thysanoessa , and Nyctiphanes , large copepods in

312-466: A head start to whaling in the Dutch Republic . In the late 18th and early 19th century, the owners of whalers frequently armed their vessels with cannons to enable the vessels to protect themselves against pirates, and in wartime, privateers . Weapons were also carried on vessels visiting Pacific islands for food, water, and wood in order to defend themselves from the sometimes hostile inhabitants. At

390-410: A length of 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in); the testes usually weigh 1–3 kg (2.2–6.6 lb) in mature individuals. The oral cavity of the fin whale has a very stretchy or extensible nerve system which aids them in feeding. Mating takes place during the winter months, in temperate, low-latitude waters, and the gestation period lasts between 11 and 12 months. At 6 or 7 months of age, when it

468-457: A long time and left the whale to thrash around in its death throes. These harpoons inject air into the carcass to keep the heavier rorqual whales hunted today from sinking. However, the harpoon-cannon is still criticized for its cruelty as not all whales are killed instantly; death can take from minutes to an hour. Japan is currently the only country that engages in whaling in the Antarctic, which

546-549: A major portion of the diet in 1965 (35.7%). Miscellaneous fish, squid, and octopus played only a very minor part of the diet in two of the five years (3.6 to 4.8%). Fin whales caught off California between 1959 and 1970 fed on the pelagic euphausiid Euphausia pacifica (86% of sampled individuals), the more neritic euphausiid Thysanoessa spinifera (9%), and the northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ) (7%); only trace amounts (<0.5% each) were found of Pacific saury ( C. saira ) and juvenile rockfish ( Sebastes jordani ). In

624-483: A roughly 15 m (49 ft) specimen found near Buenos Aires about 30 years earlier as Balaenoptera patachonicus . In 1903, Romanian scientist Emil Racoviță placed all these designations into Balaenoptera physalus . The word physalus comes from the Greek word physa , meaning "blows," referring to the prominent blow of the species. Fin whales are rorquals , members of the family Balaenopteridae , which includes

702-453: A sampling of whale meat in the Japanese market found evidence of blue/fin hybrids. Similarly, a whale caught by whalers off the coast of Iceland in 2018 was found to be a hybrid descended from a female blue whale and a male fin whale. A 2024 genome analysis of North Atlantic blue whales found that approximately 3.5% of their genome was derived from hybridization with fin whales. The gene flow

780-574: A sheltered bay or inlet. With the later development of the slipway at the ship's stern , whale catchers were able to transfer their catch to factory ships operating in the open sea. Previous to that was the whaleship of the 16th to early 20th centuries, driven first by sail and then by steam. The most famous example is the fictional Pequod in Moby-Dick , based on the whaling industry in Nantucket and New Bedford . Whaleships carried multiple whaleboats , open rowing boats used to chase and harpoon

858-609: A small proportion of (mainly juvenile) blue whiting ( Micromesistius poutassou ) were also found. Of the krill sampled between 1979 and 1989, the vast majority (over 99%) was northern krill ( Meganyctiphanes norvegica ); only one stomach contained Thysanoessa longicaudata . Off West Greenland, 75% of the fin whales caught between July and October had consumed krill (family Euphausiidae), 17% capelin ( Mallotus ) and 8% sand lance ( Ammodytes sp. ). Off eastern Newfoundland , they chiefly feed on capelin, but also take small quantities of euphausiids (mostly T. raschii and T. inermis ). In

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936-514: A specimen that had been stranded near Saint-Cyprien, southern France, in 1828 as Balaena musculus . Most later authors followed him in using the specific name musculus , until Frederick W. True (1898) showed that it referred to the blue whale. In 1846, British taxonomist John Edward Gray described a 16.7 m (55 ft) specimen from the Falkland Islands as Balaenoptera australis . In 1865, German naturalist Hermann Burmeister described

1014-499: A third subspecies—this was supported by a 2013 study, which found that the Northern Hemisphere B. p. physalus was not composed of a single subspecies. A 2019 genetic study concluded that the North Pacific fin whales should be considered a subspecies, suggesting the name B. p. velifera (Scammon 1869). The three groups mix at most rarely. Clarke (2004) proposed a "pygmy" subspecies ( B. p. patachonica , Burmeister, 1865) that

