Omura’s Whale

Omura's whale or the dwarf fin whale (Balaenoptera omurai) belongs to rorqual about which very little is known. Before its formal description, it was referred to as a small, dwarf or pygmy form of Bryde's whale by various sources. The common name and specific epithet commemorate Japanese cetologist Hideo Omura. The scientific description of this whale was made in Nature in 2003 by three Japanese scientists. (Wikipedia, general species account).

They determined the existence of the species by analysing the morphology and mitochondrial DNA of nine individuals – eight caught by Japanese research vessels in the late 1970s in the Indo-Pacific and an adult female collected in 1998 from Tsunoshima, an island in the Sea of Japan. However, due to the lack of a detailed osteological study and the absence of "conclusive data", the International Whaling Commission decided to consider them only as a regionally distinct group of "small-form Bryde's whale". (Wikipedia, general species account).