Bowhead Whale – Balaena mysticetus
Taxon: Cetacea
General fact sheet (click to download)
Habitat: Favours ice edge around the Arctic Ocean, migrating northwards in summer into high Arctic as ice retreats.
Description: Rotund body, large (up to 40% of body length) but relatively narrow head, strongly arched lower jaw. Black in colour, no dorsal fin. Prominent muscular bulge in blowhole area, obvious depression behind. Very thick skin and blubber. Longest baleen plates of any whale, typically dark grey, brown, or black with lighter fringes, which may show as a white patch in front of the lower jaw when seen from the front. Flippers are large, blunt, fan-shaped. Flukes are wide, tapered at the tip, with no central notch, often a light grey or white band across the tailstock.
Size: 18 – 20 m.
Distribution: Circumpolar, generally between 55° and 85° N. Recorded twice off coast of Cornwall and once in Northern Ireland 2015 – 2016; may have been the same individual.
Conservation Status & Population: Listed by IUCN as least concern.
Identification
Only superficially resembles related North Atlantic right whale.