1092-456: Is 11 to 12 m (36 to 39 ft) in length, a newborn weans from its mother, and the calf accompanies its mother to the summer feeding area. Although reports of up to six foetuses have been made, single births are far more typical. Females reproduce every two to three years. In the Northern Hemisphere, females reach sexual maturity between the ages of 6 and 12 at lengths of 17.7–19 m (58–62 ft), and around 20 m (66 ft) in

1170-569: Is a cosmopolitan species . It is found in all the world's major oceans and in waters ranging from the polar to the tropical. It is absent only from waters close to the ice pack at both the north and south extremities and relatively small areas of water away from the large oceans, such as the Red Sea , although they can reach into the Baltic Sea , a marginal sea of such conditions. The highest population density occurs in temperate and cool waters. It

1248-424: Is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling : the catching or processing of whales . The term whaler is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japan , still dedicates a single factory ship for the industry. The vessels used by aboriginal whaling communities are much smaller and are used for various purposes over the course of the year. The whale catcher

1326-461: Is brownish to dark or light gray dorsally and white ventrally. The left side of the head is dark gray, while the right side exhibits a complex pattern of contrasting light and dark markings. The right lower jaw is white or light gray, which sometimes extends laterally and dorsally unto the upper jaw. Dark, oval-shaped areas of pigment called "flipper shadows" extend below and posterior to the pectoral fins. The penis size of fin whales typically reaches

1404-403: Is generally found more often on the dorsal fin, pectoral fins, and flukes. Other barnacles found on fin whales include the acorn barnacle Coronula reginae and the stalked barnacle Conchoderma auritum , which attaches to Coronula or the baleen. The harpacticid copepod Balaenophilus unisetus (heavy infestations of which have been found in fin whales caught off northwestern Spain) and

1482-674: Is hard to be precise due to the bearings given. On this journey, Obed also completed the mapping of Tuvalu , which had been begun by Captain George Barrett of the Nantucket whaler Independence II . Other sources suggest that Obed discovered New Nantucket in 1823, while aboard the Hero . J.N. Reynolds , while reporting to the US House of Representatives in 1828, reported a sighting of an island "5 deg. 1 min. south latitude. Seen by O. Starbuck, northwest from Marquesas". Obed made later whaling voyages on

1560-494: Is less densely populated in the warmest, equatorial regions. The North Atlantic fin whale has an extensive distribution, occurring from the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea , northward to Baffin Bay and Spitsbergen . In general, fin whales are more common north of approximately 30°N latitude , but considerable confusion arises about their occurrence south of 30°N latitude because of

1638-525: Is long, slender and brownish-gray in color, with a paler underside to appear less conspicuous from below ( countershading ). At least two recognized subspecies exist, one in the North Atlantic and one across the Southern Hemisphere . It is found in all the major oceans, from  polar  to tropical waters, though it is absent only from waters close to the  pack ice  at

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1716-421: Is no longer the primary commercial product of whaling. Whaling is now done for whale meat for the relatively small culinary market. (Norwegian whalers account for about 20% of whales caught and Japanese whalers for about 60%.) Harpoon cannons , fired from harpoon ships with displacement in the hundreds of tons, are now universally used for commercial whaling operations. These motorized ships are able to keep up with

1794-527: Is not recognized by the Society for Marine Mammalogy . The genetic distance between blue and fin whales has been compared to that between a chimpanzee and human (3.5 million years on the evolutionary tree. ) Nevertheless, hybrid individuals between blue and fin whales with characteristics of both are known to occur with relative frequency in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The DNA profile of

1872-784: Is not well understood. Acoustic readings from passive-listening hydrophone arrays indicate a southward migration of the North Atlantic fin whale occurs in the autumn from the Labrador - Newfoundland region, south past Bermuda , and into the West Indies . One or more populations of fin whales are thought to remain year-round in high latitudes, moving offshore, but not southward in late autumn. A study based on resightings of identified fin whales in Massachusetts Bay indicates that calves often learn migratory routes from their mothers and return to their mother's feeding area in subsequent years. In

1950-686: Is now under the protection of the International Whaling Commission as the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary . The area formerly saw large scale commercial whaling operations by numerous countries before the moratorium. The three Japanese harpoon ships of the ICR serve a factory ship that processes the catch on board and preserves it on site in refrigerators, allowing the long endurance whaling missions. These whaling operations, which are claimed by Japan to be for research purposes, sell

