Balaena musculus Linnaeus, 1758 p.76; Type locality- Fifth of Forth, Scotland.
Physalus sibbaldii Gray, 1847 p.92; Type locality- Coast of Yorkshire, England.
Sibbalius sulfureus Cope, 1869 p.20; Type locality- North Atlantic, US; True, 1884 p.591.
Balaenoptera musculus: Kuroda, 1938 p.11; Won, 1958 p.433; Won, 1967 p.79; Won, 1968 p.236; Kim et al., 2000 p.52; Kim, 2004 p.217.
Range: Balaenoptera musculus has rarely been encountered in the East Sea (Fig. 78). Whalers harvested a total of 20 blue whales in the waters of Korea during 1911 to 1944 (Park 1987). There has been no record of this whale in Korean waters since 1944.
Remarks: The Northern Hemisphere stock (except the Indian Ocean stock) is identified under B. m. musculus (Reilly et al. 2008).
Conservation status: The South Korean government designated this species a Protected Marine Species in 2007. The North Korean Red Data Book listed this species as ‘Rare.’ CITES has protected B. musculus as an Appendix I species, and the IUCN designated this whale as ‘Endangered’.