The Influence of Hydrologic Conditions on the Distribution of Baleen Whales in the Antarctic (Raspredelenie Usatykh Kitov v Anarktike v Zabisimosti ot Gidrologicheskikh Uslovii)

• Main Author: Chernyi,E. I.
• Other Authors: NAVAL OCEANOGRAPHIC OFFICE WASHINGTON D C
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1973
• Subjects: Biology; (*CETACEA; DISTRIBUTION); (*HYDROLOGY; CETACEA); ANTARCTIC REGIONS; PLANKTON; SALINITY; OCEAN CURRENTS; USSR; *WHALES; TRANSLATIONS; FEEDING HABITS; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; baleen whale; baleen whales
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0767521; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0767521

Efficient whale hunting depends upon knowing where whale concentrations can be found. Baleen whale gather where their principal food (euphausiids) is plentiful. The Antarctic Convergence Zone is a consistently poor whaling area because cold Antarctic water plunges beneath warmer Sub-Antarctic water, inhibiting the growth of euphausiids. The best whaling regions are where the Antarctic Coastal and Circumpolar Currents meet. These are regions where a semistationary cyclonic system coincides with plankton rich waters upwelling from great depths. Whales locate these feeding grounds through salinity-sensing organs which direct them normal to surface water isohalines in search of the narrow range of salinity most favorable to plankton growth. They also travel parallel to isohalines to remain in the feeding grounds. (Author) Trans. of Tikhookeanskii Nauchno-Izzledovatelskii Institut Rybnogo Khozyaistva i Okeanografii. Izvestiya (USSR) v58 p223-228 1966, by V. Astvazaturov.