Talk:Blue whale

Latest comment: 16 days ago by The Morrison Man in topic Should the article mention countershading?
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July 9, 2007Featured article reviewKept
Current status: Featured article

"Caught"/"killed"

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Ywaz, you do need to realize that "catch" is the standard terminology used in all wildlife harvesting (which is what whaling is, Japanese pretensions notwithstanding). We don't speak about "killing" fish either. I appreciate that whales elicit a more emotional response, but when our articles on whaling overwhelmingly use "catch", this looks incongruous at the least. --Elmidae (talk · contribs)

Female weight gain of 4% per day mathematically impossible

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In the article it states "Pregnant females gain roughly four percent of their body weight daily,[86] amounting to 60% of their overall body weight throughout summer foraging periods."

However, that is clearly not right, as this would mean that female whales approximately triple/quadruple their weight every month. You can see how that would lead to bizarre situations.

I am not aware of what this figure should be or what the author was thinking when writing this. Perhaps they meant eat 4% of body weight.

Question: Size

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I draw attention to the phrase "The blue whale is the largest animal known ever to have existed". The largest specimen is measured as 33 m. The Wikipedia entry on Supersaurus states a specimen may be longer than 40 m. Conflict?  Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-67311-1 (talk) 00:37, 31 January 2026 (UTC)Reply

"Large" is not always equivalent to "long" - it may also refer to mass. That lack of clarity powers about half the discussions in our "List of largest XXX" articles. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 13:22, 19 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

Should the article mention countershading?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countershading

Blue whales have it Chufud (talk) 19:54, 31 May 2026 (UTC)Reply

The difference in colour between the dorsal and ventral sides is mentioned in the article, I don't believe it specifically needs to be referred to as countershading. The Morrison Man (talk) 22:41, 31 May 2026 (UTC)Reply