# How Long Would It Take One Person to Eat a Blue Whale? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 12, 2017, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969 "2017-03-12T01:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/21 "2017-03-12T17:33:25Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > I think the larger animal would at least have a greater proportion of edible weight > > \ > > So, anybody know anything about blue whale anatomy? Actually, it goes the other way: bone mass does not increase linearly with body mass, but rather with mass raised to the power of 1.09. So if a blue whale is 100 times the size of a smaller whale, we’d expect its ones to be 151 times as big as the smaller whale’s. This suggests a smaller proportion of edible material from the larger whale. Galileo was one of the first to notice this nonlinearity. Here’s an account of Galileo’s take on things and how that correlates to the observable world: > **[L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf](https://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/609.ral5q.fall04/LecturePDF/L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf)** > > 1350.29 KB ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/22 "2017-03-12T18:39:27Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Actually, it goes the other way: bone mass does not increase linearly with body mass, but rather with mass raised to the power of 1.09. So if a blue whale is 100 times the size of a smaller whale, we’d expect its ones to be 151 times as big as the smaller whale’s. This suggests a smaller proportion of edible material from the larger whale. > > Galileo was one of the first to notice this nonlinearity. Here’s an account of Galileo’s take on things and how that correlates to the observable world: > > [http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/609.ral5q.fall04/LecturePDF/L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf](http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/609.ral5q.fall04/LecturePDF/L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf) I have always been facinated with the concept of scaling things that actually do work. ``` In the case of the whale being almost weightless in water I am not so sure galileo's theory here would hold true. Some very large fish use cartilage instead of bone. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/23 "2017-03-12T20:09:04Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Plus meat yield to a non-native English scientist may not include the muktuk which many (it is an acquired taste by all accounts) would consider inedible wastage vs the flesh. If we’re just talking lean whale “meat” as something westerners would eat the yield numbers are much smaller. I was figuring it as all edible parts being eaten, including organ meats, so muktuk woyld definitely be included. > [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Actually, it goes the other way: bone mass does not increase linearly with body mass, but rather with mass raised to the power of 1.09. So if a blue whale is 100 times the size of a smaller whale, we’d expect its ones to be 151 times as big as the smaller whale’s. This suggests a smaller proportion of edible material from the larger whale. > > Galileo was one of the first to notice this nonlinearity. Here’s an account of Galileo’s take on things and how that correlates to the observable world: > > [http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/609.ral5q.fall04/LecturePDF/L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf](http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/classes/609.ral5q.fall04/LecturePDF/L14-GALILEOSCALING.pdf) Hm, interesting. I realize too that I was envisioning a blue whale as being of a greater relative girth than it actually is, probably as a result of cartoon depictions! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/24 "2017-03-12T20:44:15Z")
All these posts and no “Need answer fast?” joke. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/25 "2017-03-12T21:06:39Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > As a practical matter, the blue whale is going to turn into a rotten carcass and decay long before a person could eat it. What if you had a _really_ big freezer? And a lot of Tupperware? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/26 "2017-03-12T21:36:34Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > What if you had a _really_ big freezer? > > And a lot of Tupperware? I live in So Cal so jerky would be my only option. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tom\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_P)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/27 "2017-03-13T12:36:24Z")
[Norwegian Wikipedia](https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A5hval) refers to a blue whale caught in 1947 by a Japanese whaler. It weighed 136353kg, and had 60962kg meat and 19812kg of blubber. (60962kg is about 134000 pounds of meat). The maximum weight ever recorded seems to be 173000kg, so this whale is smaller that, but I guess the total/meat/blubber ratio is the same. Using just the meat from above (so no organs or blubber): Whale meat (no species indicated in the [source I found](http://www.matvaretabellen.no/poultry-and-meat-g3/whale-raw-03.033)) gives about 120kcal/100g, so at 2500 kcal/day your caloric intake is covered for about 30000 days or around 80 years of eating nothing but around 4 pounds of blue whale meat every day. Frankly, I’d recommend a salad instead. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/28 "2017-03-13T14:53:40Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Don’t forget to factor out the weight of the oil. > > One whale fueled a bunch of lamps in Colonial times. Why would you factor it out? Whale oil is rendered down from the blubber, which in all the above calculations is being eaten, not discarded. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/29 "2017-03-13T15:09:33Z")
