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Like all species of baleen whales, the common minke whale feeds on tiny creatures known as krill by filtering water through bristlelike keratin structures called baleen plates. In this way, baleen whales can eat up to 30 percent of their total mass per day. And while no one would call the common minke whale small—it can have a mass as high as 4,000 kg—it is one of the smaller baleen whales and is much smaller than the fin whale, which can weigh a whopping 80,000 kg and consume as much as 24,000 kg of krill per day.