Life Span
Reading edition
It is not known for certain how long a whale may live after completing its growth. At the present time, commercially important species seldom attain physical maturity before being captured. Many whales which are captured are measured for scientific study. Such measurements also keep the whalers from taking undersized juveniles. Whales apparently do not live to be very old. Fifty years appears to be the best current estimate of a life span.
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Back of a gray whale showing barnacles and barnacle scars. Courtesy of Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
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