The Northern Minke Whale is also known as the Common Minke Whale. It is a large and impressive-looking sea mammal that can reach up to ten metres in length and can weigh up to ten tonnes. It is occasionally seen around the coast of south-west Cornwall singly or in smalls groups of up to two or four.

The Northern Minke Whale has a long slender body with a narrow, pointed snout. The upper part of its body is dark grey and the under part is a whitish colour. It has a fin on the rear end of its back. This fin is called a ‘dorsal' fin and it curves backwards. The Minke Whale has a very distinctive broad white spot or band on the top of its flippers. It also has a small blowhole which it breathes through.

The Northern Minke Whale is also a baleen whale. It is called a baleen whale because it has huge jaws lined with horny plates called ‘baleen’. It has about three hundred of these horny plates in its mouth. It uses these plates to filter food such as plankton, shrimps and prawns from the sea water.