Big Sur Recreation & Parks
Whale Watching off the coast of Big Sur
The blue whale is the largest mammal on the planet with the largest reaching over 100 feet. The avarage adult blue whale is 70 to 90 feet and weighs between 100 to 150 tons. During the whales feeding seasons, the whales consume one to two tons of krill daily.
At the turn of the 1900's, blue whales were abundant and found in most of the worlds oceans. The whaling industry of the early and mid part of that century almost annihilated the species. Today, there are fewer than 10,00 blue whales in existence. Records from the 1930's show almost 30,000 whales killed in one year alone, that's 3 times today's population. One also wonders what the actual "unrecorded" numbers may have been. By 1966, Blue whales were so scarce that they put them on the endangered species list, where they remain today.
Blue whales have a long gestational cycle and a calf has to survive 10 years to even reach sexual maturity. Their long growth period from calf to adult coupled with environmental and whaling issues has kept their numbers very slim and fighting for their species survival.