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Baleen whales


Minkes are the smallest of the baleen whales. (Photo by Larry Madin, WHOI)

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Minkes are the smallest of the baleen whales. (Photo by Larry Madin, WHOI)

Six types of baleen whales swim in the Southern Ocean: humpbacks, Southern right, blue, fin, sei, and this Minke whale. Minkes are the smallest of the baleen whales, a group that also includes the largest animal of all, the blue whale. Minkes were hunted extensively in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but only after the larger species were already depleted. Their populations are recovering, and they are the most abundant whale in the Antarctic.

Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia


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