Yes, there is indeed quite a lot of information in what must be considered a quite small genome. There is clearly some regulators telling what a gene is supposed to do. All the cells of an organism have exactly the same genome for example, yet they develop quite differently and have wildly different functions. We also know that there are triggers telling the organism to do certain things at certain times and not at other times, sweating to cool down the body when we are hot is one example. Therefore organisms are clearly adaptable.
In regards to this triggering effect, the following is quite instructive. The distal-less gene was long believed to be the creator of limbs, however, it is only a part of the system which produces them as the following explains (another evolutionist 'assumption' proven wrong):
The discovery that limb primordia expressed the Distal-less gene at their most distal tips was an extraordinarily exciting finding (Cohen et al., 1990; Panganiban et al., 1994). Since the parapodia (abdominal legs) of butterfly caterpillars expressed the Distal-less gene in the same manner as the beginnings of the thoracic legs of both butterflies and Drosophila, it was thought that the parapodia could indeed be considered as partially formed legs. Similarly, the observation that the Distal-less gene was expressed in Drosophila maxilla and labia primordia, as well as in the thoracic legs rudiments, leant credence to the paleontological conviction that insect jaws were modified leg segments. It appeared that Distal-less expression was the developmental signal to form limbs.
Panganiban and colleagues (1997) have extended this research to other animals and found that Distal-less did not encode the instructions for "limbedness." Rather, Distal-less seems to tell the structure in which it is expressed to "stick itself out" from the main body axis. For instance, Distal-less was found to be in the five tube "feet" of sea urchins, certainly not limbs in the usual sense. This protein is seen in the tube feet cells prior to metamorphosis, before the cells expressing Distal-less grow out from the body wall. The spines of the sea urchin, which also protrude from the body axis, also express Distal-less protein (Figure 1).
From: Distal-Less: Instructions to stick it out
We seem to be agreed that whales have essentially all the instructions for forming limbs -- either that or the instructions are incredibly compact.