Baleen whales use a filter-feeding system, rather than teeth. In order to eat, the whale opens its mouth underwater to take in the water. It then pushes the water back out, filtering the water while animals such as krill stay in the whales mouth. So, there was no reason for me to worry about being eaten by this whale!
Minke whales are very fast swimmers, although this one just wanted to slowly swim around our kayaking group to investigate and say hello. Minke whales are also famously really smelly – sometimes they are called “stinky Minkes”. We couldn’t smell this one, but maybe it was too cold for it to be super smelly.
When I first realized there was a whale near to my kayak, I was a little nervous. We were a long way from land or our main boat so I didn’t want to be knocked into the water. I very quickly became calm again after seeing how beautiful, inquisitive and gentle the Minke whale was.
It circled around our group for about 10 minutes. Minke whales can stay underwater for a long time (up to 20 minutes) so sometimes it would disappear for a few minutes before popping back out of the water on the other side of our kayaking group. It was fun to watch it disappear under the water and wait to see where it would resurface between the brash ice surrounding us.
I felt very humbled by this experience. Here we were, coming in and exploring the Minke whale’s home, and it was so friendly and welcoming to us.
