How many fiosh in a whale's stomach?

From: Phil Clapham (pclapham@whsun1.wh.whoi.edu)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2003 - 08:04:16 EST

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    Hi

    Great question, dont know the answer! It depends on how big the whale
    is, and also on how big the fish are. Not all whales eat fish, but many
    do. The blue whale - the biggest whale - eats almost nothing but krill,
    which are a small critter that looks like a shrimp. The really big
    whales have a stomach that can hold around a ton of food. So, if you
    asume that a whale has a full stomach and it eating small fish (say
    herring or sand eels) which weigh on average 4 oz each, that would be
    around 8000 fish.

    But we really dont know if whales fill their stomachs to capacity; and
    as I said, it depends on the size of the whale and of the fish. So the
    short answer is... a lot of fish!

    Phil Clapham

    MIXTLI88@aol.com wrote:
    > hello sir,
    > I have one question about whales, so here goes...
    > >>>How many fishes fit in a whale's stomache?
    > I hope you can answer this for me, thanks. 

    -- 

    Phillip J. Clapham, Ph.D.
Large Whale Biology Program
Northeast Fisheries Science Center
166 Water Street
Woods Hole, MA 02543, U.S.A.

    tel. 508 495-2316
fax 508 495-2066
email: pclapham@whsun1.wh.whoi.edu

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