Geographic distribution of the Cross Seamount beaked whale based on acoustic detections |
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| Authors: | Jennifer L K McCullough E Elizabeth Henderson Jennifer S Trickey Jay Barlow Simone Baumann-Pickering Roanne Manzano-Roth Gabriela Alongi Stephen Martin Selene Fregosi David K Mellinger Holger Klinck Angela R Szesciorka Erin M Oleson |
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| Institution: | 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries, Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii;2. Naval Information Warfare Center, San Diego, California;3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, La Jolla, California;4. NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California (Retired);5. National Marine Mammal Foundation, San Diego, California;6. Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystems and Resources Studies, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon;7. Marine Mammal Institute, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon;8. Ocean Associates, Inc., Under Contract to NOAA Fisheries, Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center, Honolulu, Hawaii |
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| Abstract: | Beaked whales produce frequency-modulated echolocation pulses that appear to be species-specific, allowing passive acoustic monitoring to play a role in understanding spatio-temporal patterns. The Cross Seamount beaked whale is known only from its unique echolocation signal (BWC) with no confirmed species identification. This beaked whale spans the Pacific Ocean from the Mariana Archipelago to Baja California, Mexico, south to the equator, but only as far north as latitude 29°N. Within these warm waters, 92% of BWC detections occurred at night, 6% during crepuscular periods, and only 2% during daylight hours. Detections of BWC signals on drifting recorders with a vertical hydrophone array at 150 m depth demonstrated that foraging often occurred shallow in the water column (<150 m). No other species of beaked whale to date has been documented foraging in waters this shallow. Given their nocturnal, shallow foraging dives, this species appears to prefer prey that may be available in the water column only during those hours. The foraging behavior of Cross Seamount beaked whales appears to be unique among all beaked whales, and these findings contribute additional ecological and acoustic information which can help guide future efforts to identify this cryptic whale. |
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| Keywords: | BWC cetaceans Cross Seamount beaked whale distribution echolocation passive acoustic monitoring |
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