2028-489: Is purportedly darker in colour and has black baleen. He based this on a single physically mature 19.8 m (65 ft) female caught in the Antarctic in 1947–48, the smaller average size (a few feet) of sexually and physically mature fin whales caught by the Japanese around 50°S , and smaller, darker sexually immature fin whales caught in the Antarctic which he believed were a "migratory phase" of his proposed subspecies. The subspecies has not been genetically established, and

2106-466: Is still unknown, since these whales tend to migrate in the open ocean. It has been shown that populations of fin whales within the Mediterranean have preferred feeding locations that partially overlap with high concentrations of plastic pollution and microplastic debris. High concentrations of microplastics most likely overlap with fin whales' preferred feeding grounds because both microplastic and

2184-502: Is the Pequod from the novel Moby-Dick . Fin whale The  fin whale  ( Balaenoptera physalus ), also known as the  finback whale  or  common rorqual , is a species of  baleen whale and the second-longest cetacean after the  blue whale . The biggest individual reportedly measured 26 m (85 ft) in length, with a maximum recorded weight of 77 to 81 tonnes. The fin whale's body

2262-411: Is to circle schools of fish at high speed, frightening the fish into a tight ball, then turning on its side before engulfing the massed prey. Fin whales suffer from a number of pathological conditions. The parasitic copepod Pennella balaenopterae —usually found on the flank of fin whales—burrows into their blubber to feed on their blood, while the pseudo-stalked barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis

2340-410: Is to members of its own genus, such as the minke whales. As of 2023, four subspecies are named, each with distinct physical features and vocalizations. The northern fin whale , B. p. physalus (Linnaeus 1758) inhabits the North Atlantic and the southern fin whale , B. p. quoyi (Fischer 1829) occupies the Southern Hemisphere . Most experts consider the fin whales of the North Pacific to be

2418-547: The Nisshin Maru of Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) is the only whaling factory ship in operation. As compared to whaling before and during the 19th century, which was executed with handheld harpoons thrown from oar-powered whaleboats (depicted most famously in Herman Melville's Moby Dick ) , whaling since the 1900s has been quite different. Whale oil , which fossil-fuel based alternatives has supplanted,

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2496-621: The Chukchi Sea bordering the Arctic Ocean . They occur in high densities in the northern Gulf of Alaska and southeastern Bering Sea between May and October, with some movement through the Aleutian passes into and out of the Bering Sea. Several whales tagged between November and January off southern California were killed in the summer off central California, Oregon , British Columbia , and in

2574-563: The Gotō Islands . The IWC prohibited hunting in the Southern Hemisphere in 1976. The Soviet Union engaged in the illegal killing of protected whale species in the North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere, over-reporting fin whale catches to cover up illegal takes of other species. The fin whale was given full protection from commercial whaling by the IWC in the North Pacific in 1976, and in

2652-611: The Loper (1829–1830), Rose in 1831 (which ran aground), and the Zone in 1843–1846. Alexander Starbuck (1841–1925) was the author of History of the American Whale Fishery (1878). Rodger Starbuck (1799-1821) was a devout Quaker and committed suicide at 21 years of age with a copy of Don Quixote ; Frederick Joslyn, the man who found him, said he muttered before death: "I deserve it, man." Whaler A whaler or whaling ship

2730-679: The Loper , in which vessel he was the first European to visit an outlying island in the Phoenix group , which he named "New Nantucket" and which, when re-discovered in 1835 by Michael Baker, was renamed Baker Island . Obed named "Loper Island" ( Niutao ) which was sighted by Francisco Antonio Mourelle on May 5, 1781, and who named Niutao El Gran Cocal ('The Great Coconut Plantation'). Obed also named "Tracy Island" ( Vaitupu ), and various other now-unidentified islands. Based on reported locations, these might include Birnie Island and Sydney Island , previously discovered by Capt. Emmett in 1820, although it

2808-476: The Norwegian and later British Royal Navies requisitioned a number of whalers for use in a variety of functions such as minesweeping , search and rescue , and anti-submarine warfare . Ten Allied vessels categorized as whalers were lost in the war. Since the 1982 moratorium on commercial whaling, few countries still operate whalers, with Norway , Iceland , and Japan among those still operating them. Of those,

