A small slender rorqual to 11.5 m (38 ft) with a strongly hooked fin set far back on the body, easily written off as a young Bryde's whale unless the head is seen. The head settles it: the lower jaw is white on the right side and dark on the left, an asymmetry it shares only with the fin whale.
It is the newest large animal in the book. Described in 2003 from specimens that had been sitting misidentified in collections, it was not photographed alive and confirmed in the field until 2015, off 🇲🇬 Madagascar. Almost everything known about its behavior comes from the decade since.
Unlike most rorquals it stays in warm water year-round and feeds close inshore in the shallows, lunging through patches of small fish and krill rather than making long migrations to cold seas. That habit is why the few records from this region exist at all.
How many there are is unknown. It has never been assessed with a population estimate, and any confirmed sighting - with photographs of the head - is a genuine contribution to what is known about the species.
How to recognise it
small slender rorqual with a strongly curved fin set far back
lower jaw white on the right side and dark on the left, an asymmetry visible when it rolls
Omura's Whale is no longer hunted, but small catches by artisanal whalers could still be occurring in Indonesia (Lamakera, Solor). Given its occurrence in shallow waters, it may be subject to entanglement or bycatch and vessel strikes. Three Omura's Whales have been recorded caught in set nets in Japan (Cerchio and Yamada 2017). Because the species has only recently been described and its range is poorly known, it is not yet possible to assess the level of threats.
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
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