The Minke Whale

The minke whales are the smallest of the baleen whales. They can reach lengths of up to 10 meters, and a total weight of 8 tonnes. The minke whales caught in the North East Atlantic are normally between 5 and 8 metres long. They swim alone or in small groups of 3-4. Minke whale stocks can also be found further west in the North Atlantic, in the North Pacific and around the Antarctic. The minke whale becomes sexually mature at an age of 6-7 years and the females give birth once a year, normally to just the one offspring, but twins have also been recorded.

They have a lifespan of 30-50 years.

The Minke Whale's Diet
The minke whale does not just eat krill and plankton. Preliminary results from the Norwegian scientific whaling programme show that its staple diet consists first and foremost of fish, particularly herring, but also cod, haddock and saithe. In the north, near the ice fields, it eats a lot of krill, whereas capelin is the main ingredient in the eastern Barents Sea.

Whaling Statistics
Reliable statistics from the minke whale harvest in the North East Atlantic are available from as far back as 1930. Since then, about 110,000 minkes have been caught. The largest number caught in one year was 4,341 minke whales in 1958. The average annual catch is approximately 2,000.

The IWC's Scientific Committee has ascertained that a "statistically measurable" reduction in stock size can be traced from 1952 to 1983. There is widespread disagreement on how great this reduction might have been. The Scientific Committee has not been able to provide further details on the subject.

Greenpeace's claim of a 60-70% reduction since the harvest started in 1930 and up to the present day, cannot however, be correct. If one takes their claim seriously, the stock must have consisted of somewhere between 215,000 and 290,000 minke whales. (Based of the Scientific Committee's 1993 figures for the stock of 86,700 minke whales). Even if we choose to overlook the growth potential of depleted stocks it is impossible to make Greenpeace's calculations work. Other stocks of larger baleen whales have growth rates of 8% or more per annum.

Pollution
The research programme carried out in conjunction with the harvest also included the examination of toxics in minke whales, including PCB. Very low levels were recorded, constituting no danger to the whale's health or reproduction.