Digestive system of humpback whales stretching like an accordion. They allow whales to open their mandible to 90 degrees to gulp water and prey. They expel saltwater through the baleen plates, leaving behind krill and plankton. The whale's tongue plays a vital role in filter feeding, as it is used to push the water out of its mouth while keeping the prey trapped in its baleen bristles. As humpback whales do not have teeth, their food is swallowed whole and travels down the esophagus into the preliminary stomach (known as the forestomach) to be ground. Baleen whales have a multi-chambered stomach, divided into three distinct
Whaling in Japan of extinction within a few decades according to IWC population estimates. In Japan, not only humpback, minke, and sperm whales, but many other smaller toothed whales, including species such as western gray, the endangered North Pacific right, and northern fin whales have been targets of illegal captures utilizing harpoons for dolphin hunts or intentionally drive whales into nets. Reports are later filed with administrative organs or research institutions as cases of "entanglements where fishermen tried their best to save whales". Products from internationally protected species' meat can also be found on markets even today mostly originating as "by-products" of entanglements,