Distribution

• arctic regions
• shallow waters <30 meters deep

Diet

• eat copepods, steropods, and euphausiids
• bottom feeder

Description

• 14-15 meters in length
• weigh 50-60 tons
• about 700 baleen plates
• plates about 4.3 meters
• black color
• no dorsal fin
• small, round flippers

Behavior

• travel in groups of about three in the spring
• groups of about 50 during fall migration

Population

• <8,500 animals
• vulnerable

Longevity

• unknown
• whale corpse found in Alaska dated over a century
• thought to be around 130 years

Human influence

• Whalers liked Bowheads because they are slow and have large amounts of oil and baleen
• Legally protected in 1975

Other

• also called Greenland Whale
• longest baleen plates of any whale