An Elusive Whale Is Found All Around the World

Dr. Cerchio said many whale experts and amateurs thought they had seen Bryde’s whales, a slightly larger species of baleen whale, when they were really watching Omura’s whales. After publishing his 2015 paper, in which he described more than 40 whales seen in the wild and expanded their range beyond the Indo-Pacific, Dr. Cerchio said people sent him pictures of similar looking whales. At the urging of Bob Brownell, the paper’s senior author, Dr. Cerchio counted images he received, those he’d stumbled across on the internet, as well as sound recordings and historical sightings dating back to a 1955 magazine article from Hong Kong University that misidentified an Omura’s whal e as an immature fin whale.

Source: www.nytimes.com