A True Cause: Out on the AMAPPS beaked whale survey.

NOAAS Gordon Gunter in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument.  Photo by Salvatore Cerchio for NMFS/NEFSC under permit #21371.

Where is Emily: Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument  (off George's Bank) sailing on the NOAAS Gordon Gunter.

            Beaked whales (family: Ziphiidae) are a curious group.  Not that they are curious about us, quite the opposite.  While dolphins will jet over to a boat to play in the wake or gray whales will push their calves toward small pangas to investigate, beaked whales generally avoid humans when we encounter them in the open seas.

            Which isn't often.  Beakers (an affectionate nickname) tend to live in deep ocean waters, diving around 1,000 meters deep to feed on squid.  Even when they aren't foraging, they don't spend much time at the surface.  While resting in between meals, they will do shallower dives, still 100 meters deep or so, rather than sticking around the rest of us air breathers.

            This makes beakers very hard to find and count.  Cetacean abundance estimates and our understanding beaked whale biology are dependent on us being able to find them.

            Presently, a whole bunch of US agencies (NOAA, BOEM, FSW, and the US Navy) are working together to develop spatially-explicit density estimates for protected marine species in the Atlantic Ocean.  The Atlantic Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (AMAPPS) is collecting broad-scale data over multiple years using aerial and shipboard surveys.

            Beakers are a protected group of marine odontocetes (toothed whales, as opposed to baleen whales) found in all oceans that we know little about, but we do know some. We know that with one exception they have 0-4 teeth, which used as tusks rather than chewing their food. Typically the teeth are more pronounced/present in males (see Strap-toothed beaked whale!). Only Shepherd's beaked whale has a full set of teeth; which aren't as necessary for snapping up soft squid as much as a strong jaw. We know that beakers are more commonly found around seamounts and marine canyons, at least that's what we can tell from where we have currently surveyed. Thus far we've counted 22 different species (23 after the Karasu is formally described). Of those species many produce species-specific echolocation pulses, meaning that we can identify different species based on the sounds that they make. And that's where I come in.

            I am being contracted by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) to participate on a dedicated beaked whale visual and acoustic survey. We are on the NOAA research vessel, the Gordon Gunter, in and around the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument on the continental shelf edge of George's Bank off New England.  This is the first and only Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean, and aims to create a protected habitat for rare and endangered species and benthic fauna.  It comprises four of the largest seamounts and three submarine canyons in the region.  You know what's a protected species AND loves seamounts, don't you? 

Meep meep.

            To contribute to the larger AMAPPS mission, we're out here doing a smaller, focused survey on the four species of beakers we can expect to find in this region. (Technically there are six that could use this area, but Blainsville's beaked whale and the Northern bottlenose whale would be WAY out of their predicted range if we saw one.) The most common beaker, in this region and generally globally, are Cuvier's (Ziphius cavirostris).  For this survey we are focusing on the genus Mesoplodon as we know the least about them: Sowerby's (M. bidens), Gervias' (M. europaeus) and True's (M. mirus).  Do a preliminary search and the internet will tell you that True's beaked whales are one of the most elusive and rare marine mammals. Honestly, it says that about any beaker you could Google. True's ARE rare, though, in most places they may be found.  But let me tell you, not in this monument. I don't know what is in the water out here, but we see these guys every day. We're getting great looks as well.

Male True's beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus). Two tiny teeth can be seen just at the tip of its bottom jaw. Photo by Bob Pitman for NMFS/NEFSC under permit #21371.

           I've spent the past 4-5 years studying beaker echolocation pulses on the west coast with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. Off southern California, we can get eight different species of beakers.  I've been analyzing the differences between these species-specific pulses, and learning how to identify species based on their acoustic repertoire alone.  I am bringing what I have learned in California to support and assist researchers based at NEFSC in identifying different beaked whale species, and learn from what they know about their beaked whale species.  Cuvier's beakers are basically the same that we have on the West Coast, a well studied click with multiple peaks and valleys. Sowerby's are distinct in that they produce a higher frequency click than the other beakers in the north east region.  It's Gervias' and True's that are the tricky ones.  There's a lot of overlap between the characteristics of their pulse-types, and it's been an absolute delight working with NEFSC researchers and affiliates to determine if we can distinguish between them at all. 

            The question of whether we can acoustically distinguish between True’s and Gervias’ is not going to be answered on this ship during survey.  But it may be answered in part with the data we are collecting.  That’s one of the most exciting things about studying little known animals; you never know what you will uncover.

True's Beaked Whale sneaking a peak at us.  Photo by Salvatore Cerchio for NMFS/NEFSC under permit #21371.

            Visual and acoustic surveys may be the bread and butter of this cruise, but we're doing so much more.  We've also successfully collected DNA samples from different True's beakers (first time in this region!), are test driving new 3-D acoustic localization equipment, and are attempting to attach a DTAG to a few animals.  DTAGs are sensors that suction cup to the side of an animal.  They record acoustic data as well as the pitch, roll, heading and depth.  DTAGs have greatly informed our understanding of different marine mammal's biology and behavior, especially beakers.  If we get a tag on one of these poorly understood animals, it opens up a new door of potential discovery.

Small boat heading out to place a DTAG and collect DNA samples from a group of True's beakers (in background).  Photo by Emily T. Griffiths for NMFS/NEFSC under permit #21371.

UPDATE 9/6/2018: WE TAGGED A TRUE'S BEAKED WHALE! Read all about it here!