2886-422: The ciliate Haematophagus also infest the baleen, the former feeding on the baleen itself and the latter on red blood cells. The remora Remora australis and occasionally the amphipod Cyamus balaenopterae can also be found on fin whales, both feeding on the skin. Infestations of the giant nematode Crassicauda boopis can cause inflammation of the renal arteries and potential kidney failure, while

2964-448: The humpback whale , the blue whale , Bryde's whale , the sei whale , and the minke whale . The family diverged from the other baleen whales in the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene . Recent DNA evidence indicates the fin whale may be more closely related to the humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) and, in at least one study, the gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ), two whales in different genera, than it

3042-404: The Gulf of Alaska. Fin whales have been observed feeding 250 miles south of Hawaii in mid-May, and several winter sightings have been made there. Some researchers have suggested that the whales migrate into Hawaiian waters primarily in the autumn and winter. Although fin whales are certainly migratory, moving seasonally in and out of high-latitude feeding areas, the overall migration pattern

3120-570: The Ligurian-Corsican-Provençal Basin in the Mediterranean Sea they make dives as deep as 470 m (1,540 ft) to feed on the euphausiid Meganyctiphanes norvegica , while off the island of Lampedusa , between Tunisia and Sicily , they have been observed in mid-winter feeding on surface swarms of the small euphausiid Nyctiphanes couchi . In the Southern Hemisphere, they feed almost exclusively on euphausiids (mainly

3198-549: The North Atlantic, they prey on euphausiids in the genera Meganyctiphanes , Thysanoessa and Nyctiphanes and small schooling fish (e.g. the genera Clupea , Mallotus , and Ammodytes ). Of the 1,609 fin whale stomachs examined at the Hvalfjörður whaling station in southwestern Iceland from 1967 to 1989 (caught between June and September), 96% contained only krill, 2.5% krill and fish, 0.8% some fish remains, 0.7% capelin ( M. villosus ), and 0.1% sandeel (family Ammodytidae);

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3276-428: The Pacific, migration patterns are poorly characterized. Although some fin whales are apparently present year-round in the Gulf of California , there is a significant increase in their numbers in the winter and spring. Southern fin whales migrate seasonally from relatively high-latitude Antarctic feeding grounds in the summer to low-latitude breeding and calving areas in the winter. The location of winter breeding areas

3354-489: The Southern Hemisphere. Calves remain with their mothers for about a year. Full physical maturity is attained between 25 and 30 years. Fin whales have a maximum life span of at least 94 years of age, although specimens have been found aged at an estimated 135–140 years. The fin whale is one of the fastest cetaceans and can sustain speeds between 37 km/h (23 mph) and 41 km/h (25 mph) and bursts up to 46 km/h (29 mph) have been recorded, earning

3432-484: The Tyrrhenian coastline of Italy was found to be infected with Morbillivirus and the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii , as well as carrying heavy loads of organochlorine pollutants . In the 19th century, the fin whale was occasionally hunted by open-boat whalers , but it was relatively safe, because it could easily outrun ships of the time and often sank when killed, making the pursuit a waste of time for whalers. However,

3510-500: The area. In June 2012, a pod of killer whales was seen in La Paz Bay, in the Gulf of California, chasing a fin whale for over an hour before finally killing it and feeding on its carcass. The whale bore numerous tooth rakes over its back and dorsal fin; several killer whales flanked it on either side, with one individual visible under water biting at its right lower jaw. In July 1908, a whaler reportedly saw two killer whales attack and kill

3588-1116: The coastal waters off British Columbia (a sighting occurred in Johnstone Strait in 2011 ) and Kodiak Island . Size of the local population migrating to Hawaiian Archipelago is unknown. Finbacks are also relatively abundant along the coast of Peru and Chile (in Chile, most notably off Los Lagos region such as Gulf of Corcovado in Chiloé National Park , Punta de Choros , port of Mejillones , and Caleta Zorra . Year-round confirmations indicate possible residents off pelagic north eastern to central Chile such as around coastal Caleta Chañaral and Pingüino de Humboldt National Reserve , east of Juan Fernández Islands , and northeast of Easter Island and possible wintering ground exist for eastern south Pacific population. Among Northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal , such as along Sri Lanka , India , and Malaysia , sightings and older records of fin whales exist. The only known predator of

