Stranded Specimens

Stranded minke whales can be most readily identified by: 1) their small size (to just over 30 feet [9.1 m]); 2) the transverse white bands on the flippers; 3) the yellowish-white baleen plates (up to half the posteriormost plates may be brown or black), 300-325 per side in number and having fine white bristles (the plates are up to 4.75 inches [12 cm] wide at the base and up to 8 inches [20.3 cm] long); and 4) by the 50-70 thin ventral grooves, ending well before the navel, often just even with the flippers.

Figure 63.—Three views of minke whales at sea. In all note the transverse band of white on the flippers and the sharply pointed head. Note the gray chevron visible on the back ([top]), the absence of a conspicuous blow and the appearance of the prominent dorsal fin on the surface while the blowholes are still exposed ([middle]), and the distinctive regions of light gray on the sides ([bottom]). (Photos from off San Diego, Calif. by G. E. Lingle [top]; from the northern West Indies by H. E. Winn [middle]; and from the western Pacific by Japanese Whales Research Institute, courtesy of H. Omura [bottom].)