original reference for the ft male cited in the lead and size section the claim that a ft m male was caught off the kuril islands by a soviet fleet in the summer of has been repeated by guinness world record books since at least i'm guessing the original reference for it is the international whaling statistics or perhaps some russian paper does anyone now the origins of it i know of longer reported lengths but none approaching that length that were measured by scientists the longest i know of was a ft male brought to the coal harbour whaling station on the west coast of vancouver island in which was measured by biologist gordon pike or one of his assistants