The Times Australia
The Times World News

.

Antarctic minke whales may be as small as a krill-eating filter feeder can get in our modern oceans

  • Written by Jake Linsky, Researcher, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland
Antarctic minke whales may be as small as a krill-eating filter feeder can get in our modern oceans

Meagre giants hide in the ice-covered bays and fjords of the Antarctic peninsula. Antarctic minke whales spend their summers foraging in these waters, devouring the dense and abundant krill that feed and grow underneath the sea ice.

These sleek and subtle predators are the smallest members of the rorqual family, which includes some of the largest animals known to have existed, such as blue, fin and sei whales. Minke whales are much smaller than their giant relatives (only about one-twentieth the mass of a blue whale), but a typical minke still weighs about five metric tonnes. That’s equivalent to 18 large grizzly bears or 45 Arnold Schwarzeneggers.

Despite their size, remarkably little is known about the behaviour of minkes or their role in rapidly changing Antarctic ecosystems. So, in the summers of 2018 and 2019, my colleagues and I from Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz and Duke Marine Labs teamed up to study minke whale foraging ecology.

Our team, led by David Cade, made an amazing discovery[1]: minke whales are huge (by human standards), but they are about as small as a whale that feeds by filtering large numbers of tiny prey out of the water can be.

Follow the whale

We recovered high-resolution movement data from 29 tagged minke whales around the west Antarctic peninsula. In addition to these new and enlightening behavioural data, the sizes of tagged individuals were studied from drone-based photographs.

The combination of these two datasets[2] allowed us to investigate minke whale feeding strategies in previously unseen detail.

Read more: A ‘recently discovered’ whale feeding strategy has turned up in 2,000-year-old texts about fearsome sea monsters[3]

Antarctic minke whales, along with their supersized rorqual cousins, use a technique called engulfment filtration feeding (or lunge feeding) to hunt Antarctic krill. This strategy requires the whale to accelerate to a speed of about 4 metres per second before filling its mouth with prey-laden water that is then filtered through a sieve-like structure known as baleen.

Engulfment filtration feeding is highly efficient, even for the largest individuals, as blue whales continue to increase in feeding efficiency[4] with greater size.

Hunting at night

Compared to blue whales, each lunging gulp a minke takes contains far less food per kilogram of whale. However, the tag data revealed another way that minkes make up for this energy disparity.

Where a 20m blue whale can take up to two minutes to engulf and filter its prey, 7-10m minkes can complete an engulfment cycle in a matter of seconds. By day, minke whales are rarely able to capitalise on their speedy eating habits, as they may have to dive over 100m to reach their prey.

Read more: Humpback whales have been spotted 'bubble-net feeding' for the first time in Australia (and we have it on camera)[5]

This means much of their daytime foraging is spent at the surface or swimming to depth, as they need air just like any other mammal. But as night falls, the krill move upward in the water column to the surface.

Soon enough, the minke whales no longer need to hold their breath for minutes at a time just to reach their prey. Then, the minkes become like Pac-Man in their polar environment as they accelerate, engulf, filter and repeat as fast as they possibly can. They consume krill at the absolute limit that their body size imposes on their filtering time.

An evolutionary mystery

The smaller the minke, the faster it filters, but it also becomes less efficient with each gulp. By extrapolating the tag data, we found that minkes below a specific size – 5m, or about the length of a newly weaned minke whale – are not able to filter fast enough to meet their basic energetic needs (the cost of living imposed by metabolism and growth).

Read more: Why are bigger animals more energy-efficient? A new answer to a centuries-old biological puzzle[6]

This tells us that while minke whales are still quite large, they are about as small as they can be in our modern ocean conditions. The specific minimum size limit of these whales is highly dependent on the rorqual foraging strategy, energetically costly lunge feeding and the high costs of heating and maintaining their mammalian bodies.

However, we suspect the basic principle of this minimum size constraint, that only a limited amount of water can be filtered per time, can help crack an evolutionary chicken-or-egg mystery: what came first, filter-feeding or large body size?

