Do foraging beaked whales and sperm whales target the Gulf Stream frontal edge off Cape Hatteras? Using long-term passive acoustic monitoring to explore habitat associations
Authors: Stanistreet, J., D. Nowacek, J. Hench, L. Hodge, S. Van Parijs, J. Bell, and A. Read
Year published: 2015
File size: 92.29 KB
About
Beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) inhabit the continental shelf slope and pelagic waters in the western North Atlantic Ocean, but little is known about their associations with dynamic oceanographic features, such as fronts, which can aggregate prey. Here we analyze data from a multi-year passive acoustic monitoring program to explore associations between the foraging activity of beaked and sperm whales and the presence of the Gulf Stream, the dominant oceanographic feature off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. From 2012 to 2015 we collected acoustic recordings on the continental slope using an autonomous, bottom-mounted acoustic recording package moored at approximately 900 m depth and sampling at 200 kHz.
