Brydes Whale

Facts about Bryde's Whale, "Scientific name for Bryde's Whale is Balaenoptera Edeni". Bryde’s Whale complex has two species of rorqual namely Bryde’s Whale and Eden’s whale. Bryde’s Whale s are the larger of the two and it is found worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters.

Bryde’s Whale are named after Johan Bryde's who is among the people who constructed the first South African Whaling factory back in the nineteenth century. The Bryde’s Whale are baleen whales that belong to the same groups as blue whales and humpback whales. Just like other rorqual the Bryde’s Whale don’t have teeth.

Bryde’s Whale resemble the Sei whales though they are distinguished by their three distinctive ridges running from the tip of the broad rostrum to the rear of their heads and at the same level with their two blow holes.

The Bryde’s Whale body weight and length varies according to their locality. The females are slightly bigger than the males in all localities. The average length for females is around 43 ft to 50 ft (13 to 15.2 meters) and for males is around 42 to 49 ft(12.8 to 15 meters). their body weight ranges from (12 to 25 metric tonnes).

Bryde’s Whale have dark dorsal and white ventral. Their lower jaws are dark gray and their baleen plates are 250 – 370 pairs that are long, coarse, light gray around 16 inches (40cm). Bryde’s Whale ventral pleats are forty to seventy and they occupy 58 percent of their total length. The flippers are slender and small.

The Bryde’s Whale are observed to exhale while under water. Bryde’s Whale surface under water in irregular intervals and change their directions while under water without any known reason. This is a very weird behavior that is not displayed in other baleen whales. But maybe it is a way of protecting themselves from predators.

In most cases, the Bryde’s Whale appear individually or in pairs. Mostly they appear in large groups in feeding areas. They are very active on water surface than their closely counterpart Sei whales.

The Bryde’s Whale are known to dive for 5 – 15 minutes after 7 blows. They can reach up to 1000 feet (304.8 meters) but when they submerge in the water they don’t display their flukes. Their swimming speed is around 1 – 4 miles per hour (.44 to 1.8 meters per second), though they can reach up to 12 – 15 miles per hour (5.4 to 6.7 meters per second). Their vocalization is like that of a human moan but it is very powerful. It last for 0.4 seconds only.

Bryde’s whale’s diet depends on their location and season. But they mainly feed on varieties of fish like planktonic, crustaceans and cephalopods. But according to some observation there was a whale caught in Western North Pacific by Japanese scientific vessels that shown some fed on Japanese anchovy and euphausiid.

The Bryde’s Whale breed in alternate years and in any season. Their gestation period lasts for 12 months and calves weighing around (2204 pounds) 1,000 kilograms measuring 11 – 13 feet (3.4 to 4 meters) are born. The Bryde’s Whale reach sexual maturity between the ages of 8 – 13 years of age. At this time the female are around 39 feet (11.8 meters). The calves are nursed by their mother for 6 to 12 months.

Their taxonomic is not very clear because there are different forms that occupy different locations. All these forms show difference in sizes so it is not clear whether they should be classified as subspecies or species.

The Bryde’s Whale are believed to be around 90,000 to 100,000 Bryde’s whales living around the world. They are reported to have been injured by ship strikers and this is their biggest predation. The scientific name for whale (Cetacea)- An order of marine mammals, including the whales). Fear of Whales (Cetaphobia).