Small populations (e.g. North Atlantic right whales, western gray whales Eschrichtius robustus) are particularly susceptible to human impacts such as incidental mortality and habitat degradation . Future planned studies on South African Bryde’s whales include further investigations of their abundance and the use of stable isotope analysis to determine whether they are capable of adapting to new prey species in response to possible future reduced availability of their main prey species. If the results show that they do not exploit other prey species, then conservation measures may need to be implemented in order to conserve this small population.