Unveiling the Largest Blue Whale Ever Recorded: A Record-Breaking Giant

Of all the animals in the world, both on the land and in the sea, there are none bigger than the blue whale. This giant cetacean dates back as early as 1.5 million years ago and has roamed the seas for centuries. It is bigger than any dinosaur to have ever lived. They have an average length of 90 feet while weighing over 300,000 pounds, with females being slightly larger than males.

But how big was the largest blue whale ever recorded? We’ll analyze the largest blue whales ever discovered and also dive into whether they are the largest species to ever live on Earth!

The Background on Blue Whale Size

Blue whales are solitary animals and are usually found alone or occasionally in pairs. They don’t form strong bonds except for those between mothers and calves. Females usually give birth every two or three years and carry their young for twelve months. Even blue whale calves are enormous.

• As big as an African elephant when born: Blue whale calves are usually around 23 feet long when they are born and weigh 6,000 pounds, which is roughly the same weight as an African elephant.  
• Gains the size of a human every day: Calves gain around 200 pounds per day during their first year, drinking solely their mother’s milk for the first seven months.

These giants of the sea are found in every major ocean in the world apart from the Arctic Ocean. Not a lot is known about their location throughout the year but it is believed that some migrate to new feeding grounds during the summer and back to warmer waters during the winter.

How Much Do Blue Whales Eat to Get So Big?

As their name suggests, blue whales have a blue-grey appearance that usually looks blue when they are in the water. Despite their length, their bodies are actually relatively slim and slender, although they have huge, broad heads. Blue whales are baleen whales, which means that they don’t have teeth. Instead, they have huge baleen plates that they use to filter krill.  

As they are so large they need to eat a lot of krill every day to survive. One blue whale can eat 40 million of them per day (around 8,000 pounds). When feeding, they lunge into clouds of krill at high speed, then slow down to filter seawater out. Because of their massive size, it takes a lot of energy for blue whales to slow down and speed up when feeding, so blue whales will often bypass a cloud of krill if it isn’t big enough to be worth their effort to feed on it.

The Largest Blue Whale Ever Recorded

Blue whales are record breakers when it comes to the size department. The largest blue whale on record weighed 418,878 pounds. The longest blue whale ever recorded was a female measured in South Georgia in 1909. This massive whale recorded a whopping length of 110 feet and 17 inches.  

Although no weight was recorded for her, a smaller female from the South Atlantic (90 feet and 6 inches) was weighed in 1947 and tipped the scales at a colossal 418,878 pounds. Both of these are recorded in the Guinness World Records as the longest mammal and the heaviest animal, respectively.

Is the Blue Whale the Largest Whale in the Ocean?

For more than a million years blue whales have been the largest animal in the world and that’s not about to change anytime soon. The nearest animal to them in length is the fin whale, which averages around 85 feet. None have ever gotten near the impressive 110 feet of the longest blue whale.  

It is entirely possible that there are blue whales that are even longer, larger, and heavier than the record breakers that we’ve mentioned, especially considering that it has been more than one hundred years since the record was set. However, determining if larger blue whales exist is difficult simply because they live in some of the deepest parts of the ocean and are often hundreds of miles away from coastlines.

Is the Blue Whale the Largest Species Ever?

Blue whales are believed to be the largest animal that has ever lived. That’s an astonishing fact considering that animals ranging from prehistoric insects to sharks have ancient relatives that are significantly larger than today’s species. While the blue whale is the largest species to ever live, here are some past giants from the ocean that were also huge.

• Megalodon: An ancient shark species that hunted whales. Some research points to the Megalodon as having a maximum weight of 227,510 lbs. More conservative estimates put Megalodon’s maximum weight at around 50 tons (105,733 lbs).
• Leedsichthys problematicus: A prehistoric fish that may have reached 54 feet in length!
• An ancient ichthyosaur discovered in Somerset, England in 2016 may be the biggest competitor to the blue whale’s size title yet. The species was only recently described, but estimates place its size at up to 85 feet in length.