Size:
Maximum length: 21 m; Calves: 4.5 m
Maximum weight: 27 tonnes
Features:
- sleek and streamlined
- single ridge along the top of the head
- prominent curved dorsal fin and short pointed flippers
- 32-60 well-defined ventral grooves
- colour: dark grey to black back; lighter belly, sometimes with pinkish tinge; white patches all over the body are parasitic scars from lampreys and copepods