3666-470: The difficulty in distinguishing fin whales from Bryde's whales . Extensive ship surveys have led researchers to conclude that the summer feeding range of fin whales in the western North Atlantic is mainly between 41°20'N and 51°00'N , from shore seaward to the 1,000 fathoms (6,000 ft; 1,800 m) contour. Summer distribution of fin whales in the North Pacific is the immediate offshore waters from central Baja California to Japan and as far north as

3744-517: The fin whale has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. Among whale species, the fin whale is exceeded in size only by the blue whale . Adults usually average 40 to 50 tonnes in weight. Males have a mean length of 21 m (69 ft), and females of 22 m (72 ft). They are sexually dimorphic , with females generally being longer and heavier than males. The largest specimens can attain lengths of over 26 m (85 ft) and weights of 77 to 81 tonnes. The fin whale

3822-485: The fin whale is the killer whale , with at least 20 eyewitness and second-hand accounts of attack or harassment. They usually flee and offer little resistance to attack. Only a few confirmed fatalities have occurred. In October 2005, 16 killer whales attacked and killed a fin whale in the Canal de Ballenas , Gulf of California , after chasing it for about an hour. They fed on its sinking carcass for about 15 minutes before leaving

3900-720: The fin whale the nickname "the greyhound of the sea". Fin whales are more gregarious than other rorquals, and often live in groups of 6–10, although feeding groups may reach up to 100 animals. Like other whales, males make long, loud, low- frequency sounds. The vocalizations of blue and fin whales are the lowest-frequency sounds made by any animal. Most sounds are frequency-modulated (FM) down-swept infrasonic pulses from 16 to 40  hertz frequency (the range of sounds that most humans can hear falls between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz). Each sound lasts one to two seconds , and various sound combinations occur in patterned sequences lasting 7 to 15 minutes each. The whale then repeats

3978-410: The fin whale was a prized kill during the "heyday" of whaling , from 1840 to 1861. It remained so into the 20th century but decades of over harvesting contributed to declining numbers through the late 20th century. Over 725,000 fin whales were reportedly taken from the Southern Hemisphere between 1905 and 1976. Post-recovery numbers of the southern subspecies are predicted to be less than 50% of

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4056-750: The genera Euphausia and Thysanoessa ), as well as taking small amounts of amphipods (e.g. Themisto gaudichaudii ) and various species of fish. Of the more than 16,000 fin whales caught by the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Hemisphere between 1961 and 1965 that contained food in their stomachs, 99.4% fed on euphausiids, 0.5% on fish, and 0.1% on amphipods. In the Southern Ocean they mainly consume E. superba . The animal feeds by opening its jaws while swimming at some 11 km/h (6.8 mph) in one study, which causes it to engulf up to 70 m (18,000 US gal; 15,000 imp gal) of water in one gulp. It then closes its jaws and pushes

4134-444: The genus Neocalanus , small schooling fish (e.g. the genera Engraulis , Mallotus , Clupea , and Theragra ), and squid. Based on stomach content analysis of over 19,500 fin whales caught by the Japanese whaling fleet in the North Pacific from 1952 to 1971, 64.1% contained only krill, 25.5% copepods, 5.0% fish, 3.4% krill and copepods and 1.7% squid. Nemoto (1959) analyzed the stomach contents of about 7500 fin whales caught in

4212-452: The implication can be made that the feeding migration of fin whales every year in circumpolar waters can be associated with pathologic risk. An emaciated 13 m (43 ft) female fin whale, which stranded along the Belgian coast in 1997, was found to be infected with lesions of Morbillivirus . In January 2011, a 16.7 m (55 ft) emaciated adult male fin whale stranded dead on

4290-661: The island "Starbuck" in Valentine's honour. However, his cousin Obed Starbuck had sighted the island previously. Obed Starbuck was born on May 11, 1797, also in Nantucket, and died June 27, 1882. Whaling in the Pacific for many years, Obed made a number of significant voyages. Sailing on the Hero 1822-1824, which returned to Nantucket with 2,173 barrels of sperm oil , he discovered an island on 5 September 1823, located at 5°32' S, 155°5' W, since known as Starbuck Island (also called "Hero Island"). From 1824 to 1826, Obed captained

4368-548: The later introduction of steam-powered boats and harpoons that exploded on impact made it possible to kill and secure them along with blue and sei whales on an industrial scale. As other whale species became overhunted, the whaling industry turned to the still-abundant fin whale as a substitute. It was primarily hunted for its blubber, oil , and baleen. Around 704,000 fin whales were caught in Antarctic whaling operations alone between 1904 and 1975. The introduction of factory ships with stern slipways in 1925 substantially increased

