Rachel's Top Five Whales

by Rachel Loring

I love a good whale. They are by far the least appreciated sea creature-- since everyone and their mothers just LOOOOVE dolphins (read: sexual predators of the ocean). Whales are lacking in love, and so today, I will rank my favorite. Also, big thanks to Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA and World Wildlife Fund for providing me with lots of fun whale facts to share.

5. Porpoises

Despite what you may think, porpoises are sort of technically whales. Hey, at least they’re not dolphins (read: sexual predators of the ocean). They are the same group as the whales you know and love, which is the cetacean group. Porpoises are similar to dolphins, but have smaller mouths and snouts and tend to be a little rounder than dolphins, which does add to their cuteness factor, thus landing them in 5th place.

4. Narwhal

World Wildlife Fund calls narwhals the unicorn of the sea, which is so very cute. They’re known for their giant tooth, which actually has up to 10 million nerve endings inside. Talk about a toothache. I relate to narwhals because they love the cold too, they spend their lives in the Arctic in Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia and can winter for five months under sea ice, which is basically my apartment in the winter. 

3. Blue Whale

Oh, what’s that? Only the biggest creature to have ever lived on Earth. Blue whales are sick af and give me an existential crisis every time I see them or remember them. They are baleen whales, which means they have those cool mouths that filter in small little fish, zooplankton, and krill! As a child I loved baleen whales. Here are some fun facts I found online on us.whales.org: a blue whale eats over 3,000 pounds of krill every day, their calves can drink 200 liters of milk each day, and the major blood vessel of the blue whale’s heart is so big a human baby could crawl through it. 

2. Orca

Orcas are at the TOP of the food chain. Big predators, but unlike dolphins, not sexually. They are a sub-order of toothed whale which does put them pretty close to dolphins if my cursory research is correct. They got the name killer whale (despite being closer to dolphins) because back in ye old days, sailors would watch them hunt and kill other whales and sea creatures like crazy. Remember when all those female orcas took revenge on those boats? I do, I was rooting for them. I relate to them because they are picky eaters; they can eat a lot of different things, but once they get used to what their whale-family likes, they tend to stick with it. Where are my lactose-free orcas at???

1. BALUGA WHALE

Baluga whales are my ride or die. I love Baluga whales so much. They look like underwater angels, and their little squishy heads are so cute. They are known as the canary of the sea because they are very expressive and vocalize a lot. They are one of only two species of cetacean that can make funny little faces, which is so so so cute. They are extremely social and lack a dorsal fin, which makes them trendsetters. I like balugas mostly because I had to do a project on them in the 4th grade, and they really stuck with me for all these years. Congrats baluga!