Description
Balaena mysticetus
Date 1987
Source Cetaceans of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary https://archive.org/details/cetaceansofchann00leat
Author NOAA United States. National Marine Fisheries Service
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balaena_mysticetus_NOAA.jpg

The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is a species of the family Balaenidae, in suborder Mysticeti, and genus Balaena, once thought to include the right whale. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow 14 to 18 m in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh from 75 to 100 tonnes. They live entirely in fertile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate to low latitude waters to feed or reproduce. The bowhead was also known as the Greenland right whale or Arctic whale. American whalemen called them the steeple-top, polar whale, or Russia or Russian whale. The bowhead has the largest mouth of any animal. Order: Artiodactyla, Infraorder: Cetacea, Family: Balaenidae, Genus: Balaena, Species: Balaena mysticetus Linnaeus, 1758.