{"id":175,"date":"2021-09-08T17:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu\/gyrex\/?p=175"},"modified":"2022-03-04T12:57:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T19:57:23","slug":"encountering-bairds-beaked-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu\/gyrex\/2021\/09\/08\/encountering-bairds-beaked-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"Encountering Baird\u2019s beaked whales"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(This post was originally published September 20, 2021. <\/em>Posts have been manually reordered for more logical storytelling.<\/em> To go to the next post in the sequence, click “Previous Post” at bottom.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have small puffy blows here,\u201d Ladd casually remarks while scanning the ocean horizon with our high-powered \u201cbigeye\u201d binoculars. Intrigued, I immediately swing my own pair of the heavy binoculars over to his patch of water. Like whalers of old, modern trained observers often can tell the species of whale seen at a distance by the size and shape of its blow. Judging by the cluster of round-shaped blows erupting above the calm water like exploding fireworks two miles out in front of the ship, I knew we were seeing something special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBaird\u2019s beaked whales!\u201d I shout, barely able to contain my excitement. Baird\u2019s beaked whales are named after the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s first curator, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and they are the largest member of the beaked whale family, reaching lengths of nearly 40 feet and weights of 13 tons. They are rarely observed at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Baird’s beaked whale spotted from the R\/V Pacific Storm<\/em> on September 10. Photo by Todd Pusser.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Judging by the constant blows, we estimate that there are at least 12 whales packed tightly together at the surface. After only a minute or so, the blows suddenly stop, and the whales disappear. From our vantage point 30 feet up in the crow’s nest, we radio down<\/a> to the acoustic team monitoring the underwater hydrophone being towed a hundred meters behind the Pacific Storm<\/em>. \u201cBaird\u2019s beaked whales! Twenty degrees right and 2.3 nautical miles from the ship.\u201d A moment of disbelief on the other end is followed by, \u201cThat\u2019s great! We\u2019re on it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like bats, beaked whales produce high-frequency clicks while foraging. We know from a high-tech digital acoustic tag placed on a Baird\u2019s beaked whale off California nearly ten years ago that the species makes a series of shallow dives (if you can call diving to 400 meters \u201cshallow\u201d) followed by an extended, deeper foraging dive to over 1,000 meters, which can last as long as an hour and a half. It is typically only during deeper dives that Baird\u2019s beaked whales produce their characteristic clicks as they search for prey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ten minutes, the acoustic team radios back up to us and states that they are not hearing anything on the hydrophone, suggesting that the whales are making a silent, shallow dive. Ladd and I continue to scan the ocean, joined now by several other members of the science team and crew, each of us eager to spot these unusual whales again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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