How do baleen whales eat?

Baleen whales practice filter feeding, and the tools for filter feeding are their baleen plates. Baleen plates are made of keratin, which is the same material found in our fingernails and our hair. The baleen plates are worn down by the whale's tongue, but they also grow back like fingernails. read more

Right whales eat zooplankton (animal plankton). Their finely fringed baleen is able to strain from the water copepods (a type of small crustacean) and other small zooplankton. Krill (a family of small, shrimplike crustaceans) and copepods are major components of a right whale's diet. Rorquals generally eat larger prey than do right whales. read more

Then they use their tongue to wipe the baleen clean before swallowing their food. In the northeast U.S., the common toothed whales are pilot whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Common baleen whales are humpbacks, minkes, and right whales. read more