Can a Dolphin Accidentally Become Dinner When a Humungous Whale Opens Its Mouth?

Blue whales are not only the largest animal on earth today but the largest known animal ever to have lived on earth. The largest blue whale ever recorded weighed over 199 tons. Even average-sized blue whales are massive, weighing around 350,000 pounds. That’s about the same as 30 adult male African elephants. Despite their huge size, they eat a diet of tiny shrimp-like crustaceans. But what if something larger, like a dolphin, entered the path of a blue whale? Could a blue whale accidentally swallow and eat a dolphin?

What Do Blue Whales Eat?

Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) are massive even as newborn babies. A newborn blue whale can weigh as much as 8,800 pounds. These large marine mammals need to eat a lot of food to have enough energy to live. They eat krill, and they eat a lot of it. A blue whale’s stomach can hold 2,200 pounds of krill at a time, and they eat around 9,000 pounds of krill each day. Considering the tiny krill weighs less than one ounce, a blue whale eats millions of krill each day.

Could a Blue Whale Accidentally Swallow a Larger Mammal, Like a Dolphin or Even a Human?

When you see blue whales in comparison to other creatures, you can get an idea of just how immense they are. A breathtaking video from the YouTube channel, ViralHog, showed a short clip of an aerial view of a blue whale filmed by a drone.

The blue whale is so large, it dwarfs a pod of dolphins swimming in front of it. The dolphins quickly scatter as the whale opens its huge mouth and takes in ocean water and whatever is swimming within it. It looks as if the dolphins are in mortal danger of accidentally becoming a whale’s dinner. The dolphins certainly appear to be eager to get out of the way.

However frightening this looks for the dolphins, they were never in any actual danger. Blue whales do not eat anything larger than krill. To understand how this works, we need to look at how a blue whale eats its food.

How Do Baleen Whales Eat?

Blue whales are a species of baleen whale. Baleen whales don’t have teeth. Instead, they have baleen, which they use to help them filter krill, plankton, and other tiny creatures from the ocean water. Blue whales swim up to krill and open their large mouths around them. They then push out the ocean water, while the krill stay trapped inside their mouths by the baleen.

Baleen whales swallow the krill whole. Without teeth to chew, a blue whale could not consume larger animals. Blue whales may be giant animals, but they don’t have giant throats. A blue whale’s esophagus is around four inches wide. Even if it accidentally swallowed something as large as a dolphin, the dolphin wouldn’t fit down its throat.

Baleen Whales Can’t Swallow Large Objects

Another species of baleen whale, the humpback whale, was seen accidentally swallowing a pelican. But the whale felt the difference in its mouth right away and spat the pelican out, letting the bird escape. If the whale in the video had accidentally swallowed a dolphin, it likely would have spit it back out. However, even though the dolphin would likely survive the experience, it would certainly be one to avoid, so we can see why the dolphins kept out of the giant whale’s path.

In another crazy encounter, a Venezuelan kayaker was briefly swallowed by a humpback whale, kayak, and all. But seconds later, the whale realized its mistake and spat the man out. Remarkably, the man survived without injuries.

Where Do Blue Whales Live?

These endangered mammals live in every ocean except for the Arctic. Scientists estimate there are around 15,000 of them left. Before the whaling industry began, there may have been 250,000 blue whales swimming in the ocean.

Many of them migrate to different feeding grounds in summer and winter, although some blue whales may not migrate at all. You will find larger populations of blue whales living where there are lots of krill. Krill may be small, but they are fundamental to the ocean’s food web.

Does a Blue Whale Have Predators?

Surprisingly, the largest animal on earth does need to watch out for predators. Large groups of orcas have been seen hunting and eating blue whales. Recently, marine biologists recorded a pod of 14 orcas taking down a blue whale off the coast of Australia. After the whale had died and sunk to the bottom of the sea, around 50 orcas were seen feeding on it.