Blue whales in the Mediterranean ?

[animal explorer]

I was searching on ARKive - Discover the world's most endangered species about animals in greece and 1 of the 615 results was the blue whale . I read arkive's text about this species and it says " The blue whale is found in every ocean except the Arctic, with a range that extends from the periphery of drift-ice in polar seas to the tropics, although it is absent from some seas such as the Mediterranean . How is it possible to live in greece but not in the meditteranian ? Does anyone have any possible explanation ? ( I tend to believe that there is just a false result in the list )

 

[Chlidonias]

it took a while, but I found a reference to blue whales in the Mediterranean! In C. Savona-Ventura: Marine Mammals in the Central Mediterranean. it says "Six species of whalebone whales have been reported to occasionally enter the Mediterranean, including the 30.5 meters long Blue Whale."

However I also found another vague remark elsewhere that a blue whale sighting in the Mediterranean was likely to be a mistaken identity of a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) which are common in the sea.

Basically, blue whales *may* occasionally enter the Mediterranean but you would have more chance of winning a lottery than seeing one.

 

[Merintia]

According to my guides, Blue Whales are sometimes (very rarely) seen on the Atlantic side of the Strait of Gibraltar, so I suppose that is possible that, occasionally, some of them enter on the Mediterranean, as Chlidonias says.
Four years ago a Gray Whale was seen two times, first in Israel and later on near to Barcelona, that´s much more rare!