BLUE WHALE

Balaenoptera musculus

Length: 20–30 meters
Weight: 110–190 tons
Worldwide population: 3–4.000 individuals
Life expectancy: About 90 years

The blue whale is the largest animal ever to live on Earth. The longest measured blue whale was 33.5 m long, and the heaviest weighed almost 200 tons. Being a baleen whale, it lives almost entirely on some of the smallest living beings in the ocean: plankton and krill.

Their spout reaches 6 -9 m and is the most significant indication of their presence.

The breathing cycle is 3 - 5 times before deep diving, which may last from 7 - 10 minutes, sometimes longer. Occasionally, they lift their fluke, when starting to dive to be able to reach higher depths in a short period of time; an action known as "fluking". The flukes can be up to 8 m in diameter.

One of the largest stocks, 700 - 1000 individuals, is believed to migrate to Iceland's coast in the summer. Approaching Iceland in the spring, they stay the whole summer to feed, mainly in Breiðafjörður in the West of Iceland. In fall, they start to migrate south, but their breeding grounds are yet to be known.

The ocean near Reykjavik just isn't deep enough for them to be swimming here near by for us but if you use your imagination vividly....you could think you saw one;)