GROUPING

Usually found singly or in Occasionally found singly or
pairs. in pairs, more often found in
pods of six or seven individuals;
many pods, consisting of
as many as 50 animals, may
be found in small area.

See also comparison of fin whale and sei whale (p. 26).

Distribution

Though blue whales have been reported from the pack ice to Cristobal
Harbor, Panama Canal Zone, their normal range in the western North
Atlantic is more limited. In spring and summer months (about April
through at least August) they can be expected in the northern portion of
their range, at least as far north as the Arctic Circle, feeding on the
krill abundant in those waters. A small portion of the population may
venture north, beyond the Circle. In fall and winter the population
moves south, presumably into temperate and perhaps to tropical waters.
Reliable records include animals from observations off Long Island and
Ocean City, Md.

Though southern limits of the species are poorly known, there are no
records from Florida or the West Indies and no verified records from the
Gulf of Mexico.

Summaries of blue whale distribution based on records when the species
was more numerous indicate that they were found during spring and summer
months in some abundance on the Nova Scotian Banks, the St. Lawrence
Gulf and estuary, the Strait of Belle Isle, Grand Bank, and in the
waters off the coasts of Iceland, southern Greenland, and the Davis
Straits and Baffin Bay. (Some individuals have entered the Hudson Strait
but not apparently Hudson Bay itself.)

Historically, a few animals apparently appeared off the coast of
southeastern Canada as early as February. It was speculated that from
there a portion of the population underwent a migration from the Strait
of Belle Isle north through the Davis Straits to the waters off western
Greenland. Some individuals entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence after the
ice was clear and remained behind until as late as November. In the fall
months, certainly by November, the northern portion of the population
had begun retreating to the south in front of the advancing ice. The
remainder apparently also underwent this migration as well, since blue
whales have historically been nearly ab