Minke Whales

Meet the minke whale.

Inhabiting the great oceans of our planet, the minke whale can live up to 50 years, and are the smalles species in the the great whale family.

Just like us humans, the minke whale needs oxygen from the atmosphere to live. Therefore, the minke whales enters the ocean surface every 15 minutes.

When entering the surface, minke whales takes CO2 from the atmosphere and export it down to the deeper layers where it's stored.

It is believed that minke whales can carry 30 thousand tons CO2 each year.

Thereby, the minke whale act as a living carbon sink, preventing the world from further warming.

For centuries, the minke whale was overlooked by whalers as they were considered too small and too fast to catch.

But since a rapid decline in, and following ban of, other whale species, whalers begun to hunt minke whales in the 1930s.

Today, the minke whale is the only allowable whale to catch, and is sold and served in restaurants.

The minke whale poses many threats due to anthropogenic behavior. Whaling activities, entanglement in fishing equipment, noise pollution, vessel strikes and climate change are the most significant ones. Explore the slidewhos below to learn more about these topics.

Most significant is the whaling. As mentioned, the minke whale has been exploited since the 1930's. But in 1946, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was established. After reaching the point of near extinction for several mammal species, the IWC was renewed in 1986. The IWC recommends a total ban of all whaling activities.

Today, the IWC holds many country members all over the world. However, some countries are still exercising whaling. Explore the countries below to learn more about how these countries exercise whaling.

The IWC was renewed in 1986 due to a rapid decline in several whale populations, whereafter the kills decreased drastically. Since then, however, the number of kills has increased.

In total, 32 597 minke whales were killed since the moratorium went into effect in 1986 and 2010.

Norway, Japan, Iceland and Russia are the countries behind the increased catches on the northern hemisphere. Let's take a closer look at how many whales the respective countries have caught sine 1986.

In total, Norway and Japan have caught the most whales. Interestingly, for both Norway and Iceland, catches are reported prior to their official resuming of commercial whaling.

As a result of Japan and Norway's high catch rates, the number of kills are mainly located in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean. Similarly, the catches in the Southern Hemisphere has decrease significantly, reflecting the fact that many countries stopped whaling after the IWC.

Japan and Norway appears to have the highest number of kills. But were these with or withouth scientific permit?

Norway, Iceland and Korea has the smallest number of kills with scientific permit, meaning they have the highest number of kills by objection to the moratorium.

The majority of kills conducted by Norway and Russia were without permission. If we look at the global numbers, however, we see that 64% of the kills were conducted with permit.

So what is the motivation behind these catches?

As we've seen 64% of the catches were conducted with scientific permit, that is for researching reasons.

However, many catches still take place for human consumption.

It is a well-known belief that whale consumption is a great part of the Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic culture.

But is this really the case in real life?

For Iceland this is hardly the case.

“The misconception of whale meat being a traditional Icelandic food is a complex issue to explain. The short version is that the story of whaling and whale meat for local consumption has, in modern times, been closely linked to the idea of Icelandic independence and self governing rights,” (Martin Norman, Greenpeace"

In fact, according to a survey by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Capacent Gallup 95% of Icelanders never consume whale meat.

The same trend can be seen in Norway, where only 4% eat whale meat on a regular basis.

Japan and Norway believe they are stable and therefore argue they can catch sustainably. Additionally, Japan has expressed their disbelief to the IWC.

But no matter the politics, the Minke whales are posing many threats and they know no geographical boundaries or scientific permissions, and the number of catches have been increasing.

Additionally, the minke whale populations are difficult to monitor, and no one really knows their status. Therefore, a ban of whaling activities is crucial to protect the minke whales, and thus protect the marine ecosystem and our climate.

• NOAA. (n.d.)  Minke Whale 
• Norwegian Polar Institute. (n.d).  Common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata 
• International Whaling Commission. (n.d).  Minke Whale - Balaenoptera acutorostrata and B. bonaerensis 
• Risch, D., Norris, T., Curnock, M. & Friedlaender, A. (2019).  Common and Antarctic Minke Whales: Conservation Status and Future Research Directions.  Frontiers in Marine Science.
• Stone, M. (2019).  How much is a whale worth?  National Geographic.

StoryMap by Maria Eide. Data sources found in "Further Reading" above and as linked otherwise. Published December 7th, 2021.