The Bryde’s whale is the mayor of Shredville, apparently. Image: YouTube//Screenshot
Despite the fact that whales are gigantic, there’s a surprising amount we still don’t know about them. And of all the whales, the Bryde’s whale is one that we know very little about. So little, in fact, that after a decade of writing about ocean stuff and occasionally Bryde’s whales, I am just now learning that “Bryde’s” is pronounced “BROO-dus.” Color me surprised. But my dumbness is not what we’re here to discuss. Instead, we’re here to discuss why Bryde’s whales appear to “surf” more often than other whales.
Researchers, along with a handful of citizen scientists armed with drones, decided they’d try and figure out more about the least-known of the baleen whales. Whales all over the globe have eye-catching feeding methods — bubble-net feeding springs immediately to mind — but Bryde’s whales appear to use the waves to their advantage when it comes to finding a meal. The technique is being called “shallow water surf feeding.”
“We describe a potentially novel feeding behaviour in shallow waters, where Bryde’s whales are feeding directly within or behind the surf break (shallow water surf feeding),” reads the study that came out of the research.
Using citizen science and drone footage, the team of researchers focused on what the whales were doing on the Australian east coast, which is where the whales spend much of their time. In 200 photos and an hour of footage collected between 2012 and 2021, 15 shallow water surf feeding events were captured.
“The whales were seen moving within the waves, using the momentum of the water to help with feeding on a bait ball,” IFLScience wrote. “The team think that it’s possible that the surf is helping the whales to feed.”
According to Dr Vanessa Pirotta from Macquarie University’s Marine Predator Research Group, the whales were observed “moving with the surf as they fed, sometimes holding their mouths open for extended periods while they were skimming the surface.”
