Killer whales even eat other large mammals such as seals and sea lions. These gentle giants were nearly hunted to extinction for meat and oil. The bones, too, were prized for carving decorative items, and the baleen was used for garment stays. Baleen whales are the largest whales but they eat tiny food animals. Krill, related to shrimp, are smaller than your little finger and copepods are only the size of a grain of rice.
Whales swim into a school of krill or small fish with their mouths open.
They take in hundreds of gallons of water, close their mouths and squirt the water through the baleen. The baleen traps the krill and other small animals and the whale swallows them. A single whale can eat several tons of krill a day. Cold waters in the North and South Atlantic Ocean and the North and South Pacific have many schools of krill and small fish. Whales like to feed in the cold oceans where there is an abundance of their favorite food.