baleen

Like the blue whale, fin whales are balleens, sporting two blowholes and, instead of teeth, hundreds of rows of baleen plates made of keratin.

North Pacific right whales are baleen whales, which feed by straining huge volumes of ocean water through their comb-like baleen plates that trap copepods and other zooplankton.

While previous studies have linked caller identity to acoustic tag data, this is the first robust method for studying large baleen whales, like humpback whales.

The recovery of baleen whales including endangered blue whales is now threatened by multiple human sources, including underwater noise, changing availability of food driven by human-induced effects on ocean productivity, environmental contaminants, ship collision and entanglement in fishing gear.

“Often they feed by diving to the bottom and sifting big gulps of sediment through their baleen, consuming the amphipods in great numbers,” Milstein said.