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The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest species of whale in the world, surpassed in the Endless Ocean series only by the Ancient Mother. It can be found in both Endless Ocean and Endless Ocean 2.

Named for their bluish-grey hue, they were once hunted extensively for their blubber, meat, bone, and oil. Though it is now illegal to hunt them, blue whales are still at risk of extinction.

Encyclopedia Description

Endless Ocean

“These massive mammals have long, spindle-shaped bodies with huge mouths and tapering lower jaws. The pectoral fins are long and narrow, while the dorsal fin is small and positioned near the rear. Despite the name, blue whales are actually gray in color with only hints of mottled blue. They can be seen year-round at the Great Drop-off.

Everything about the blue whale is massive in scale. They are the world’s largest-known animals, with bodies that average over 100 feet in length and a blowhole on top of their heads that can spray water up to 30 feet in the air. They also have between sixty and a hundred ventral pleats in their throats—large grooves used to expel water during the feeding process. While swimming, they emit low-frequency sounds that can be heard almost 100 miles away.

It is believed there were once over 300,000 blue whales roaming the seas. However, with the advent of high-speed vessels and explosive harpoons during the late nineteenth century, their numbers decreased rapidly. Though it is now illegal to hunt these magnificent creatures, they are still considered endangered, with only 5,000 to 10,000 believed to exist.”

Endless Ocean 2

"Known for its huge bluish-grey body, this is the largest mammal on Earth with some over 30m long. The water it blows can reach 10m high, and the 60 or more ventral pleats in its throat open when it feeds.

It travels widely, and its call contains low frequency wavelengths that travel well in water and allow it to communicate with other whales for up to 150km."

[Extinction Through Progress?]

"Hunting blue whales has always been difficult because of their size and speed, and the total population was once around 300,000. But with the introduction of faster whaling vessels and explosive harpoons at the end of the 19th century the blue whale was hunted to the brink of extinction.

Even now, decades after whaling bans were enacted, the blue whale population is less than 5,000 and they are still at risk of extinction."

Location

Endless Ocean

Blue whales can be seen off of the edge of the Great Drop-Off, though only in certain months. During some months of the year, they are replaced by the Ancient Mother.

Endless Ocean 2

One specimen is first seen in the southern Weddell Sea, as it creates The Song of Dragons heard inside the Iceberg Cavern. After that, it and a couple more specimens are found swimming around the North Coast of Canada at a depth of 60 feet (18 meters). Several can also be seen near the Echoing Terrace in the Zahhab Region (alongside many other whale species) after the Cavern of the Gods is first uncovered, though they are not permanent residents.

One particular specimen can be found at the North Coast of Canada's North Hole (B2) feeding on capelin as part of the "Majestic, icy seas" Animal Scene Event. This cutscene only plays as part of the Save the Aquarium quest, in which the player is tasked with researching the blue whales' eating habits.

Introductory Dialogue

Endless Ocean

"Oh wow, there's a blue whale! That's the largest animal in the world... I can't believe we ran right into one here. This is a stroke of luck! Most divers go their whole lives without ever seeing one."

Endless Ocean 2

"A blue whale! What a rare sight! There are very few blue whales in the Antarctic. But it's hardly a "dragon," is it? And I can't hear the Song of Dragons anymore. We may have come a bit closer to finding the truth behind this mystery... But it's still somewhat disappointing."

Behavior

The blue whale swims gracefully in the open ocean, not reacting to the player touching them. The player can hold onto them, although they may be kicked off if the whale swims too close to the edge of the map. They seem to enjoy the sound of the Sea Whistle, which is how the player unlocks their trivia in the second game.

Gallery

Notes

  • This is one of Jean-Eric favorite creatures.
  • Sometimes while diving in the North Coast of Canada, the player can see a lone specimen swimming around during the loading screens.

Real-Life Information

  • The blue whale is renowned for being the largest living animal on Earth, as is correctly noted in its in-game descriptions. It is, in fact, the most massive animal to have ever lived[1][2]. It is even larger than the largest fish ever thought to have existed on Earth, Leedsichthys problematicus[3]. It can be up to 110 feet (34 meters) in length, and up to 150 tons (136 metric tons) in weight[4].
    • Blue whales exhibit sexual dimorphism, a trait in which different sexes of a species display different visual traits. In the blue whale's case, it is that the females are slightly larger than the males[5][6].
    • A blue whale's heart can weigh as much as a car, and its tongue as much as an elephant[7][8].
  • The blue whale is a baleen whale, meaning that it has a keratinous filter in its mouth instead of teeth that it uses to feed on small organisms like krill and plankton[9][10]. True to the in-game descriptions, there are long grooves called ventral pleats that run down the whale's throat and expand when they take in water[11].
  • Both in-game descriptions make note of the loud, low-frequency calls that blue whales make to communicate with other blues. These notes are accurate - blue whale calls can reach 188 decibels in volume (a jet engine only reaches 140 decibels, for comparison) and can be detected for hundreds of miles, even up to a thousand[10][12][13][14].
    • Despite it being the loudest creature on earth, its calls are still below or very close to the edge of the bottom range of human hearing in terms of pitch[15]; humans can typically perceive sounds as low as 20 hertz, whereas blue whales sing from 10 to 39 hertz, staying within 16 to 28[16][17].
    • There is one blue whale, colloquially called the "52-hertz Whale" or "the world's loneliest whale", that sings at a much higher pitch than other blues - 52 hertz[18][19]. While it is unknown exactly what species the whale is, its migration patterns and other movement behaviors match a blue whale's exactly, so there is great confidence that it is at least partially a blue[20].
  • The blue whale is listed as an endangered species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature[21]; this is correctly noted in its in-game description. Previously, there were more than 350,000 blue whales in the world, but they were hunted nearly to extinction by the 1960s[5][22]. The primary threats to their existence are climate change and entanglement in fishing gear.
  • There are four recognized subspecies of blue whale[23][24]; none of them are differentiated in-game. Alongside these, there is a proposed fifth only known as the Chilean blue whale, without a scientific name as of yet[15]. The current four are:
    • B. musculus indica (the Indian Ocean blue whale)
    • B. musculus musculus (the Northern blue whale)
    • B. musculus intermedia (the Antarctic or Southern blue whale)
    • B. musculus brevicauda (the pygmy blue whale)
  • Another name for the blue whale, much less frequently used, is sulfur-bottom whale[1]. This name was more common in the past, but has been mostly abandoned today, and was in reference to the algae that tend to grow on them and give their underside a greenish or yellowish hue[25][26].
    • Sulfur-bottom whale was the name used for the blue whale in Herman Melville's famed novel Moby-Dick[27].
    • This moniker, sulfur-bottom, was at one point reflected in a scientific name for the blue whale -  Sibbaldius sulfureus[28]. This name is now abandoned in place of the modern scientific name, Balaenoptera musculus[29].
  • The only taxidermied blue whale in the world, called the Malm whale, can be found at the Göteborg Museum of Natural History[30][31]. It is a blue whale calf named after August Malm, the man who strove to preserve it[32].
  • The blue whale is a part of the family of whales known as rorquals[33]. It is the largest of these - a fact that comes with it being the largest animal on Earth.
    • The smallest of the rorqual whales is the Northern or common minke whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, which does not appear in either Endless Ocean game[34]; however, a close relative does - Balaenoptera bonaerensis, the Antarctic minke whale.
    • A Norwegian word, "rockval", is the source of the name "rorqual" - it means "furrow"[35]. The rorqual family was called as such because they are all characterized by the ventral pleats mentioned in both in-game descriptions[8].

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