Bryde’s Whales

Bryde’s Whale in Costa Rica

Bryde’s whales in Costa Rica have been termed one of the ‘great whales’ of the entire world. Bryde’s whales in the Pacific Ocean stay because they prefer being in warmer waters as opposed to other whales in their family which prefer colder waters. Some of the whales in this family actually go to the extreme and stay in polar areas where the water is freezing. Bryde’s whales prefer staying in places like Costa Rica and Mexico. Bryde’s whales prefer staying in the coastal regions and do not wander off into pelagic zone of the ocean or sea. Bryde’s whales have been observed to be very similar in appearance to sei whales. Bryde’s whales have been named after a famous entrepreneur Johan Bryde who was one of the first people to set up a whale station somewhere in South Africa. These whales prefer living in tropical waters all over the world but are found in abundance in the area of the Pacific Ocean and Costa Rica.

The Bryde’s whale is called a ‘baleen whale’ or a great whale that belongs to the same sub family of blue whales and humpback whales. The whale has two blowholes of the same size and proportion and it also has a ‘splashguard’ to the front of its body. The Bryde’s whale has no teeth to grind prey against but does have a set of plates called ‘baleen plates’. The whale’s body is immense in size and the contrast with the size of an average human is breathtaking in its difference. The upper side of the Bryde’s whale’s body is covered with dark matte gray skin. The under area (the belly) of the whale is a pale white in color. Bryde’s whales have a rostrum straight in position with three ridges that extend from the blowholes in longitude. This same area has auxiliary ridges which resemble depressions down to the tip of the rostrum. The lower jaw area of the Bryde’s whale is dark gray in color. The baleen plates inside the whale’s jaw is also slate gray in color with sets of 250 – 370 plates. It also contains long bristles which are coarse and rough in texture which are about 16 inches long and 8 inches wide. The Bryde’s whale’s body is marked with white or pink cylindrical scars which are the result of being bitten by cookie cutter sharks in the Pacific Ocean. The flippers on the whale’s body are small in dainty in contrast to its huge body which dwarfs most creatures in the sea.

The diet of these whales is composed mostly of plankton in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and those surrounding Costa Rica. They also feed on crustaceans like crabs and shrimp along with some schools of fish. These fish are very small for example anchovies, herrings, sardines and mackerels. Interestingly, Bryde’s whales have different techniques for catching prey and feeding themselves. Sometimes, they may only skim the surface of the ocean looking for plankton and small surface fish. Other times, the whale may execute a sudden dive and catch its prey unawares. Another method preferred by Bryde’s whales are using bubble nets to trap their prey and then feed.

Video of a Bryde’s Whale Rescue

Reference

Reilly, S.B., Bannister, J.L., Best, P.B., Brown, M., Brownell Jr., R.L., Butterworth, D.S., Clapham, P.J., Cooke, J., Donovan, G.P., Urbán, J. & Zerbini, A.N. (2008).

Best, Peter B. 2007. Whales and Dolphins of the Southern African Subregion

Omura, H. 1966. “Bryde’s whales in the Northwest Pacific”. In Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises (ed. K.S. Norris): 70-8. Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.