Which Arctic whale can live for more than 200 years?

The bowhead whale can live for more than 200 years.

Bowheads are among the longest-lived mammals known to science. Their longevity has been estimated from evidence including chemical changes in eye tissues and the discovery of old harpoon fragments embedded in some whales. Indigenous Arctic hunters and scientists have therefore contributed important knowledge about the species' life history.

The whale's massive skull can break through sea ice, and its enormous mouth contains baleen rather than teeth. It feeds mainly by filtering tiny organisms such as copepods and krill from seawater. A thick blubber layer, sometimes more than half a metre thick, protects it in frigid Arctic seas.

Bowhead whales are baleen whales of the family Balaenidae. They are not the same animal as the similarly named right whales. Bowheads generally remain in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, following seasonal openings in sea ice rather than undertaking the global migrations typical of some other great whales.