My endangered species is the fin whale. The other names for this whale are called the
Finback Whale, Finner Whale, Rorqual Razorback Whale, and the Herring
Whale. The Fin Whale is the world's second largest whale in the world, right behind the
Blue Whale. The Fin Whale can swim at speeds up to 23mph and are know as
"Greyhound Of The Sea" The average length of the Fin Whale is 6-6.5 meters at birth
and 18-22 meters when fully grown. Some Fin Whales have been known to grow more
than 26 meters long. The weight of the Fin Whale weighs about 2 tons when born and 30-
80 tons when fully grown. Their diet is made up of fish, Krill and other crustaceans.
Some physical attributes of the Fin Whale are that their skin comes in the colors silvery
gray, dark gray or brownish black. They have a very long straight body, smooth skin, and
head pigmentation, a ridge on head, a very high spout, small fin, and are normally found
in small groups or alone. Their speed and the fact that they prefer the open sea, gave them
protection from the early whalers. Now, finback whales become easy victims because the
blue whale has become scarce and in the result the whaling looked to the smaller fin
whales as a replacement. 30,000 fin whales were slaughtered from 1935 to 1965. The
International Whaling Commission placed them under full protection in 1966 beginning
with the North Pacific population. The present populations are estimated to be about
40,000 in the northern hemisphere and 15,000-20,000 in the southern hemisphere.
Fn whales have been legally protected from legal hunting in US waters since 1972
because of the "Mammal Protection Act", they weren't protected world-wide until the
"1986 International Whaling Commission" law on commercial whaling. It is
estimated that over 950,000 fin whales may have been taken world wide during the last
...