kanaloa

Sei Whales

Sei Whale

(Balaenoptera borealis)

Sei Whales migrate in search of food during the warmer season to the colder waters some distance from the pack ice and when winter sets in they return to tropical or subtropical waters for breeding and calving . They range northward to Spitsbergen, Iceland, and the Bering Sea, and southward to the northern limit of drift ice in the Antarctic seas. Except near Japan, Korea (Chosen), and the west coast of Norway, they are of no great importance on any of the whaling grounds, for their oil yield is low.
This whale rarely exceeds 56 feet in length. The upper parts are nearly always gray, often dark steel gray or a gray with a bluish cast. On the flanks and sides of the tail the color is generally light bluish gray, but occasionally with small irregular spots of the color of galvanized iron. Oblong white scars left by parasitic copepods are usually scattered over the body. The mid-portion of the under parts from the chin backwards is white, the rernainder, including the lower Jaws, being the same color as the upper parts.

Sei Whale calves at birth are from 15 to 16 feet in length, are suckled for at least five months, and are weaned when they have attained a length of 26 to 30 feet. Old age is reached at IS years. They are plankton feeders.
Norwegian fishermen call this animal the Sei Whale , since it arrives on their coasts simultaneously with the sei, or coalfish. The English equivalent is "pollack whale." This whale generally comes to the surface obliquely, so that the observer sees in succession the snout, the top of the head, and then the delivery of the spout, which is accompanied by a metallic whistling sound. The moisture-charged breath forms a cone-shaped column that rises from 10 to 14 feet.
Bryde's Whale, which somewhat resembles the Sei Whale in outward appearance, is common on the coast of Cape Colony.

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