2023/08/08 by Jennifer L. K. McCullough, E. Elizabeth Henderson, Jennifer S. Trickey +12 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Marine animal studies overview #Underwater Acoustics Research #Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems
paper · doi:10.1111/mms.13061
openalex publication_date 2023/08/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
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.