Bryde’s Whales seen the other day off Solo, north of Kadavu

A pod of at least 8 Bryde’s Whales seen the other day off Solo, north of Kadavu...

Breaching and feeding. We'd never seen a Bryde’s Whales breach before.

Bryde's Whale. (2009, October 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:25, October 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bryde%27s_Whale&oldid=321942522

Bryde’s Whales are the least-known and in many ways the most unusual of the rorquals. They are small by rorqual standards—no more than about 25 tonnes—prefer tropical and temperate waters to the polar seas that other whales in their family frequent; are largely coastal rather than pelagic, and although they retain the characteristic plates of whalebone that the baleen whales use to sieve small creatures from the waters with, their diet is composed almost entirely of fish.

"Bryde" is pronounced /ˈbruːdə/ ("brooda"), and "Bryde's whale" is sometimes misheard as "brutus whale". The Bryde’s whale is named for the Norwegian consul to South Africa, Johan Bryde, who helped set up the first whaling station in Durban, South Africa in 1908.

Bryde’s whales feed on pelagic schooling fish, such as anchovy, herring and sardine.

They are distributed widely throughout tropical and subtropical waters, with a separate, smaller, pygmy species found in tropical Western Pacific and South-East Asia.