Prey Fields and Habitat of Deep Diving Odontocetes: 3D Characterization and Modeling of Beaked and Sperm Whale Foraging Areas in the Tongue of the Ocean

• Main Authors: Nowacek, Douglas P, St Laurent, Louis, Moretti, David J, Halpin, Patrick N
• Other Authors: DUKE UNIV DURHAM NC NICHOLAS SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND EARTH SCIENCES
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Biological Oceanography; *HABITATS; *WHALES; BIOMASS; DEEP WATER; FEEDING; MARINE BIOLOGY; OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS; BEAKED WHALES; ODONTOCETES; PILOT WHALES; PREY FIELDS; SPERM WHALES; Sperm whale
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA573676; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA573676

The physical and biological characteristics of the areas inhabited by deep diving odontocetes are poorly understood. Our long term goals are: i) to measure and characterize the biomass in areas and at depths inhabited by beaked and sperm whales; ii) to measure and characterize the physics of these environments; iii) to assemble the characteristics measured (i) and (ii) into a depth integrated, 3- dimensional habitat model; the model will include other dependent and independent data, e.g., chlorophyll and depth, respectively. Our final long term goal is to then apply the habitat model produced to other geographic areas to assess their likelihood as beaked and sperm whale habitat. The original document contains color images.