Size:

Maximum length: 16 m; Calves: 4.5 m
Maximum weight: 35 tonnes

Features:

• robust with small dorsal hump/fin
• long wing-like flippers
• distinctive head knobs of varying size
• a rounded outgrowth near the tip of the lower jaw
• 14 - 35 broad ventral grooves
• frequently covered with whale lice (cyamid crustaceans) and barnacles
• 300 - 400 baleen plates edged with black or olive-black bristles on each side of the mouth
• colour: black with white patches on the flippers, the underside of the body, and the flukes