The winning and commended images of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2024 competition were just announced, with Rafael Fernández Caballe named as the overall winner for his image of a Bryde’s whale swimming up to swallow a bait ball of sardines off Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Contest organizers at Oceanographic Magazine were once again kind enough to share some of this year’s top images below, and their full gallery can be seen here.
I first heard of Brydes’s whales in a National Geographic article years ago. There were some great pix and the story described them as different from other baleen whales. They are more of a predator on fish, etc and are built for it. They called them a missile made of muscle.
They have since become one of my favorite whales.
‘Surfing’ whales in Australian waters
I started the post with just the top pic then this new info turned up this week. I was amazed that Bryde’s whales came into shallow water. Everything I had heard was they were very hard to find and confined to deep tropical waters.
My primary memory of whales is working on the Grand Banks and seeing them spouting in the distance. The sea was rough with white caps and I think they were to the north with the light on them. The spout was like a beacon. I assume they were Fin Whales, the second largest animal. It was a primal sight and an epiphany of what the planet was once like. So much has been lost in the last 20,000 years it is staggering.
Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
Wildlife loss is taking ecosystems nearer to collapse, new report suggests
Reports like this only make it clearer.