China has disclosed its first underwater footage of the rarely-spotted Bryde's whale species off the coast of south China, with the newly-obtained images proving highly valuable to the future of the species.

The spectacular shots were captured near Weizhou Island off of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region — the only offshore sea that frequently spots cetaceans in the country.

Bryde's whales are mainly found in the tropics and the subtropics. Its body typically grows to be 10-12 meters long, while the whale can weigh as much as 15 tons.

Researchers have been investigating Bryde's whales since 2016 and used various methods to film the species in a conspicuous manner, deploying drones and underwater cameras to detect the giant creatures.

The underwater images were filmed on January 7 in collaboration with a local TV station. Despite all kinds of difficulties during the process, the successful shoot has delighted researchers.

"It gives us a key scientific basis for large marine mammal protection and is valuable for the protection of marine ecological environment in south China's Beibu Gulf," said an associate researcher of the Guangxi Academy of Sciences.

Currently, researches about the Bryde's whale is still limited, as the numbers and classifications of this giant creature species still remain unclear due to a lack of information. Therefore, the released footage is quite important both for China and the world.

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