4446-459: The meat from these operations on the market, allowed under the current moratorium to defer research costs. They are highly controversial, and are challenged by anti-whaling parties as being merely a disguise for commercial whaling. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has clashed with the Japanese whalers in the Antarctic in confrontations that have led to international media attention and diplomatic incidents. The most famous fictional whaling ship

4524-484: The northern North Pacific and Bering Sea from 1952 to 1958, found that they mainly preyed on euphausiids around the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska and schooling fish in the northern Bering Sea and off Kamchatka . Of the fin whale stomachs sampled off British Columbia between 1963 and 1967, euphausiids dominated the diet for four of the five years (82.3 to 100% of the diet), while copepods only formed

4602-596: The number of whales taken per year. By 1962–63, sei whale catches began to increase as fin whales became scarce. Coastal groups in northeast Asian waters, along with many other baleen species, were likely driven into serious perils or functional extinctions by industrial catches by Japan covering wide ranges of China and Korean EEZ within a very short period in the 20th century. After the cease of exploiting Asian stocks, Japan kept mass commercial and illegal hunts until 1975. Several thousand individuals were hunted from various stations mainly along coasts of Hokkaido, Sanriku, and

4680-597: The opportunity arise. In July 1793 the British armed whaleship Liverpool , of 20 guns, captured the French whaleship Chardon . However, the French crew succeeded in retaking their vessel. Also that year, an armed British whaleship captured the French whaleship Hébé in Walvis Bay . During the War of 1812 , the U.S. Navy captured two British whaleships, Atlantic and Seringapatam , and used them as warships. During World War II ,

4758-670: The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, British privateers captured several French whalers, among them Necker and Deux Amis , and Anne . Dutch privateers captured Port de Paix and Penn . At the time, many French whalers transferred to the American flag, the United States being neutral in the Anglo-French war. Some whaleships also carried letters of marque that authorized them to take enemy vessels should

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4836-576: The past 100 years, the dramatic increase in ocean noise from shipping and naval activity may have slowed the recovery of the fin whale population, by impeding communications between males and receptive females. Fin whale songs can penetrate over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) below the sea floor and seismologists can use those song waves to assist in underwater surveys. When feeding, fin whales blow five to seven times in quick succession, but while traveling or resting will blow once every minute or two. On their terminal (last) dive they arch their back high out of

4914-538: The poles and relatively small areas of water away from the open ocean. The highest population density occurs in  temperate  and cool waters. Its prey mainly consists of smaller schooling fish , small squid, or crustaceans, including copepods  and  krill . Mating takes place in temperate, low-latitude seas during the winter. Fin whales are often observed in pods of 6–10 animals, with whom they communicate utilizing frequency-modulated sounds, ranging from 16 to 40 hertz. Like all other large whales,

4992-452: The possibilities that the sounds were due to equipment malfunction, geophysical phenomena, or even part of a Soviet Union scheme for detecting enemy submarines. Eventually, biologists demonstrated that the sounds were the vocalizations of fin whales. Direct association of these vocalizations with the reproductive season for the species and that only males make the sounds point to these vocalizations as possible reproductive displays. Over

5070-546: The pre-whaling population, even by 2100, due to long-lasting impacts of whaling and slow recovery rates. As of 2018, it was assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN . B. acutorostrata ( minke whale ) [REDACTED] B. musculus ( blue whale ) [REDACTED] B. borealis ( sei whale ) [REDACTED] Eschrichtius robustus ( gray whale ) [REDACTED] B. physalus ( fin whale ) [REDACTED] Megaptera novaeangliae ( humpback whale ) [REDACTED] The fin whale

5148-441: The sequences in bouts lasting up to many days. The vocal sequences have source levels of up to 184–186  decibels relative to 1  micropascal at a reference distance of one metre and can be detected hundreds of miles from their source. When fin whale sounds were first recorded by US biologists, they did not realize that these unusually loud, long, pure and regular sounds were being made by whales. They first investigated

5226-411: The sleeker and fast-swimming rorquals such as the fin whale , that would have been impossible for the muscle-powered rowboats to chase, and allow whaling to be done more safely for the crews. The use of grenade-tipped harpoons has greatly improved the effectiveness of whaling, allowing whales to be killed often instantaneously as compared to the previous method in which whales bled to death, which took

