Photographer Catches Amazing Bird's-Eye View Footage Of Fin Whales

A group of at least 7 fin whales were spotted in Gulf of Corcovado in Chile by a yacht and captured with a drone. Such magnificent drone footage!Show more

They are also called finback whales, formerly known as herring or razorback whales and are the second largest mammalian species on Earth, right after the blue whale. Roy Chapman Andrews, an American naturalist, called these animals "the greyhound of the sea ... for its beautiful, slender body is built like a racing yacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship."

The fin whale belongs to the cetacean order, along with all the species of whale, dolphin and porpoise. Found in all the major oceans, at least two recognized subspecies exist, in the North Atlantic and the Southern Hemisphere. Their population is most dense in temperate and cool water, while they are absent only from the waters closest to the ice pack at the poles and relatively small areas of water away from the open ocean.

Like all other large whales, the fin whale was heavily hunted during the 20th century. As a result, it is now an endangered species. Over 725,000 fin whales were reportedly taken from the Southern Hemisphere between 1905 and 1976; as of 1997 only 38,000 survived. Recovery of the overall population size of southern species is predicted to be at less than 50% of its pre-whaling state by 2100 due to heavier impacts of whaling and slower recovery rates. (source: Wikipedia)