Bryde's Whale for blogEven before my first visit to Triton Bay, I had known there was a resident population of Bryde’s whales here.  But throughout the first few months we never saw them, and I admit I had doubts as to their existence.    When I finally saw a water spout (but not the whale itself) I knew the reports were true.  Eventually we did see the whales, but it was well into our first season.  Sightings are still rare and far between.

Bryde’s Whales (pronounced as “broo-dess”) are baleen whales and are similar in appearance to minke, fin, and sei whales.  There are two, maybe three different types of Bryde’s whales; the ones around Kaimana are coastal and are here year round.  This particular species prefers warm water – it is the only baleen whale that spends all its time in tropical or sub-tropical water.  They feed on anchovies (which are also favored by the whale sharks here!) and krill and grow to a maximum size of around 16m.  For more information on this species, please check out this link.

These whales are not easy to approach as they just submerge if the boat gets too close.  One August day coming back from Kaimana we saw them breaching from afar.  We approached slowly, killed the engines, and waited.  The hope was that they would come check us out, and one did, allowing me to get some video.  This particular whale was about 10m long judging from the distance between his dorsal fin and his blow hole.  There were at least two of them, and most likely more as we saw the whales surface from at least 3 different directions around us.  It was such a thrill to see this animal up close and words just can’t come close to describing the feeling.

Jimmy