AUGUST 2001
FSU BIOLOGIST BRINGS NEW ATTENTION TO MINKE WHALES
As whales go, the minke has not been
as popular as, say, the humpback, the blue or even the killer
whale.
Jonathan Stern, a marine biologist at FSU, thinks that may be
changing with an article on the minke whale in the April issue
of National Geographic.
Stern, who is quoted in the article, began observing about 30 minke whales living off San Juan Island in Washington's Puget Sound in 1980. Since then, he has studied them off the coast of California and British Columbia.
"I'm excited about the article because I think at last the general public is going to get an introduction to these whales, what they're about and the issues surrounding them," Stern said.
One of those issues is a question of whether the International
Whaling Commission (IWC) should legalize commercial hunting of
minkes.
Probably the most abundant, smallest (4-5 tons) and fastest of
all whales, minkes are found in oceans all over the world. They
reproduce quickly and are not really in danger of extinction,
so the debate over hunting them is not biological, but moral
or ethical, Stern said.
"It's an issue that's different from the 'Save the Whales'
movement of the '70s, which focused on whales that were highly
hunted and nearly extinct," he said. "The argument
was that they are becoming extinct; you can't kill them. Now
the argument is if whales are so abundant and the Japanese want
to take a small number of them, why shouldn't they be allowed
to do that?"
It's a question that seems to center on the human relationship
with all whales - a relationship Stern has had with some whales
for more than two decades. Last year, he saw two whales in the
Puget Sound that he first identified in 1980. "It's kind
of like visiting old friends," he said.
Stern's goal is to gain insight into the population structure,
ecology and behavior of the minke.
He is the co-author of a book on minke whales published in
the Voyageur Press WorldLife Library series.
- Jill Elish, FSU Communications Group
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