Minke whales are the primary target of remaining commercial and scientific whaling operations. Their welfare during hunting is a continuing international concern.
Minke whale welfare in whaling operations is documented through time-to-death records that reveal significant variation in kill efficiency. When explosive harpoons fail to kill instantly, animals may survive for minutes to over an hour with severe wounds. This represents substantial acute suffering for animals that are cognitively complex, social, and long-lived. The scientific justification for lethal research has been widely questioned by the international scientific community, which has demonstrated that population assessment, diet analysis, and health monitoring can be conducted non-lethally. The welfare case against ongoing whaling operations is therefore simultaneously a scientific case: lethal methods are unnecessary.