What kind of whales live in the Puget Sound?
What kind of whales live in the Puget Sound?
Types of whales in the Puget Sound There are seven species of whales and dolphins that frequent the Puget Sound and Salish Sea (the waters that run up to the west of Vancouver Island): orcas, transient orcas, gray whales, humpback whales, minkes, fin whales, pacific white-sided dolphins, and pseudorcas.
What whales live in Pacific Northwest?
Gray whale. The most common whale off the Oregon coast is the gray whale. In addition to the approximately 200 resident gray whales that live nearly year-round off Oregon, a winter and spring migration brings about 18,000 more past our coast. Gray whales are baleen whales (mysticetes).
What whales are off the Washington coast?
Whales on the Olympic Coast in Washington
- Gray Whales. iStock.
- Orcas. Orcas aren’t really whales, they’re large dolphins, but their size makes people associate them with whales.
- Humpback Whales. Humpbacks have dark backs and white undersides with large fins.
What are the different species of baleen whales?
14 Types of Baleen Whales
- Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
- Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
- Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
- Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera edeni)
- Omura’s Whale (Balaenoptera omurai)
- Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
- Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)
What are the names of baleen whales?
There are 14 species of baleen whale including the blue, bowhead, right, humpback, minke and gray whale. Baleen whales are generally larger than toothed whales except for the sperm whale which is very big and has teeth.
What are transient orcas?
Transient (mammal-eating) Orcas Unlike resident orcas, transients travel and hunt in small groups of 2-6 individuals. These small groups are usually based on a female and her offspring, but often change as animals mature and disperse. While searching for prey, transient killer whales almost never breach or splash.
Where are the whales in Puget Sound?
The most reliable sightings are gray whales from the end of February through the end of May or into early June, and the best place to see them from is Langley, or from most beaches off South Whidbey Island. They’re also sometimes found further north in Saratoga Passage.
Are there beluga whales in the Pacific?
In the Pacific, beluga whales inhabit three geographically distinct regions; (1) the Gulf of Alaska, (2) the Sea of Okhotsk, and (3) the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, termed the BCB region (Fig 1).
Are there orcas in Washington state?
Killer whales are distributed nearly worldwide. In Washington, they occur in most of the state’s marine waters. Three populations of killer whales, known as the southern residents, transients, and offshores, regularly occur in Washington.
What’s the difference between baleen and toothed whales?
There are two types of whale; baleen and toothed. The key difference between them is the way they feed and what they have inside their mouth. Baleen whales have baleen plates, or sheets, which sieve prey from seawater. Toothed whales have teeth and they actively hunt fish, squid and other sea creatures.
What is the smallest type of baleen whale?
The pygmy right whale ( Caperea marginata) is the smallest, and probably the least well-known baleen whale species. It has a curved mouth like other right whales and is thought to feed on copepods and krill. These whales are about 20 feet long and weigh about 5 tons.
When did baleen whales split from toothed whales?
Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago . Baleen whales range in size from the 6 m (20 ft) and 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) pygmy right whale to the 31 m (102 ft) and 190 t (210 short tons) blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed.
What do baleen whales eat?
This is unknown in other baleen whales. In the northern hemisphere, minke whales appear to be feeding primarily on small schooling fish such as herring, capelin, sandlance and pilchard. They may also feed on krill and other zooplankton, which is the staple food for southern hemisphere minkes.
How many blowholes does a baleen whale have?
Baleen whales have two blowholes, as opposed to toothed whales which have one. These paired blowholes are longitudinal slits that converge anteriorly and widen posteriorly, which causes a V-shaped blow. They are surrounded by a fleshy ridge that keeps water away while the whale breathes.
