On Thursday, a huge whale was spotted swimming along the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, two days after being seen off the coast of Eilat, Israel. What made it surprising is that the huge creature was a blue whale, and it was the first time that the largest of all mammals was seen in these warm waters.
The whale measures 24 metres long and belongs to a subspecies known as the pygmy blue whale, according to a statement from the Ministry of Environment. Monitoring teams are tracking the whale’s movement.
Pygmy blue whales have a larger head, shorter tail, and shorter baleen plates, and can live up to 70-90 years. They live in cold water but are forced to migrate in search of food as a result of the destructive impacts of climate change.
Blue whales are the largest animals ever known to have lived on Earth. These magnificent marine mammals rule the oceans at up to 100 feet long and upwards of 200 tonnes, according to National Geographic. The blue whales’ tongues alone can weigh as much as an elephant, and their hearts as much as an automobile.
According to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), several whale species, including the humpback whale, have been spotted in the Red Sea, but only nine species of whales and dolphins are known to appear in the area regularly.
The minister of environment, Khaled Fahmy, said that the appearance of the blue whale in the Red Sea is “abnormal” and the last typhoon, which hit Oman this month, brought various “fishes” to Egypt’s coasts, including the blue whale. He added that the blue whale “is not dangerous, but it could not find enough food in the region.”
An assistant professor of oceanography at Helwan University, Tarek Farag, believes that the blue whale is not dangerous for the ecology system in the Red Sea, denying relations between the Oman typhoon and the whale sighting. He explained that mammals change their behaviour and it takes a long time to know if the creature will inhabit the Red Sea or not.