Minke Whale

Source: Jason Gedamke

Source: Cornell Ornithology Lab

Common minke whale “boing” vocalizations recorded by a towed array in the North Pacific Ocean.
Sound courtesy of Jay Barlow and Shannon Rankin, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service (http://swfsc.noaa.gov).

At 7 – 10 meters ( 23- 33 feet) Minke whales are the smallest of the Mysticetes or “baleen whales.” As such they are also the smallest of the Rorquals – which include (from ‘small’ to large) the Bryde’s, Sei, Fin, and Blue whale (the largest of any vertebrates to live on the planet).

Rorqual vocalizations are mostly comprised of very low frequency, long wavelength repetitive pulses or “groans” below human frequency discrimination and longer than our typical time frame, so samples are usually “sped up” to 10 times speed so we can hear them and recognize patterns.

Much of study of the rorqual family looks at the individual animal, but the subspecies have regional-specific behavioral distinctions, suggesting aggregate or community adaptive behaviors.

One regional vocalization of the Minke from the Great Barrier Reef area is the “star wars” call . Another, called the “boing” was only recently associated with the North Atlantic Minkes. The chorusing sample provided here is from the West Indies; played back 10x speed the sound remarkably like crickets.