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Blackfish
Also called: Pilot Whale, Ca'ing Whale.
Images coming soon.
- Length
- 15 feet.
- Description
- Size large, forehead vertical, high, sometimes even overhanging the lips which are slightly protruding; flippers very long (4 feet); back fin situated in front of the middle, and sloping backward. Colour uniform black with a V-shaped white mark on the breast connecting with a white stripe down the belly. Teeth 10 in each jaw.
- Range
- North Atlantic, south to Long Island on the American side. Further south it is replaced by the southern blackfish (G. brachypterus, Cope), entirely black, with much shorter flippers and only 8 teeth in each jaw.
This large animal resembles somewhat the bottle-nosed whale (Hyperoodon), but is recognized at once by its long flippers and numerous teeth. It is said to be more gregarious than other species, associating in herds of two or three hundred individuals which blindly follow their leader like a flock of sheep.