When you possess the highly braggable distinction of being the largest animal to have ever lived, certain social hesitances simply do not apply to your daily routine. In short, life as a blue whale means never having to say you're sorry. Just ask BBC's BAFTA-winning naturalist and TV personalitySteve Backshall, whose interview with noted whale expert Doris Welch was recently interrupted by the very subject of their discussion: a blue whale.
Shortly after his televised enthusiasm inspired millions, Backshall penned a bit of prose for the Huffington Post in which he detailed the emotional layers of that enthusiasm and the importance of capturing a blue whale on camera:
To truly fathom the size of a blue whale, the Marine Mammal Centerrecommends you imagine three school buses as the whale's length. The blue whale's heart, presumably consisting of unhinged badassery, is roughly the size of a car. However, the whale is no lean machine, with the average weight of an adult nearing 300,000 pounds.