Sei Whale
Facts
-
EN
Status
Endangered
-
Scientific Name
Balaenoptera borealis
-
Weight
About 20 tons
-
Length
45 to 66 feet
-
Habitats
Oceans
The sei whale is one of the fastest whales, reaching speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Sei whales inhabit all oceans and adjoining seas except in tropical and polar regions. Like other great whales, they prefer to spend the summer feeding in cooler waters before migrating to warmer waters to breed and give birth to their calves.
- Places
- Habitats
Whales and the plastics problem
Protecting whales is crucial to protecting healthy oceans for all of us. Yet even these ocean giants are being impacted by the "deadliest predator in the sea": plastic pollution.

Why They Matter
Threats
-
Extinction Risk Endangered
-
EX
Extinct
No reasonable doubt that the last individual has died
-
EW
Extinct in the Wild
Known only to survive in cultivation, in captivity or as a naturalised population
-
CR
Critically Endangered
Facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the Wild
-
EN
Endangered
Facing a high risk of extinction in the Wild
-
VU
Vulnerable
Facing a high risk of extinction in the Wild
-
NT
Near Threatened
Likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future
-
LC
Least Concern
Does not qualify for Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, or Near Threatened
-
EX

Whaler demonstrating how to use a harpoon gun.
While the sei whale has been hunted by humans since the 1860s, it wasn't until the 1950s and 1960s and the declining availability of blue and fin whales that the killings seriously expanded.
Since 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has officially halted all commercial whaling. However, 50 sei whales are killed annually by Japanese whalers in the North Pacific under Japan's "scientific" whaling program.
Whales are threatened by climate change and can also be harmed by pollution, shipping strikes and entanglement in fishing gear.
What WWF Is Doing

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the body charged with regulating whaling and addressing the vast number of other threats to whales, dolphins and porpoises in our oceans such as shipping, climate change and bycatch. WWF works to make the IWC more effective in reducing threats to whales.
Experts
Related Species
-
North Atlantic Right Whale
-
Gray Whale
-
Bowhead Whale
-
Fin Whale
-
Blue Whale
-
Narwhal
-
Beluga
-
Sea Turtle
-
Vaquita
-
Whale Shark
-
Dugong
-
Humphead Wrasse
-
Pacific Salmon
-
Dolphins and Porpoises
-
Whale
-
Seals
-
Sea Lions
-
Marine Iguana
-
Tuna
-
Bluefin Tuna
-
Yellowfin Tuna
-
Hawksbill Turtle
-
Skipjack Tuna
-
Great White Shark
-
Loggerhead Turtle
-
Leatherback Turtle
-
Green Turtle
-
Olive Ridley Turtle
-
Albacore Tuna
-
Bigeye Tuna
-
Hector's Dolphin
-
Galápagos Penguin
-
Shark
-
Polar Bear
-
Arctic Wolf
-
Brown Bear
-
Giant Tortoise
-
African Wild Dog
-
African Elephant
-
Black Rhino
-
White Rhino
-
Rhino