You may not expect an animal measuring to 24m in length and weigh up to 70 tonnes - to be fast, but these truly impressive cetaceans really are.
Known as “greyhounds of the sea” the enormous fin whale are the second largest creature on the planet, following the blue whale, and can swim at up to 40 KPH
- How did whales get so big?
- Fin whale guide: how big they are, their lifespan - and just how fast they can swim
In shape they also resemble their blue cousins, with sleek hydrodynamic bodies, signifiers of their speed. So fast is the fin whale it can outpace whale-watching boats which, in most oceans, remain its only pursuers.
And it needs to catch a lot of prey. A fin whale' diet is usually made up of krill, small schooling fish, and squid. In total fin whales eat around 2 tons of food daily.
