One Less Reason For Killing Minke Whales

An analysis of the whales DNA, by a team headed by Stanford researchers, demonstrates that the current population of Antarctic minke whales is within the historical norm of the species over the last 100,000 years. There is no evidence of a significant increase in the population of minke whales, the researchers said.

Stanford University:
http://www.stanford.edu/

Stanford News:
http://news.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Category:

Education

Tags:

• environment
• science
• biology
• whales
• ecology

[HPEJuggalo93]

One reason to kill the minke whales, they taste freaking delicious ^^

[grunder20]

Killing the kings of the ocean is a SIN. Stop this kind of monstrosity. 

[agapitoflores001]

Poor minke whales. :'(

[deasinroo]

Um, pygmy right whales are the smallest of baleen whales, not minkes. Also, there are two species, the northern minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) being the smaller of the two (the other being the antarctic minke, Balaenoptera bonaerensis). Nice job, once again Palumbi. You ever get things right?

[APsupportsTerrorism]

@pyroman1000k

That study has been heavily scrutinized and is believed to be inherently flawed for various reasons, including failure to account for whales under the ice.

The idea that 60% of the whales died between 1991 and 2004... with almost 0 hunting and nobody noticing a single thing... is absurd on it's face and contradicts everything we already know.

ICR's research clearly shows there is tough competition for food; demonstrating minke are still at their carrying capacity -- or ~670k

[pyroman1000k]

@drkuroneko

The data analyzed by standard methods suggest a reduction of approximately 60% between the 197891 period and the 19912004 period.

[drkuroneko]

Minke whale population in Southern hemisphere is actually 761,000, according to the IWC (1982-6). Currently the data is not available.

But that is not the point. If Japanese hunting had no impact on the population, as this video claims, there is no reason to stop hunting.

[Meymeygwis]

Dear scarborough165,

I am sorry you think my comment is racist, this is not my intention. My comment is not direct towards all Japanese people; rather, at one specific industry run from that country. I apologize for the confusion and stand by the original intended meaning.

Regards,

[scarborough165]

Wrong. Minke whales are not endangered. Japan should be only using endangered species for research because those whales need more help. You are racist against Japanese.

[Meymeygwis]

Brilliant piece of research, thank you!

I must say; however, bringing research to the table is exactly what the Japanese whaler-researchers are doing...literally!