The minke whale eats quickly, scooping up, straining, and eating shrimp-like krill in less time than it would take a humpback to get its mouth open.

And it dives a lot, plunging through the frigid seas a half dozen or so times a minute, so often it seems to perpetually operate on fast-forward.

Earlier this month, whale researchers for the first time were able to sneak up on a minke whale in Antarctica and attach a video camera to its back. Now that recording is already helping unlock the mysterious underwater world of these shy creatures.

"It was wonderful luck," says whale scientist Ari Friedlaender, who spoke from a ship on its way across the treacherous Drake Passage toward Antarctica