Common minke whale this mistake during Foyn's whaling operations in the Varanger Fjord between 1868 and 1885." It has formerly been known as the little piked whale, the lesser or least rorqual, and the sharp-headed finner. American whalemen in the 19th century simply thought of them as "young finbacks" or a "Finback's calf", apparently under the impression that they were juveniles of their larger relative, the fin whale. They were also called zwergwal (German: "dwarf whale") or vågehval (Norwegian: "bay whale"). In Japan they are called koiwashi-kujira ("little sardine whale") or minku-kujira ("minke whale"). In Greenland they are known by the Danish name
Antarctic minke whale the Antarctic. Of a sample of whales caught by a Japanese expedition along the ice edge, one-fifth was infested with cyamids (those from one whale were identified as "Cyamus balaenopterae"). Several hundred of these whale lice can be found on a single whale, with an average of 55 per individual – most are found at the end of the ventral grooves and around the umbilicus. The copepod "Pennella" was found on only one whale. Cestodes were commonly found in the intestines (one example was identified as "Tetrabothrius affinis"). Antarctic minke whales are more gregarious than their smaller counterparts, the common