The Brydes whale is a fascinating and beautiful animal.  It is beautiful because of its smooth body, and nice long tale.  There is a lot of fascinating detail about this animal.  Like the female, is slightly larger then the male.

 

Balaenoptera Edenia or the Bryde's Whale is named after a Norwegian consulant to South Africa, Johan Bryde.  John Bryde helped build the first whaling factory in South Africa in 1908, he named the South African Whaling Company.  They began hunting and killing whales that year, 106 that first year.  Over the years thousands of whales were killed and processed at the whaling factory for a lot of products.  They are now near extinction, but there have been sightings over the past few years and as in this picture, several have been discovered beached, causing their deaths.

 

The adult male whale measures 13.7 to 16.8 meters long (45 to 55 feet) and it might be 19.8 meters (65 feet). The bryde’s whale weighs about 14 to 17 tons. The adult female measures 12.2 to 15.2 meters (40 to 50 feet) and weighs about 13 tons. Females are slightly larger then males in both species. The Bryde’s Whale is a baleen whale. It has two blowholes with a low splashguard to the front.  The Brydes Whale has no teeth. These whales feed on plankton, crustaceans, and schools of fish. Bryde’s whales use several feeding methods, skims the surface.

 

Bryde’s Whales are found through out the world, mostly in warm temperature and sub - topical waters.  They prefer water temperatures of 61-72 degrees.  Some populations migrate seasonally, moving towards higher latitudes during the summer and towards the equator during the winter. Others do not migrate.  There may be up to 90,000 - 100,000 animals worldwide. The U.S population is divided into three groups, the Eastern Tropical Pacific has 11,000 - 13,000 animals, Hawaiian has 350 - 500. And northern gulf of Mexico  has 25 - 40.  There is population of 12 in the U.S. coastal waters.

 

On the 23 of August in the year 2007, a large whale with wounds in several body parts was found dead in waters off the town of Tagon. This species is mostly in the coastal waters of the central phillippines. It is difficult to eliminate the history of the bryde’s whale because sei and bryde’s whales were combined in the catch statics.  It is clear that most whaling took place in the western pacific where 15,076 animals were owing land between 1946 and 1983. In 2000, Japan resumed whaling for the bryde’s whale in the north pacific, taking 43 that year and 50 in the next year, 2001.

 

The Bryde’s whale has many different names, for example: Bryde’s walvis or Balein de bryde.  If the Brydes Whale left unprotected by conservation groups and laws, it will be hunted and killed to the point of extinction.  It is up to all of us to support research, education, and prevention programs that help the Bryde’s whale continue to survive and reproduce. Like I said before it is a fascinating and beautiful animal.

 

Author:  Alexandra R

Published: 04/2012

 

Sources:

www.ifaw.org

www.ask.com

http://www.redlist.org