A fin whale in the St. Lawrence. Photo found on Flickr.

For this summer’s expedition in Saguenay, we take a look at 6 of the 13 whales that are present in the region.

Take a look at this drawing to get an idea of the scale of whales and this chart on how to recognize them from whales-online.net

This species is a baleen whale. Baleen you say? They are like rigid hairs that this whale uses to comb the ocean for food, such as krill (small shrimps) – Ironic that the biggest eat the smallest. Read more about baleen on Wikipedia.

Nearly two times smaller than the blue whale, the fin whale is still the second largest of the animal world. Seventy tons stretched over 25 meters of flesh; that is like 70 cars parked in a 5-storey building. At birth, the fin whale is as big as a pickup truck!

Like many whales, this one talks quite a bit and can be heard over 100 km away. Scientists have yet to understand what all the chit-chatting is about

Although the fin whale is found in almost all oceans, its numbers are unknown. It is one of the five protected whales on the IUCN Red List, on which none are listed as endangered.

In Canada, a fin whale became notoriously famous despite itself. Author Farley Mowat describes the sad events surrounding the caught animal in A Whale for a Killing. Heart-wrenching and a great read.