Omura's Whale Study

B. Adrianantenaina, courtesy of New England Aquarium)

Rare Whale Colony Off Madagascar Is Super-Size [VIDEO] - Omura's whales were feared extinct until October, and now twice as many of them have been discovered off Madagascar as in all previous years of research combined. They measure 33-38 feet long (presumably not easy to hide, although it can happen in the sea) and are slender and gray, with mottled heads.

Omura's whales were feared extinct until October, but the largest group of them yet known has just been identified off Madagascar. So: Nearly twice as many of these 33-38 foot, warm-water whales were recently found than in all previous years of research combined.

Wow, that's some serious whale-finding. Also, with so many to study, we should soon know more about this mysterious species that was only described by science as late as 2003.

The research for that finding was led by New England Aquarium scientist Salvatore Cerchio, with a team of Malagasy and American whale biologists.

After Cerchio released video in October of live Omura's whales confirmed in wild footage for the first time, he returned to Madagascar to learn more about the slender gray whales with uneven head coloring. There, local boat operators pointed out unprecedented levels of tiny creatures in the water that they called shrimp. These were euphausiids, a type of tropical krill.

Higher numbers of Omura's whales turned up for this food bonanza. While Cerchio and his team had recorded 44 individual sightings of the rare whales over four years, in November 2015 they noted 80 individuals in a month.

Other observations took place. The researchers were able to videotape the Omura's feeding behavior, and count five mother/calf pairs -- a record number. They identified a specific female for the third time in four years; this indicates that the population might be considered resident, or at least returns to the same habitat each year. The scientific team gathered two weeks of whale sounds and other acoustic data in a continuous stream, using remote recorders.

Cerchio's team will do a long period of passively monitoring audio for the Omura's -- that will be the first of such a long-term type.

In some of the videos, you can see the whale's throat pleats expand as it feeds: This appears as a round bulge below the jaw, and allows the Omura to take in a huge amount of water and krill, nest the food in its baleen, drain the water and swallow the solid. As a rorqual whale, the Omura is in the same family as blue whales and humpbacks.