Balaenoptera edeni Anderson 1879

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Cetacea, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 723-743 : 724

Balaenoptera edeni Anderson 1879

Balaenoptera edeni Anderson 1879 , Anat. Zool. Res., Yunnan: 551.

Type Locality: Burma, "found its way into the Thaybyoo Choung, which runs into the Gulf of Martaban between the Sittang and Beeling Rivers, and about equidistant from each".

Vernacular Names: Bryde's Whale.

Synonyms: Balaenoptera brydei Olsen 1913 ; Balaenoptera omurai Wada, Oishi, and Yamada 2003 .

Distribution: Worldwide: warm-temperate to tropical waters. Distributional records sometimes confused with B. borealis .

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I; IUCN – Data Deficient.

Discussion: Reviewed by Cummings (1985 a). May represent more than one species ( Wada and Numachi, 1991). Rice (1998:71) recognized B. edeni (Eden’s or Sittang Whale; smaller in size) as being distinct from B. brydei (Bryde’s whale; larger in size) but we used only one species because it is not clear if B. edeni is the larger or the smaller type whale and B. edeni has a type specimen. Wada, Oishi and Yamada (2003) described Balaenoptera omurai , related to B. edeni and recognized B. brydei . Due to the controversy regarding this step, we have recognized B. omurai as a synonym with the provision that it may be recognized as a full species when Balaenoptera is revised. See comment in Rice (1998:71-75).