Whales appeared 50 million years ago. We’re lucky enough to share our planet with 90 whale species. We have black-and-white killer whales, big-brained sperm whales, gargantuan blue whales, and many more. Like human societies, whales have diverse cultures that vary across locations. A pod of whales communicates distinctly from other pods. Some whales like to do mid-air aerobatic shows. Some prefer beach rubbing. Whales learn these behaviors, which they pass down from generation to generation.
Whales are more than their size. We have curated this list of whale quotes to change your perception of these cetaceans. Finish reading this list and be in awe of these incredible aquatic mammals.
Related: Check out our article on wondrous whale facts for a deeper dive into the fascinating world of whales. We also explore why whales beach themselves and our progress to better understand these amazing creatures.
Quick links to our selection of whale quotes:
The most exciting whale sighting is when we see these gigantic creatures jump out of the ocean. Its technical term is breaching. A jump is considered a breach when 40% of the whale's body is above the water's surface.
Whales could breach for many reasons, but science has proven that they do this to communicate with other whales. The massive splash disperses sound over longer distances in multiple directions.
Let's breach this list with our chosen best whale quotes.
"Most whale photos you see show whales in this beautiful blue water - it's almost like space."
"A whale is as unique as a cactus. But don't ask a whale to survive Death Valley. We all have special gifts. Where we use them and how determines whether we actually complete something."
"People get very passionate about saving the whale, but when something like a Florida indigo snake is endangered there are not a lot of people out there holding up placards."
The leviathan of the sea and the largest among all animals are the Antarctic blue whales. They can weigh as much as 33 elephants and span a length as long as three full school buses. Blue whales can dive across the oceans until they reach 80 to 90 years old.
As you imagine yourself side by side with an Antarctic blue whale, read these quotes describing whales in nature.
"To have a huge, friendly whale willingly approach your boat and look you straight in the eye is without doubt one of the most extraordinary experiences on the planet."
"I go to the Natural History Museum and look at the cage of stuffed starlings there. But my favourite thing is the big blue whale. The scale of it is unbelievable, and makes you feel how insignificant you are as a human being."
"The fin whale is the second largest whale specie on Earth, weighing up to 80 tons."
"Somewhere in the midst of the mammoth ocean; there exists the preposterously huge whale."
"Light doesn't penetrate beneath the surface of the water, so ocean creatures like whales and dolphins and even 800 species of fish communicate by sound. And a North Atlantic right whale can transmit across hundreds of miles."
Whales communicate at a low-frequency range between 10 to 40 hertz, and each pod has its own language. In 1992, the US Navy mistook a 52-hertz frequency as a submarine, but marine biologist William Watkins inspected it and concluded it was a whale.
The whale, nicknamed 52, sang a high-pitched song that other whales could hear but was not understood. Hence, 52 was dubbed the loneliest whale in the world.
As you read these quotes about whales' conservation, listen to the lonely song of 52.
"People sometimes feel frustrated about what's going on in our oceans and environment, and 'Whale Wars' shows that ordinary people can take action and make things happen."
"To me extremism is targeting endangered whales in a whale sanctuary in violation of a moratorium. That, to me, is extreme."
"Whales are killed today to supply the limited demand for whale meat or to be used in pet foods or as fodder for fur-bearing animals used in the fur trade."
"A whale in the shallow water of the River Thames is like a human lost in the heat of the Sahara desert."
"I have a tattoo on my foot that says 'it's a whale' in Japanese, because Japanese people kill whales. My stuffed whale was like most children's teddy bear. I took it with me everywhere. I slept with it. I couldn't live without my whale."
"The real threat to whales is whaling, which has endangered many whale species."
"Must whales and dolphins be subjected to deafening noise that will cause more than 3.5 million instances of temporary and/or permanent hearing loss? For species that depend on hearing for survival - to find food, migrate, and communicate - any hearing loss could be catastrophic. As one scientist noted, a deaf whale is a dead whale."
"Sea World's killer whale collection needs constant replenishing. The average life span of the animals in captivity is less than half the average for killer whales in the ocean."
"The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine."
Nature did not design whales' barrel-shaped bodies and wing-like fins for speed. But when they undertake their thousands of miles of migration, they can cover up to a hundred miles daily. They're slow at 3 to 4 miles per hour but travel non-stop. Why do they migrate? Whales journey to the colder region to feast. They travel to the warmer regions to breed or shed their skin.
After reading these quotes from famous whale stories, may you continue reading them in a book or listen to its audiobook.
"They say the whale that swallowed Jonah. Now (Out) in the deep blue. Sometimes I get that feeling. That same ol' whale swallowed me."
"Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale."
"If the Bible had said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would believe it."
"Instead of being a page-turner, 'Moby-Dick' is a repository of American history and culture and the essentials of Western literature. The book is so encyclopedic that space aliens could use it to re-create the whale fishery as it once existed on the planet Earth in the midst of the 19th century."
"The thing about Moby Dick is that, at heart, it's a very simple plot - there's only one white whale in the ocean. When you're a boy growing up in a hostile home, you imagine it's unique: it's happening only to you."
Like fish, whales are also commercially caught, which is called whaling. Humans catch them for their meat, which is considered a delicacy in some cultures, or people use them for oil for machine lubrication, baleen for clothing, and ambergris for perfumes. Although it is still present in some countries, commercial whaling has been banned internationally since 1986.
May these whale quotes spark your desire to conserve the whale population in your own way - big or small.
"And the whale herd sang their gladness that the tribe would also live, because they knew that the girl would need to be carefully taught before she could claim the place for her people in the world."
"Not a mightier whale than this In the vast Atlantic is; Not a fatter fish than he Flounders round the polar sea."
"And enormous mother whales lie dreaming suckling their whale-tender young and dreaming with strange whale eyes wide open in the waters of the beginning and the end."
"He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it."
"I wanted to make connections between Whale's past and present."
"The grey gull sat on a floating whale. On a floating whale sat he. And he told his tale of the storm and the gale. And the ships that he saw with steam and sail, as he flew by the Northern Sea."
"There are people in this world who can wear whale masks and people who cannot, and the wise know to which group they belong."
"If you were going to drown her in the swirling and ferocious waves of the ocean after the whale overtoppled her boat; drown me to the bottom instead."
"A purple whale proudly sweeps his tail towards Nineveh; glassy green surges between a mile of roaring sea."
"Fishing for the humpback whale. A tractor for a whale winch."
The whale without Ahab is just a whale. A whale with no problems. A stress-free whale.
~ Julian Blackthorn
Like cows, whales also have four stomachs. But there is one whale specie who have significantly more than four digestive organs. Baird's beaked whale has an astonishing 13 stomachs! Also, whales are the largest animals, but some species eat the smallest prey - the krill.
As you digest these mind-blowing facts, finish reading the remaining whale quotes.
"I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."
"God gave me some weird, beautiful scent that makes men and women go crazy. People compare it to Carvel. It is a whale of a smell."
"My wife says I'm making a noise like a stranded whale. I think I have a major snoring problem."
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