Wiktionary
n. either of two baleen whales, ''Balaenoptera acutorostrata'' and ''Balaenoptera bonaerensis'' found in coastal waters
WordNet
n. small finback of coastal waters of Atlantic and Pacific [syn: lesser rorqual, piked whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata]
Wikipedia
Minke whale , or lesser rorqual, is a name given to two species of marine mammal belonging to a clade within the suborder of baleen whales. The minke whale was given its official designation by Lacepède in 1804, who described a juvenile specimen of Balænoptera acuto-rostrata. The name is a partial translation of Norwegian minkehval, possibly after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke, who mistook a northern minke whale for a blue whale.
Usage examples of "minke whale".
Some were actually mottled blue, like the skin of a blue whale, while others were black like a pilot whale, or light gray like a minke whale.
In March, a 10-ton Minke whale died near Big Pine Key after being shot five times by unknown persons.
Even while he was missing, those uncertain hours of anxious speculation and dismal journalism, she had assumed Maxwell would be found boomingly alive, having spent the whole time enjoying the amorous advances of a short-sighted minke whale.