Whales and Marine Mammals Found in Indonesia

If you are visiting Indonesia, and in particular if you are going scuba diving whilst you’re there, you might be asking what whales and marine mammals are found in Indonesia?

There are whales and mammals in Indonesia including blue whales, Bryde’s whales, dolphins, melon-headed whales, orca (killer whales), pigmy blue whales, pilot whales sperm whales and humpback whales. But there are also dugongs in Indonesia, which are mammals but not whales.

Whale sharks are also found in Indonesia which are not whales nor mammals.

The best way to dive Indonesia, whether that’s to Komodo or Raja Ampat, is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on Indonesian liveaboards using the following window:

The following article includes at least one video of each of the whales encountered in Indonesia, as per the following list of whales and mammals:

1. Blue whales
2. Bryde’s whales.
3. Dolphins.
4. Melon-headed whales.
5. Orca (killer whales).
6. Pigmy blue whales.
7. Pilot whales.
8. Sperm whales.
9. Dugongs.
10. Humpback whales.

Either before or after reading about whales and marine mammals found in Indonesia, you might like to take a look at these Indonesian liveaboards.

Alternatively, take a look at the following table of Indonesia liveaboards:

Table of Liveaboard Diving in Indonesia

This list of Indonesia liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.

The Scuba Diving Earth Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating) is explained on each liveaboard review when you click the “Discover Liveaboard” link, and is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. Choosing between liveaboards is helped by customer scores, and if you get stuck choosing between two or three liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10, you can use the SDE Luxury Rating to help narrow down your choice.

Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10. But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 8 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is usually secondary to the score out of 10.

Types of whales and marine mammals found in Indonesia

Blue whales in Indonesia

The blue whale (Balaenoptera Musculus) is the largest marine mammal you’ll find in Indonesia and is a baleen whale. The blue whale can grow to just under 30 meters (100 feet) in length.

How exciting would this be when you spot blue whales on your way back to your resort. But what if you are on a diving liveaboard and spot blue whales in Indonesia too.

Here’s a blue whale underwater scuba diving in Indonesia:

Bryde’s Whales in Indonesia

The Bryde’s whale is a baleen whale and belongs to the same group of whales as blue whales and humpback whales. The Bryde’s whale can been found in Indonesia.

Dolphins in Indonesia

Dolphins are often spotted in Indonesia on the surface, which include spinner, spotted and bottle-nosed dolphins.

https://youtu.be/6TPxoVd_Do8

Melon-headed whales in Indonesia

The melon-headed whale (Peponocephala Electra), which is also known as the electra dolphin or little killer whale. The melon headed whale is a medium sized toothed whale can be found in Indonesia.

Orca (killer whales) in Indonesia

Orcas (killer whales) are only very rarely spotted in Indonesia, but you may be lucky and spot one out on your dive boat or Indonesian Liveaboard.

Pygmy Blue Whales in Indonesia

The pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera Musculus Brevicauda) is a subspecies of the blue whale, which can found in the Indian Ocean and Indonesia.

Pilot Whales in Indonesia

Pilot whales are medium sized cetaceans, and there are two extant species of pilot whale, which are the long-finned pilot whale and the short-finned pilot. It is the short-finned pilot whale that is mostly found in Indonesian waters.

Sperm whales in Indonesia

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are found off the coast of Indonesia and are the largest of the toothed whales, but also the largest toothed predator on the planet.

An unfortunate sight of stranded sperm whales on Indonesian beach:

Dugongs in Indonesia

If you are lucky, you might spot a friendly dugong when snorkeling or diving in Indonesia. The dugong mostly eats seagrass around the coastline of Indonesia.

Finally, a video of dolphins and whales (cetaceans) in Indonesia.

Humpback whales in Indonesia

If you are very lucky, you may even get to see a humpback whale when you visit Indonesia. Humpback whale sightings are rare in Indonesia, but they do migrate to the area.

The following video shows a breaching humpback whale see by customers on the Nyaman Catamaran liveaboard.

The whale that’s not a whale in Indonesia – the whale shark

When you search for whales in Indonesia, the whale shark pops up in the search results. But of course a whale shark is actually not a whale nor is it a mammal, it’s a fish, but a very large fish…hence its name.

The following video is of a whale shark encounter in Indonesia.

I hope you enjoyed this article about whales and marine mammals found in Indonesia

I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkelling. Please use the comments section below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof go-pro’s!

If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about whales and marine mammals found in Indonesia), please comment below with your questions.

There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.

Have fun and be safe!