Because whale ancestors were land animals with distinct digits. Over millions of years, their limbs evolved into flippers as they spent more time in the water. Those with flipper limbs that allowed them to get around with greater ease survived to pass on their genetic traits through aeons of evolution. And now we have whales.
(The nature of whale predecessors is also why whales breath air instead of taking in oxygen through gills, like fish - they're still stuck with remnants of land-dweller Biology.)
They need to maneuver themselves through the water (and not drown). They have the longest flippers of any whale (1/3 of it's body length) because they need to be very maneuverable to catch their prey.
Obvously, to swim.
when you see a whale you think it doesn't have fingers. whereas, underneath their flippers are five finger-structured bones exactly like fingers but on a fish. that is why they are called tetrapods.
they are called flippers
Swimming
flippers
Finger Bones The "one other" is Human
it helps them swim
yes to swim around
it moves by using it's flippers and back.
the beluga it with its tail and flippers
The Blue Whale has a small Dorsal Fin as well as its Flukes (tail) and its Flippers.
by using flippers modified forelimbs
Whale fins remodeled from the legs of a ground dwelling animal over some millions of years. The bones are of the same construction and number, just overlaid with flippers now.