Occurrence of Omura’s whale, Balaenoptera omurai (Cetacea: Balaenopteridae), in the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean based on Passive Acoustic Monitoring

• Published in: Journal of Mammalogy
• Main Authors: Moreira, Sergio, C, Weksler, Marcelo, Sousa-Lima, Renata, S, Maia, Marcia, Sukhovich, Alexey, Royer, Jean-Yves, Marcondes, Milton, C C, Cerchio, Salvatore
• Other Authors: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Brasil = Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Brazil = Université fédérale de Rio de Janeiro Brésil (UFRJ), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte Natal (UFRN), Laboratoire Géosciences Océan (LGO), Université de Bretagne Sud (UBS)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), ANR-10-LABX-0019,LabexMER,LabexMER Marine Excellence Research: a changing ocean(2010)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: acoustic detection; Atlantic Ocean; Balaenoptera omurai; Balaenopteridae; seasonality; song; vocalization; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Indian; Mid-Atlantic Ridge; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-04210888; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-04210888/document; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-04210888/file/gyaa130.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyaa130

The current known distribution of Omura’s whale includes the tropical and warm temperate waters of the westernPacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. Evidence of their presence in the Atlantic Ocean is based on beach castspecimens found on the coasts of Mauritania (North Atlantic) and Northeastern Brazil (South Atlantic). Thepresent study characterizes the occurrence of this species in the São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago (SPSPA),on the mid-Atlantic ridge between South America and Africa, based on autonomous recording systems. Acousticsignals were similar, but not identical, to B. omurai vocalizations recorded off the coast of Madagascar. Althoughthese signals were recorded for only 11 months, there are peaks in vocal activity between May and June in thevicinities of SPSPA, suggesting either a shift in distribution within the Atlantic equatorial waters or seasonality inthe species’ vocal behavior in this region. The first acoustic records of Omura’s whales in the Equatorial Atlanticsuggest that these animals may also use deep-water habitats, in addition to the shallow-water habitat use observedin other regions.