---
title: Whales (Balaenopteridae)
scientific_name: Balaenopteridae
common_name: Whales
rank: Family
published: 2024-11-19T18:41:51.573Z
updated: 2026-08-03T21:24:13.970Z
tags: Whales, Balaenopteridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales
---

# Whales (*Balaenopteridae*)

## Quick facts

- **Rank:** Family
- **Scientific name:** Balaenopteridae
- **Body shape:** Torpedo - Streamlined and muscular, built for open-water speed - jacks, tunas, barracudas.
- **Species listed here:** 4

## How to recognise this group

- horizontal tail flukes
- very large size, typically over 5 meters long
- smooth body, no scales or external limbs
- characteristic spout of water or air from top of head

Balaenopteridae, or rorquals, are streamlined baleen whales with deep, pleated grooves extending from the chin down the throat, which unfold to allow rapid engulfment of water and prey. They filter plankton and small schooling fish through their baleen plates. Most species are countershaded, dark dorsally and lighter ventrally, sometimes with asymmetrical pigmentation. A small dorsal fin sits well back on the body, and paired blowholes produce a tall, columnar blow. Individual species range in length from Omura's whale at 10-12 m (33-39 ft) to humpback whales at 13-16 m (43-52 ft), the latter recognised by pectoral fins up to a third of its length and knobbly tubercles across its head. The name 'rorqual' comes from the Norwegian røyrkval, "furrow whale," for these throat pleats.

Rorquals are pelagic animals, inhabiting open ocean waters across various depths, typically from the surface down to foraging depths. They migrate long distances between feeding and breeding grounds, generally solitary or in small, transient groups. Their diet consists primarily of krill, copepods, and schooling fish, which they consume through lunge feeding. In the Red Sea, encounters with rorquals are rare and almost exclusively observed from boats in open waters, rather than during a dive.


## Species (4)

- [Bryde's Whale (Balaenoptera edeni)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales/brydes-whale)
- [Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia sima)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales/dwarf-sperm-whale)
- [Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales/humpback-whale)
- [Omura's Whale (Balaenoptera omurai)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales/omuras-whale)

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/whales)*
*Updated: August 3, 2026*