Minke Whale

I love whale watching, but it can be frustrating, hoping for an "action shot." The minkes weren't in a jumping mood this day, so this was about all I saw. Nevertheless, I'd never seen a minke before, so that was cool. These are basically 40-foot-long versions of blue whales, and they prospered as the big rorquals (fin whales, blue whales, humpbacks etc) faltered because they were a bit faster and smaller than the other guys. The name "minke" is something of a joke, as apparently there once was a whaler by that name who was an inveterate exaggerator of whale size; he'd bag a 50 foot whale and claim it was 80 feet. Compared to the size of blue whales, then, calling one of these guys "big" was only true in the "Minke" sense.