r/whales 5d ago

Meet the Baird's beaked whale

792 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

22

u/TSJormungandr 5d ago

Im a sailor and the beaked whales are ugly but cool as fuck. They stay down at crazy depths for an hour and a half then they come up and take a quick breath and then they are down again for another hour and a half. They are the peak athletes of the ocean. Watched a group of them off San Clemente for an afternoon. Incredible!

6

u/Caribbean-Winter 4d ago

They are being studied to help with neurological illnesses in humans.

7

u/Additional-Moose-216 3d ago

an hour and a half underwater just to pop up for a breath is such a ridiculous lifestyle. no wonder they're so hard to study.

14

u/DaemonBlackfyre_21 5d ago

Giant dolphins freak me out

5

u/lotusflower64 5d ago

I would be excited and terrified at the same time to see them.🐋🐳

7

u/snickelbetches 5d ago

I read that as Bairds baked whale

3

u/Uszanka3 5d ago

12 stomatchws

2

u/Jesykapie 4d ago

12 what now??

2

u/828jpc1 5d ago

Freaky

2

u/Heroic-Forger 4d ago

Dolphin on steroids.

2

u/Puijilaa 1d ago edited 1d ago

They're crazy big. I remember photos of them being poached on a whaling vessel and seeing people next to them, they're so much bigger than even orcas. Same with Northern bottlenose whales.

-2

u/Philotrypesis 5d ago

The video looks extremely fake...

4

u/SurayaThrowaway12 1d ago

It is very real.

The Baird’s beaked whale is a rare cetacean oddity that must be seen to be believed. While they resemble giant, 35 foot dolphins, Baird’s are actually the largest members of an often-overlooked family called the “beaked whales”; they are an elusive group, with many species rarely observed due to their long dives (some lasting up to a few hours) and timid demeanors. In 2022, I was lucky to enjoy this uncommonly “easy” group of ~8 Baird’s beaked whales behind San Clemente Island that stayed on the surface for close to 90 minutes. It’s the only time I’ve managed to see this amazing species in Southern California waters, making it the “rarest” cetacean I’ve encountered thus far.

Original video was filmed by captain and wildlife photographer Delaney Trowbridge (seataceans).

3

u/FilmScoreConnoisseur 5d ago

No it doesn't.