Do barnacles bother whales? Do whales have a way to get rid of them?

Question

And why do some whales have a lot of them while other whales have seemingly none?

In: 38

Answer 1

It does indeed bother the whales. We do see them clean barnacles by rubbing their skin against rocks. The whales do also shed skin just like people so the barnacles will fall off on their own. But we do see some whales suffer a lot from barnacle infections. Especially if they are weak or otherwise ill. The barnacles themselves makes the illness worse by slowing down the whale and restricting their movement. So a survivable illness could be made deadly by the barnacles.