Common and Antarctic Minke Whales: Conservation Status and Future Research Directions

Abstract

Minke whales comprise some of the most widely distributed species of baleen whales, some populations of which are still regularly targeted by commercial whaling. Here, we review the conservation status of common (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and Antarctic (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) minke whale populations, against the backdrop of ongoing whaling operations and other anthropogenic threats, including climate change, entanglement in fishing gear, ship strikes, and noise pollution. Although some coastal minke whale populations have been studied in detail, others, which inhabit remote and ecologically sensitive locations, such as the Antarctic ice shelf, are among the least understood populations of marine mammals. The unresolved taxonomy of dwarf minke whales further highlights some of the existing knowledge gaps concerning these species. Due to their relatively small size and elusive behaviors, large uncertainties exist for almost all minke whale populations with respect to behavior, migratory routes and winter distributions, hindering effective conservation and management. However, recent advances in research technology, such as passive acoustic monitoring (PAM), unmanned aerial systems (UAS), multisensor recording tags, and machine learning assisted photo-identification, are increasingly being applied to study minke whales and their habitat, and are starting to open new windows into their life history and ecology. In future research, these non-and less-invasive methods should be integrated in larger-scale comparative studies aiming to better understand minke whale behavior, ecological interactions and their varying habitats to drive and support effective species conservation.

Frozen verses: Antarctic minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) call predominantly during austral winter

“…However, given that AMWs seem to produce calls only seasonally, further investigations on their migratory behaviour will need to integrate different methods (i.e. visual and passive acoustic surveys as well as animal-borne tags) to improve our understanding of their migratory repertoire (see [ 72 ] for a review).…”

“…Japan's decision to leave the IWC could contribute to the recovery of the AMW population in the Southern Ocean. The major difficulties in generating reliable abundance estimates for AMWs are the environment they inhabit [ 7 , 20 , 72 ]. Clearly, multi-disciplinary approaches are therefore needed to improve our understanding and conserve this elusive species.…”

Static species distribution models in the marine realm: The case of baleen whales in the Southern Ocean

“…Accordingly, we found high importance of SIC-derived predictors, particularly distance to summer SIE and summer SIC. Sea ice is an essential habitat for AMW and affects their distribution and foraging behaviour in the SO (Friedlaender et al, 2014;Herr et al, 2019;Kasamatsu, Ensor, et al, 2000;Risch et al, 2019).…”

Sightings of Antarctic minke whales, Balaenoptera bonaerensis, near the Kiev Peninsula (West Antarctica) during the summer period of 2019

“…The initiated photo-identification catalogue of the Antarctic minke whale will be complemented during the multi-year studies and used to investigate the movements, population structure and seasonal habitats of the whales utilizing the waters of Antarctic Peninsula. These tasks are listed as a priority for future research of minke whales' populations (Risch et al, 2019). Long-term monitoring is essential for understanding the ecology and population dynamics of the Antarctic minke whales in rapidly changing marine environment of the Antarctic Peninsula.…”