5304-483: The smaller C. crassicauda infects the lower urinary tract . Out of 87 whales taken and necropsied from the North Atlantic, infection from Crassicauda boopis was found to be very prevalent and invasive, indicating high probability that it was responsible for causing death in these whales. C. boopis was found in 94% of the whales examined. The worms were usually enveloped by "exuberant tissue reactions which in some whales obstructed multiple renal veins". The parasite

5382-559: The water back out of its mouth through its baleen , which allows the water to leave while trapping the prey. An adult has between 262 and 473 baleen plates on each side of the mouth. Each plate is made of keratin that frays out into fine hairs on the ends inside the mouth near the tongue. Each plate can measure up to 76 cm (30 in) in length and 30 cm (12 in) in width. The whale routinely dives to depths of more than 200 m (660 ft) where it executes an average of four "lunges", to accumulate krill. Each gulp provides

5460-400: The water, but rarely raise their flukes out of the water. They then dive to depths of up to 470 m (1,540 ft) when feeding or a few hundred feet when resting or traveling. The average feeding dive off California and Baja lasts 6 minutes, with a maximum of 17 minutes; when traveling or resting they usually dive for only a few minutes at a time. Like many large rorquals, the fin whale

5538-460: The whale with approximately 10 kg (22 lb) of food. One whale can consume up to 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of food a day, leading scientists to conclude that the whale spends about three hours a day feeding to meet its energy requirements, roughly the same as humans. If prey patches are not sufficiently dense, or are located too deep in the water, the whale has to spend a larger portion of its day searching for food. One hunting technique

5616-614: The whale's food sources are near high trophic upwelling areas. The total historical North Pacific population was estimated at 42,000 to 45,000 before the start of whaling. Of this, the population in the eastern portion of the North Pacific was estimated to be 25,000 to 27,000. Surveys conducted in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 2001 produced estimates between 1,600 and 3,200 off California and 280 and 380 off Oregon and Washington . Surveys in coastal waters of British Columbia in summers 2004 and 2005 produced abundance estimates of approximately 500 animals. Fin whales might have started returning to

5694-445: The whale. The whaleship would keep watch from the crowsnest , so it could sail to the signal and lash the dead whale alongside. Then the work of flensing (butchering) began, to separate the whale into its valuable components. The blubber was rendered into whale oil using two or three try-pots set in a brick furnace called the tryworks . Spermaceti was especially valuable, and as sperm whaling voyages were several years long,

5772-491: The whaling ships were equipped for all eventualities. There have also been vessels which combined chasing and processing, such as the bottlenose whalers of the late 19th and early 20th century, and catcher/factory ships of the modern era. The crews of whaling vessels fought small skirmishes for the control of the Spitsbergen whale fishery between 1613 and 1638. The Dutch were the first Europeans to visit Svalbard, and this gave

5850-470: Was determined to be unidirectional from fin to blue whales. Despite their smaller size, fin whales have similar cruising and sprinting speeds to blue whales, which would allow fin males to complete courtship chases with blue females. The body is relatively thin with a slender rostrum and large hook-like dorsal fins that are situated in the upper fourth of the body. It has an elongated ridge on its back, and around 350 to 400 baleen plates . Like all rorquals,

5928-496: Was developed during the Steam-powered vesselage , and then driven by diesel engines throughout much of the twentieth century. It was designed with a harpoon gun mounted at its bow and was fast enough to chase and catch rorquals such as the fin whale . At first, whale catchers either brought the whales they killed to a whaling station , a settlement ashore where the carcasses could be processed, or to its factory ship anchored in

6006-417: Was first described by Friderich Martens in 1675 and by Paul Dudley in 1725. The former description was used as the primary basis for the species Balaena physalus by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. In 1804, Bernard Germain de Lacépède reclassified the species as Balaenoptera rorqual , based on a specimen that had stranded on Île Sainte-Marguerite ( Cannes , France) in 1798. In 1830, Louis Companyo described

6084-411: Was most likely by environmental contamination, involving shedding of larvae in urine. Major inflammatory lesions in the mesenteric arteries suggested that the worm larvae were ingested and migrated to the kidney. These observations suggest that infection from C. boopis can be "lethal by inducing congestive renal failure". Injury to the vascular system is also a result of moderate infections. Therefore,

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