Common minke whale to 20 growth layers in their tympanic bullae, which may correspond to about 15 to 20 years of age. Both sexes can live to about 50 years of age – the oldest in a study of Icelandic minke whales were 42 years for females and 47 years for males, respectively. Common minke whales have been described as ichthyophagous, but their diet also includes pelagic crustaceans and cephalopods and varies by region, season, and year. In the North Atlantic, they primarily eat small schooling fish, demersal fish, and krill. A 2007 study showed that off Spitsbergen they fed almost exclusively on
Bucca (mythological creature) in Cornish tin mines, granting wishes in exchange for food (see knockers). Bucca (mythological creature) Bucca is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore - a merman- that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish and Welsh folklore and the female mari-morgans - a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology. Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens,