Are minke whales endangered?

No. Minke whales are not listed as endangered or threatened in the United States, though they are protected throughout their range under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

According to NOAA Fisheries, the minke is the most abundant rorqual (the family that includes blue, fin and humpback whales) in the world, and its population is considered stable across almost its entire range. Internationally, most stocks are listed on CITES Appendix I, which bans commercial trade in their products; the West Greenland stock is on Appendix II. The picture is not uniform everywhere: the International Whaling Commission flags two North Pacific stocks of concern, the J-stock in the East China Sea, Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea, and the O-stock in the Pacific and Sea of Okhotsk, and some stocks may have been depleted by modern whaling. Greenland, Japan and Norway still take common minke whales today. Other threats include entanglement in fishing gear, vessel strikes, ocean noise and climate change. Common minkes grow to about 35 feet and 20,000 pounds and live up to 50 years.

Source: NOAA Fisheries, Minke Whale species profile

Image: Minke whale breaching, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, by NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.



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