Blue whales have existed on Earth for about 1.5 million years.

The tongue of a blue whale weighs about as much as an elephant.

Blue whales are indeed an endangered species. It could be worse for these sea mammals, but they are not classified next to the label “extinct in the wild.” They were very abundant in all the oceans until the late 19th century, when whaling became a significant problem. International hunting of blue whales was banned in 1966.

Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that Icelanders have been hunting blue whales since the settlement of the country; they were probably the first humans to do so.

Originally, blue whales were very hard to hunt because of their size and speed, but everything changed with the invention of the projectile harpoon.

The largest blue whale measures 98 feet in length and weighed almost 200 tons, making it the largest living animal and the largest animal known to have ever existed.

The blood vessels of a blue whale are so wide that a human could technically swim through them.

Blue whales are known to migrate, traveling around the poles to feed during the summer and moving down to the tropics for the winter mating season.

As filter feeders, blue whales rarely eat anything other than krill.

The blue whale’s heart is about the size of a small car and weighs approximately 1000 pounds. It can be heard from 2 miles away.

Blue whales typically live between 80 and 90 years naturally, although the oldest one has been found to be 110 years old. Scientists have developed a system to determine their age using samples of ear wax.

Blue whale calves grow about 200 pounds a day during their first year of life.