Bryde's Whale

The 2003 offshore survey recorded Bryde's whale under the name Balaenoptera edeni, before the taxonomy of the Bryde's whale group was revised. It was the only baleen whale seen apart from the blue whale, with three sightings of about four animals, all off the southeast coast near the Basses Submarine Canyon (de Vos et al. 2012).

Faecal matter, taken as evidence of feeding, was seen several times. The species has been documented on every survey around the island since the 1980s, although strandings are fewer than for other baleen whales (de Vos et al. 2012). On 8 February 2009 a Bryde's whale was seen within 10 km of a killer whale pod off the south coast, along with spinner dolphins and a blue whale (Ilangakoon et al. 2010). Which of the Bryde's group species these Sri Lankan records belong to is not settled here.