Types of Whales
Science and size are two competing methods for organizing discussions about different types of whales.
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Whales are further differentiated according to their hunting methods. There are baleen and toothed whales.
Baleen whales get their name from the baleen plates that line their upper jaw. As they travel the world's oceans, baleen whales gulp large amounts of water containing smaller species such as krill. When they close their mouths and expel the water, the baleen acts as a filter, keeping the krill and other smaller species in the mouth, waiting to be swallowed and digested.
There are four baleen whale families in the suborder Mysticeti, with thirteen or fourteen species depending on which scientific source you consult.
- Odontoceti - right whales (3 species), and bowhead whale
- Neobalaenidae - pygmy right whale
- Eschrichtiidae - gray whale
- Balaenopteridae - minke (2 species), sei, Bryde's, blue, fin, and humpback whales
Toothed Whales (suborder Odontoceti), as the name implies, use their teeth to capture their food. The suborder also includes the dolphins and porpoises. It is further divided into approximately ten families, consisting of seventy species, again depending on which scientific source you consult.
Size differentiation among whale species often takes the form of great whales versus lesser whales. Political rather than scientific reasoning commonly underlies this distinction. The term great whales describes the largest members of the cetacean order. Factually, the baleen whales are not only the largest cetaceans, they also rank among the largest species of mammals in the world. They range in size from the average twenty foot pygmy right whale to the average one hundred foot blue whale.
The problem with using a size differentiation to discuss whale types starts with the fact that one of the toothed whales, the sperm whale, grows up to sixty feet in length. It is commonly the only toothed whale species to be included in the great whale category.
Historical, cultural and political explanations underlie most of the reasons for using the great whale versus lesser whale distinction.
The largest whales, for example, were the natural focus of the commercial whaling industry over the course of its history. Whalers chose species to hunt based on size rather than science. A society's economic choices often influence the literature and art of the day. Whaling in art and literature of the time commonly focused on great whale species.
Commercial whaling technology improved in the early twentieth century to the point of driving large whale species toward extinction. States with whaling interests recognized the problem of diminishing whale stocks, and following the end of WWII, they negotiated the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (1946). At the time, they intended to create an international forum to coordinate their great whale stock management plans and stabilize their economic interests.
Today the institutional body of the convention, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), uses the term great whales when discussing commercial whale management plans. Since 1986 IWC member states have supported a pause in commercial whaling of great whale species, i.e., the baleen whales and the sperm whale. Of course, no political explanation completely covers the greater versus lesser distinction. The IWC also lists bottlenose whales (another toothed species) as a zero catch limit species on their schedule, the formal document that lists commercial whaling quotas for individual species.
The resumption of commercial whaling is an ongoing discussion. Please click on the commercial whaling link in the box to read more.
© 2007 Patricia A. Michaels