The presence of the bacteria suggests minke whales rely on microbial digestion to extract nutrients provided by their food.

However, magnetic resonance imaging points to evidence that the minke whale has fat deposits in their jaws intended for sound reception, much like Odontocetes.

[17] Additionally, despite its relatively large size, the minke whale is very fast, capable of swimming at speeds of 30 knots (35 mph), and their surfacing can be sporadic and hard to follow.

[25] Chases most commonly lead into open ocean, although there have been records of minke whales inadvertently swimming into confined, shallow waters.

[27] The minke whale population in the Norwegian Sea primarily feeds on adult herring[28] while krill, capelin, and sand eels are also recorded prey types.

[26] Stable isotope analysis from 2003 shows minke whales in the north Atlantic also feed on prey from lower trophic levels.

J-stock whales' primary prey type is Japanese anchovy during May and June, Pacific saury in July and August, and krill in September.

In the 19th century, they were considered too small to chase, and received their name from a young Norwegian whale-spotter in the crew of Svend Foyn, who harpooned one, mistaking it for a blue whale and was derided for it.

[41] By the end of the 1930s, they were the target of coastal whaling by Brazil, Canada, China, Greenland, Japan, Korea, Norway, and South Africa.

Japan continued catching whales under the special research permit clause in the IWC convention, though in significantly smaller numbers.

[citation needed] Between November 2017 and March 2018, Japan reported catches of a total of 333 Minke whales, of which 122 were pregnant females.

[42] Although Norway initially followed the moratorium, they had placed an objection to it with the IWC and resumed a commercial hunt of the Common minke whale in 1993.

A 2007 analysis of DNA fingerprinting of whale meat estimated South Korean fishermen caught 827 minke between 1999 and 2003,[45] approximately twice the officially reported number.

[46] Due to their relative abundance, minke whales are often the focus of whale-watching cruises setting sail from, for instance, the Isle of Mull in Scotland, County Cork in Ireland, and Húsavík in Iceland, and tours taken on the east coast of Canada.

In contrast to humpback whales, minkes do not raise their flukes out of the water when diving and are less likely to breach (jump clear of the sea surface).

In the northern Great Barrier Reef (Australia), a swim-with-whales tourism industry has developed based on the June and July migration of dwarf minke whales.

A limited number of reef tourism operators (based in Port Douglas and Cairns) have been granted permits by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to conduct these swims, given strict adherence to a code of practice, and that operators report details of all sightings as part of a monitoring program.

Scientists from James Cook University and the Museum of Tropical Queensland have worked closely with participating operators and the Authority, researching tourism impacts and implementing management protocols to ensure these interactions are ecologically sustainable.

Minke whales are also occasionally sighted in Pacific waters, in and around the Haro Strait of British Columbia and Washington state.