What New Recordings Reveal About Omura’s Whale Habitat

What is an Omura’s whale?

Omura’s whale is a type of baleen whale. Baleen whales feed using plates of baleen in their mouths, rather than teeth. It belongs to a group called rorquals, which also includes the blue whale. Researchers recognised Omura’s whale as a distinct species in 2003. ¹

It is a relatively small rorqual, growing to around 10 metres long, according to the long-term habitat research report. ¹ The species is still poorly understood. It is sometimes mistaken for Bryde’s whale, which can look similar from a distance. The source describing the drone footage says Omura’s whale has one ridge along the top of its head, while Bryde’s whale has more than one. ²

What did the recordings reveal about its habitat?

Researchers at Curtin University analysed underwater acoustic recordings collected off northwest Australia between 2005 and 2023. The recordings came from 35 sites spread across about 1,800 kilometres of ocean in the North-west Marine Region. ¹³

They detected Omura’s whale calls throughout the year. The analysis also found that calls were more likely in warm, food-rich waters. That gives researchers a useful clue about conditions associated with the whales’ presence in this region. ¹³

Sound recordings are a way to study whales that are difficult to see. They can reveal when calls are detected at monitored sites. They do not, on their own, show how many individual whales are present or where each animal travels. The available research summaries do not give a population estimate or identify every place the species uses.

What does the new drone footage show?

A separate report describes drone footage of an Omura’s whale feeding in the Dampier Strait, a remote area of the Pacific. The sighting took place in March 2026. The report presents it as a rare chance to see the species feeding. ²

The footage adds a direct visual observation to what researchers can learn from sound recordings. It confirms that the whale was feeding at the time and place filmed. The source summary does not specify what the whale was eating or describe enough of the footage to establish how often it feeds in this way. ²

Why do these findings matter for conservation?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Omura’s whale as Data Deficient. This means there is not enough information to assess its extinction risk accurately. ¹³

Finding the waters where calls are more likely to be detected can help researchers identify habitat that may matter to the species. The long span of recordings is valuable because the whale is rarely seen and remains little studied. But habitat clues are not the same as a full assessment of its numbers, health, or conservation needs. ¹³

What is still unknown about Omura’s whale?

The research reports provide new information about likely habitat off northwest Australia, and the footage captures one feeding event. They do not settle how many Omura’s whales exist, how far they travel, or whether the same habitat patterns apply across the species’ full range. ¹²³

Researchers also need more observations to understand the whale’s feeding habits and how its use of particular waters changes over time. The available summaries do not provide enough detail to answer those questions yet.