Common Minke Whale
Category: Whale
Facts about Common Minke Whales, "Scientific name for Common Minke Whale is Balaenoptera acutorostrata" Common Minke Whale is a variety of a minke whale that belongs to the Balaenoptera genus of the Balaenopteridae family. Common Minke Whale is the smallest affiliate of the rorquals and the second smallest variety of baleen whale. Even though initially it was disregarded by whalers because of its low oil yield and small size, Common Minke Whale started to be exploited by different countries in the early 20th century. Currently, the Common Minke Whale is one among the main targets of the whaling business. The Common Minke Whales are largely found in the North Atlantic, where they can be seen in the northern parts of the Baffin Bay, Franz Josef Land, Svalbard, and Novaya Zemlya and in the southern parts of New Jersey and the Hebrides and in the central part of the North Sea in summer.
Features about Common Minke Whale
An adult male Common Minke Whale is capable of growing to a maximum body length of 40 feet (12.2 m), whereas the female Common Minke Whale
have a body length of 35.1 feet (10.7 m).
The male Common Minke Whale is among the healthiest members of their genus, the maximum height of their body being 1/5th of their total body length. The Common Minke Whale has a slender, sharp, triangular-shaped rostrum, with a small splash guard. Their outstanding, standing, falcate dorsal fin has a height that ranges from 2 13/16 inches to 30 13/16 inches (7 cm to 77 cm). It is set about 2/3rd of the way along its back. The Common Minke Whale are clean white ventrally and dark gray dorsally.
The lower jaw of the Common Minke Whale protrudes beyond its upper jaw and is dark gray in color on both sides. Though the jaw is similar to the dwarf form, it can contain a white color mandible blaze at the back bend of the right lower jaw. The Common Minke Whale have an unclear light gray color rostral saddle, and some whales may have light, skinny blowhole streaks straggling from the blowholes. A skinny, light gray color, onward-directed chevron, known as the shoulder streak, lies between their pectoral fins. Two pale gray to white color swaths, known as the thorax and flank patches, link ventrally in the mid-lateral area, with the thorax the brighter of the two.
The pectoral fins of the Common Minke Whale are fairly small, with the length, ranging from 2 13/32 feet to 4 1/2 feet (73 cm to 1.38 m). The Common Minke Whales have a transverse, white color band on their external margins, which is the most unique feature of the variety. The soft-sided flukes of the Common Minke Whale have a width of 9 13/16 feet (3 m). They are pale gray or white ventrally and are bordered by dark gray color. They have about 230 to 360 pairs of baleen plates, and they are creamy white in color, with a fine white color fringe. The Common Minke Whales have 50 to 70 slim ventral pleats that will enlarge about 47 % of their body length.
Diet of Common Minke Whale
The Common Minke Whale is ichthyophagous, but it also feeds on pelagic cephalopods and crustaceans and their diet differs by area, period, and year.
Reproduction of Common Minke Whale
Usually, the male Common Minke Whale attains the sexual maturity after 6 to 7 years after their birth, whereas the female Common Minke Whale attains the sexual maturity after 6 to 8 years after their birth. The female Common Minke Whale offers birth to a single calf, occasionally twins, after the gestation period of 10 months. The newborn Common Minke Whales will have a body length of 8 1/2 feet (2.6 m) and they are weaned after the age of six months.
The maximum lifespan of the Common Minke Whale is 50 years.