Why do whales eat a huge amount of small fishes instead of a few large ones?

Question

I remember watching a documentary once and learned that whales need to eat tonnes (literally) of krill per day to survive. I don’t understand why this is better than eating small amounts of large fishes instead.

In: 298

Answer 1

The biggest whales are that large BECAUSE they eat krill or other smaller food sources.

The abundant nutrients krill provides allowed the evolutionary ancestors of large species like the blue whale to grow larger.

It is such a good source of food that whales are now the largest animals that have ever lived on the Earth (or at least that we know about!).