> [@Tom\_P](#): > > [Norwegian Wikipedia](https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A5hval) refers to a blue whale caught in 1947 by a Japanese whaler. It weighed 136353kg, and had 60962kg meat and 19812kg of blubber. (60962kg is about 134000 pounds of meat). The maximum weight ever recorded seems to be 173000kg, so this whale is smaller that, but I guess the total/meat/blubber ratio is the same. > > Using just the meat from above (so no organs or blubber): > > Whale meat (no species indicated in the [source I found](http://www.matvaretabellen.no/poultry-and-meat-g3/whale-raw-03.033)) gives about 120kcal/100g, so at 2500 kcal/day your caloric intake is covered for about 30000 days or around 80 years of eating nothing but around 4 pounds of blue whale meat every day. > > Frankly, I’d recommend a salad instead. This [link](http://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_148941745376812&key=ce270d38103a630c3181db372a25a052&libId=j088n7qe010004p6000DAo7kojsgg&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fnewreply.php%3Fdo%3Dnewreply%26p%3D20062488&v=1&out=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enr.gov.nt.ca%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fweights_of_wildlife.pdf&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D821349&title=Straight%20Dope%20Message%20Board%20-%20Reply%20to%20Topic&txt=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enr.gov.nt.ca%2Fsites%2Fdefau...f_wildlife.pdf)which is derived from whales that were actually caught and consumed indicates a lean meat to skin blubber ration of 37% lean meat - 63% muktuk (skin- blubber). The Norwegian cite above indicates a 3 to 1 ratio of (assumed lean) meat to blubber. Re calories you are using just lean meat calories not meat + skin-blubber calories in your calculation. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/30 "2017-03-13T16:12:22Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Assume it won’t rot. > > My seat-of-the-pants calculations got me 149 years, but I figured you guys would come up with a better approach. > > The question came up as a result of a “name the worst possible housepet” contest, which was handily won by my 8 year old niece. As unpleasant as a pet alligator or skunk might be, we all had to admit that the practical realities of trying to house a blue whale trumped all other considerations. In trying to come up with something positive to say about the prospect of a pet blue whale, I said, “well, if you got sick of keeping it as a pet, you could just eat it.” The question of how long that would take was inevitable. > > Now, the reason we were all together was to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday, now also known as “halfway done eating that whale.” > > Of course, if astro’s calculations are correct, she’d already be finished. When I was a kid, I saw a cartoon which lives with me to this day. Two cavemen, contemplating a ‘brontosaurus’\* in the middle distance (midground?). One says to the other, “I’d kill one of those, but then it would be brontosaurus, day in and day out for a month!” \*Yes, when I was a kid, it was literally true that brontosaurs walked the earth (at one time). Then everything’s name got changed, and by the time the dust settled, Pluto was no longer a planet. Now, get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/31 "2017-03-13T16:15:15Z")
What’s the best part of a Blue whale? Sharks seem to like the tongue. The hagfish on the ocean floor seem to like the blubber. What do humans seem to like? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/32 "2017-03-13T17:07:20Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > What’s the best part of a Blue whale? In Japan, _Onomi_ (literally “tail meat”) is the most expensive cut of whale meat. It is a marbled meat at the base of the tail fin of larger baleen whales like fin whales and blue whales. (Other whales have the equivalent meat but it’s not marbled to the same extent.) [More info on Wikipedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_meat#Japan) ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/33 "2017-03-13T17:31:47Z")
I call the Onomi! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/34 "2017-03-13T17:35:07Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > What if you had a _really_ big freezer? > > And a lot of Tupperware? Like, say the Arctic? My Dad grew up with the Eskimo, and one small whale fed a entire village for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/35 "2017-03-13T17:46:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I think that was a fluke. _golf clap_ Bravo. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/36 "2017-03-13T18:05:22Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > Yes, when I was a kid, it was literally true that brontosaurs walked the earth (at one time). Then everything’s name got changed, and by the time the dust settled, Pluto was no longer a planet. Now, get off my lawn! Good news! Brontosaurus walks the earth [again](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/)! I mean, they walked the earth at one time again. They once walked the earth again. Hell, just click the link. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/37 "2017-03-13T18:14:53Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Good news! Brontosaurus walks the earth [again](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/)! I mean, they walked the earth at one time again. They once walked the earth again. > > Hell, just click the link. Well, “Bully for Brontosaurus!”\* \*My pet solution to the brontosaurus problem would be to use brontosaurus as the name for generic giant dinosaur that is “skinny on one end, thick in the middle, and skinny at the other end” (paraphrasing Anne Elk). Guess that’s no longer possible. ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/38 "2017-03-13T20:49:14Z")
There are restaurants in Iceland that serve whale–most likely not blue whale. I was once told that the cuts came from one whale in a deep freeze, taken before Iceland gave up whaling, but apparently that is not the case–they’re still whaling. In conclusion, please don’t eat actual whale. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/39 "2017-03-13T21:58:20Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > \*My pet solution to the brontosaurus problem would be to use brontosaurus as the name for generic giant dinosaur that is “skinny on one end, thick in the middle, and skinny at the other end” (paraphrasing Anne Elk). Guess that’s no longer possible. Never was possible. There is already a term for that–sauropod. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969/40 "2017-03-13T23:30:41Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Braise the whales! I’d krill for some braised whale right about now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-would-it-take-one-person-to-eat-a-blue-whale/781969.md?page=3)