Filter feeders have always lived large

Way back in time, when animals first emerged in the early Cambrian era, the first free-swimming filter-feeder was the large (70cm was large for the time) shrimp-like Tamisiocaris borealis[7], which raked planktonic creatures from the water with its comb-like front appendages.

Over the next 500 million years, the fossil record shows a diverse range of creatures occupying this free-swimming filter feeder role. They include bony fishes, cartilaginous sharks and rays, ancient reptilian ichthyosaurs and the gargantuan mammals we know as modern baleen whales.

Read more: What is the smallest animal ever?[8]

While these animals originate from very different branches of the tree of life, they all have one thing in common: they are large. Most often the largest of their kind.

Our minke whales, the diminutive giants, tell us this is no coincidence. Filter feeding requires a large body size to evolve. But when filter feeding does evolve, it can drive large animals to become colossal.

Read more https://theconversation.com/minimum-viable-whale-antarctic-minke-whales-may-be-as-small-as-a-krill-eating-filter-feeder-can-get-in-our-modern-oceans-201772

Times Magazine

Building an AI-First Culture in Your Company

AI isn't just something to think about anymore - it's becoming part of how we live and work, whether we like it or not. At the office, it definitely helps us move faster. But here's the thing: just using tools like ChatGPT or plugging AI into your wo...

Data Management Isn't Just About Tech—Here’s Why It’s a Human Problem Too

Photo by Kevin Kuby Manuel O. Diaz Jr.We live in a world drowning in data. Every click, swipe, medical scan, and financial transaction generates information, so much that managing it all has become one of the biggest challenges of our digital age. Bu...

Headless CMS in Digital Twins and 3D Product Experiences

Image by freepik As the metaverse becomes more advanced and accessible, it's clear that multiple sectors will use digital twins and 3D product experiences to visualize, connect, and streamline efforts better. A digital twin is a virtual replica of ...

The Decline of Hyper-Casual: How Mid-Core Mobile Games Took Over in 2025

In recent years, the mobile gaming landscape has undergone a significant transformation, with mid-core mobile games emerging as the dominant force in app stores by 2025. This shift is underpinned by changing user habits and evolving monetization tr...

Understanding ITIL 4 and PRINCE2 Project Management Synergy

Key Highlights ITIL 4 focuses on IT service management, emphasising continual improvement and value creation through modern digital transformation approaches. PRINCE2 project management supports systematic planning and execution of projects wit...

What AI Adoption Means for the Future of Workplace Risk Management

Image by freepik As industrial operations become more complex and fast-paced, the risks faced by workers and employers alike continue to grow. Traditional safety models—reliant on manual oversight, reactive investigations, and standardised checklist...

The Times Features

Is our mental health determined by where we live – or is it the other way round? New research sheds more light

Ever felt like where you live is having an impact on your mental health? Turns out, you’re not imagining things. Our new analysis[1] of eight years of data from the New Zeal...

Going Off the Beaten Path? Here's How to Power Up Without the Grid

There’s something incredibly freeing about heading off the beaten path. No traffic, no crowded campsites, no glowing screens in every direction — just you, the landscape, and the...

West HQ is bringing in a season of culinary celebration this July

Western Sydney’s leading entertainment and lifestyle precinct is bringing the fire this July and not just in the kitchen. From $29 lobster feasts and award-winning Asian banque...

What Endo Took and What It Gave Me

From pain to purpose: how one woman turned endometriosis into a movement After years of misdiagnosis, hormone chaos, and major surgery, Jo Barry was done being dismissed. What beg...

Why Parents Must Break the Silence on Money and Start Teaching Financial Skills at Home

Australia’s financial literacy rates are in decline, and our kids are paying the price. Certified Money Coach and Financial Educator Sandra McGuire, who has over 20 years’ exp...

Australia’s Grill’d Transforms Operations with Qlik

Boosting Burgers and Business Clean, connected data powers real-time insights, smarter staffing, and standout customer experiences Sydney, Australia, 14 July 2025 – Qlik®, a g...