name: Bowhead Whale
flavor_db_name_variants: bowhead whale
source: foodb
status: draft
food_db_id: Bowhead whale
id: 308
name_scientific: Balaena mysticetus
description: The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae, in suborder Mysticeti and genus Balaena. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 m in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh 75 tonnes to 100 tonnes, second only to the blue whale, although the bowhead's maximum length is less than several other whales. It lives entirely in fertile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate to feed or reproduce to low latitude waters. It was also known as Greenland right whale or Arctic whale. American whalemen called it the steeple-top, polar whale, or Russia or Russian whale. The bowhead has the largest mouth of any animal. The bowhead was an early whaling target. Its population was severely reduced before a 1966 moratorium. The population is estimated to be over 24,900 worldwide, down from an estimated 50,000 before whaling.
itis_id: 180533
wikipedia_id: Bowhead whale
picture_file_name: 311.jpg
picture_content_type: image/jpeg
picture_file_size: 24966
picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:39:08.000Z
legacy_id: 338
food_group: Aquatic foods
food_subgroup: Cetaceans
food_type: Type 1
created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:31.000Z
updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:04:22.000Z
creator_id: null
updater_id: null
export_to_afcdb: false
category: specific
ncbi_taxonomy_id: 27602
export_to_foodb: false
public_id: FOOD00308