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

Some whales do eat larger prey. You are thinking of baleen whales like the blue whale which eats krill, but sperm whales eat big things like squid and fish. They evolved to fill different ecological niches and so their physiology is adapted differently depending on what they eat.