Common Minke Whale

Fascinating facts about the Common Minke Whale

• Minke whales barely reach the length of a city bus, topping out at just 10.7 m (35 ft), the longest individuals ever recorded in the North Atlantic. Their heft tops out at 9.2 t (10.1 short tons), despite a body as long as a school bus. Their modest size kept early whalers from targeting them, but today they are a primary whaling target worldwide.
• Minke whales split from their Antarctic cousins 4.7 million years ago during a warm Pliocene interval that broke up the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This ancient climate shake-up created isolated pockets of upwelling, nudging populations onto separate evolutionary paths.
• Hybrid minke whales prove the two species can still mate: the first confirmed hybrid was an 8.25 m (27.1 ft) female caught off western Spitsbergen on 20 June 2007, a cross between a female Antarctic and a male common minke. A second hybrid, a pregnant female taken on 1 July 2010, showed a common-minke mother and Antarctic-minke father, and even back-crossed to produce a pure-common fetus, confirming fertile offspring can arise.
• Newborn minkes are tiny, just 2.5-2.8 m (8 ft 2 in, 9 ft 2 in) long and weighing 150-300 kg (330-660 lb), and stay with their mothers for about five months before weaning. Gestation lasts 10-11 months, meaning a mother carries a single calf for almost a year before giving birth.
• Around 210 000 minke whales roam the oceans. In the North Atlantic alone, scientists estimate over 180 000 individuals, and thousands along Iceland's coasts. Such abundance underpins their Least Concern status.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

At a glance

About the Common Minke Whale

In the dark, mysterious depths of the ocean, the common minke whale glides effortlessly, its sleek, slate-grey body undulating through the waves with a gentle, almost ethereal quality. As it moves, its dorsal fin slices through the surface, leaving behind a trail of turbulent water that belies the creature's remarkable agility and speed, for despite its size, the minke whale is a nimble and curious hunter. With a flick of its tail, it dives deep into the abyss, disappearing into the darkness in pursuit of the tiny crustaceans and fish that sustain it.

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