Photo by Simon Pierre Barrette
Minke Whale
The Minke, a small Baleen whale, is an apex predator who plays a critical role in marine ecosystems. The scientific name signifies “Winged whale with a sharp snout.” The “wing” is really a tall, sickle-shaped dorsal fin located about two-thirds down the back. Minkes are dark-bodied, with a pale chevron on the back and a white underside. While alive, they regulate plankton and small schooling fish, and when dead they sink to the ocean bottom (“whale falls”) where they sequester carbon and provide decades of habitat and nutrients for hundreds of deep-sea species. They act as biological ocean pumps: on their return to surface waters after feeding at the depths, they release nutrients vital to the whole marine food web. Like all whales, minkes are sensitive to climate change.
Environmental shifts change the distribution of prey fish, add to nutritional stress, and affect reproduction. Their relatively small size protected Minkes historically from the heaviest hunting. But they now face many dangers, including entanglement in nets, disruption of communication and prey-location by ocean noise, and vessel strikes.
Nevertheless, Minkes thrive: they do not yet appear on any threatened or endangered species list. Hallelujah!
What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
When I think of Minke whales, I think of Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, Canada, where, one glorious early evening, I saw a whole pod of Minkes seeming to fly through the waters of the Bay of Fundy. I was on a rocky promontory, and as they swooped up and dived down through the waters almost at my feet, my heart was lifted. The Minkes seemed to tell of the joy of exploring the deep places beneath the waves, and the thrill of bursting upward through the surface into another world. They trusted both the ocean and the air, at home in both places. In that moment, they who were companions to each other suddenly became my companions too, and I felt a deep kinship with all living beings created by God.
The “whale falls” of Minkes and others are the word of God to me that one does not live or die for oneself but for others. When we dive deep in contemplative prayer, we then surface with more compassion, more peace, more life to give to our neighbors. Many dangers surround us, but like the Minke, we can brave them all as children of one God, witnesses to the glory of the Resurrection, and joyful companions in the ocean of love.
Author - The Rev. Dr. Jenny Reece
The Rev. Dr. Jenny Reece facilitates the Creation Care Team and Earth Keeper program of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, and is Priest Associate at Trinity Church, Castine. In her retirement, she also runs Oranbega Retreat Center on the banks of the Narramissic River, which connects Lake Alamoosook with the Penobscot Bay, grateful to be able to share this beautiful spot in the ancestral fishing grounds of the Wabaniaki peoples with ospreys, eagles, and otters, and with her cat Angelica, who watches over it all.
Prayer: God of the depths, who has promised in Jesus Christ to be with us forever, help us dive deep into your heart in prayer. Open us to the joy of your Spirit that we may always respect and nurture the life and path you have given to others as to ourselves. And so may we learn how to be good companions to all in the human family and to every living thing from mollusc to Minke, as together we tread the Way of love. In the name of the one who has dived deep and risen again in the water of new life, our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen