Moderate size. Average total length, 42 to 43 feet; maximum length, 53 feet. The dorsal fin is large, and falcate; it is situated just anterior to the line of the anus. Many ventral folds.
The color of the head and back is dark gray; on the sides and flanks the gray of the back becomes lighter and the flanks are beautifully marked with wavy gray lines. The throat and breast are white, but a wide dark gray band runs across the belly. The ventral line from the anus to the flukes is gray. The pectoral fins above and below are dark gray, but somewhat lighter on the anterior half of the under side. The flukes above are dark gray like the back, and below are light gray in the ventral portion, becoming darker on the edges. The whalebone is bluish-black with white bristles.
The rostrum of the skull is narrow and triangular with straight sides as in the Finback. The nasal bones are oblong and truncated anteriorly. The first rib is usually bifurcated. Vertebral formula: cervicals 7, dorsals 14 (–13), lumbars 13 (–14), caudals 22 (–23). Total, 56–57. Habitat: cosmopolitan.
HUMPBACK
Megaptera nodosa (Bonn.)
Form massive and ungraceful. Head flat and blunt with dermal tubercles’ along the sides and middle. Ventral folds few and broad. Average total length, 45 feet; maximum length, 55 feet. The pectoral fins are more than one-fourth the entire length with several prominent bunches along the anterior edge. The dorsal fin is low, thick and somewhat falcate, and the flukes are broad with crenate posterior edges.
The color is black with white markings. The head, back and sides are black and the throat and breast to about opposite the pectoral fins are splashed and streaked with white in varying degrees. On the lower lips, sides of the jaw and about the chin, throat and breast are spots, circles and crescents of white; these are probably the scars left by barnacles and other parasites. Between the flippers in the middle of the breast there is usually an irregular transverse patch of white, 10 or 12 inches in diameter.
The flippers are black above with many white spots and circles, and white below except for a broad patch of black at the base. The flukes are normally black above with white spots along the edges; below they are white, spotted and circled with black, except in the basal third, where there is a large black area. The whalebone is dull black, with brownish black bristles.
Skull very broad with an obtuse rostrum. The nasal bones are rather narrow and pointed anteriorly. Vertebral formula: cervicals 7, dorsals 14, lumbars 11 (–10), caudals 21. Total, 53 (–52). Habitat: cosmopolitan.
NORTH ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE, BLACK WHALE
Eubalæna glacialis (Bonn.)
Form massive. Head about one-fourth the total length and rostrum much arched, with a protuberance near the anterior end, called the “bonnet.” Lower lip very large, and the free margin is more or less sinuous. Pectoral fins very broad and short. No ventral furrows and no dorsal fin. The color is black throughout, with more or less white on the throat and breast in some individuals. Greatest length, 54 feet.