Bryde’s whale encounter rate was negatively related with wind speeds, positively related with SST and poorly related with chlorophyll a concentrations. Generally these are not what may have been expected if the whale encounters were associated with conditions in space and time that were conducive to productivity (e.g. wind-induced upwelling). These relationships may have been obscured by the fact that data were collected only during low to moderate wind speeds (approximately ≤10 knots). However, observed spatial match-mismatch patterns in the occurrence of phytoplankton, zooplankton, forage fish and Cape gannets in the southern Benguela and advised caution be applied when interpreting spatial overlap between primary productivity and top predators. It has been shown that Bryde’s whale occurrence is mainly related to changes in the distribution of their prey; given both the temporal fluctuations in their encounter rates and weak relationships with environmental variables, this is most likely also the case for the study animals. Similar weak relationships between SST-related variables and commercial catches of anchovy and sardine by the fishing industry suggest that linking the occurrence of Bryde’s whale to the presence of forage fish through environmental data is probably not feasible.