(Reprinted from the September 28, 2001 edition of The Suburban News.)

A reader reminded me that even today, in the ocean, is an animal that dwarfs even the biggest dinosaur of old, the blue whale.

The blue whale starts out as a single cell egg the size of a speck. After it is fertilized it grows with extreme speed. Eleven months later, when the mother delivers her baby, it will weigh up to three tons. During the next few months it will gain up to two hundred pounds per day.

When a blue whale reaches full size, it will be between 80 and 110 feet long. It will weigh between 135 and 190 tons.

The blue whale eats up to four tons of krill each day in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as it prepares for migration.

For years these whales were hunted for their oil-rich blubber.

Along both coasts, whale watching boats carry people a little way to sea for a glimpse of a spout. Though they can stay underwater for more than an hour, they must surface for air, then force warm, moist breath out of their blowhole. The spout formed by expelling their breath is often far more visible than the whale.

There are some 80 or more species of whales. They range in size from the enormous blue to some warm-water species that are smaller than a human.

Aristotle was one of the first to teach that whales were animals and not fish. He proclaimed that they had no gills and had lungs and that made them animals. They sure don’t look like an animal as their front legs are flippers. As their insulation is provided by their blubber, they don’t have heat retaining fur needed by most animals.

As a boy I saw a great blue on a flat car on display in Portland. I was small and it was still gigantuan.