great whale

plural great whales

1. Any of the largest thirteen species of whale currently extant (a polyphyletic grouping, all of which are baleen whales except the sperm whale).

   Other early hunters of whales included [...] the Basques, who developed the first organized whale fishery [...] in the Bay of Biscay, and who managed through overfishing virtually to eliminate an entire stock of great whales - those known as the Biscayan right whales.

   1971 Dec, National Geographic, page 725