Facts about Whale Food Preferences
- 08
Sei whales consume up to 900 pounds of small fish and krill daily while traveling at speeds exceeding 30 miles per hour, making them among the fastest marine mammals and most efficient hunters in whale species.
- 07
Finback whales asymmetrically pigment their lower jaws dark on the left side and light on the right, an adaptation theorized to startle fish schools into their preferred feeding direction during lunge feeding on small schooling fish.
- 06
Bowhead whales consume predominantly Arctic amphipods and copepods, shifting their diet seasonally to include fish and zooplankton as they migrate through varying water temperatures and food availability zones.
- 05
Right whales filter-feed on copepods, consuming roughly 1 ton daily during spring months in the North Atlantic, targeting dense swarms containing millions of these thumbnail-sized crustaceans.
- 04
Gray whales consume approximately 40,000 pounds of benthic amphipods and other bottom-dwelling organisms annually while migrating 12,000 miles between Arctic feeding grounds and Mexican breeding lagoons.
- 03
Humpback whales practice cooperative bubble-net feeding, where 6 to 12 individuals spiral upward while releasing air bubbles to trap schools of herring into a concentrated ball before lunging through to feed.
- 02
Sperm whales dive to depths exceeding 7,000 feet to hunt giant squid, their primary prey, consuming up to 1 ton daily in the deep ocean.
- 01
Blue whales consume up to 4 tons of krill daily during feeding season, filtering water through baleen plates containing around 400 individual strips.