The Bryde's Whale
Whales Dolphins and Porpoises
The Bryde's whale is one of the most spectacular and amazing creatures
on Earth. The Bryde's whale, or Balaenoptera edeni, is very
similar to the sei whale, but it has a few special qualities. They are slightly
smaller in size and they have three unusually prominent ridges on the top of
their head, in front of the blowhole. Males tend to weigh an average of 26
tons and are an average length of 12.5 to 14.0 meters long. The females tend
to be larger than the males of this species. Sperm whales have 250 to 410 baleen
plates on each side of their upper jaw. Their dorsal fin is relatively tall,
shorter then that of a sei whale, and has a strongly sickle-shape that
extends two thirds of the way along their back. They are dark grey in color
but some tend to have light grey areas between their head and dorsal fin,
which appear occasionally as band down flakes. Their chin and belly is known
to be white. Bryde's whales tend to favor coastal areas in the tropical and
subtropical waters of all seas. Their migratory patterns in the Pacific
range from Japan to southern California, south to northern New Zealand and
Chile. In the Atlantic, they travel around the southern tip of South Africa,
and throughout the Indian Ocean. The sperm whale has an estimated population
of 90,000 with 30,000 in southern waters and 60,000 in northern hemisphere's
water.
Andrea-Vanessa-Erica @ the Advanced Technologies Academy