Integrative Approaches to the Study of Baleen Whale Diving Behavior, Feeding Performance, and Foraging Ecology

Abstract

For many marine organisms, especially large whales that cannot be studied in laboratory settings, our ability to obtain basic behavioral and physiological data is limited, because these organisms occupy offshore habitats and spend a tnajority of their time underwater. A class of multisensor, suction-cup-attached archival tags has revolutionized the study of large baleen whales, particularly with respect to the predatory strategies used by these gigantic bulk filter feeders to exploit abundant oceanic resources. By integrating these data with those from other disciplines, researchers have uncovered a diverse and extraordinary set of underwater behaviors, ratigirtg frotn acrobatic diving maneuvers to extreme feeding events during which whales engulf volumes of prey-laden water that are much larger than their own body. This research framework not only improves our knowledge of the individual pcrformatice and behavior of these keystone predators btit also informs our ability to understand the dynamics of complex marine ecosystems.

Horizontal niche partitioning of humpback and fin whales around the West Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from a concurrent whale and krill survey

“…Nemoto and Nasu (1958) described T. macrura as a prey species of fin whales. Furthermore, T. macrura is known to form large aggregations (Daly and Macaulay 1988) with local densities comparable to E. superba, making T. macrura attractive for exploitation by bulk feeding whales (Goldbogen et al 2013). Fin whales are known to have a broad diet (Reilly et al 2013), opportunistically feeding on aggregated prey species with a preference for areas with complex water circulation, such as in upwelling areas around continental shelf edges, within eddies and fronts (Johnston et al 2005;Santora et al 2014).…”

“…E. superba is known for schooling behaviour giving rise to large swarms (Everson 2000; Atkinson et al 2012). For baleen whales as bulk feeders, swarming organisms are the most lucrative food resource (Goldbogen et al 2013). Apart from E. superba, other Antarctic euphausiid species, namely Euphausia crystallorophias (also referred to as 'ice krill' or 'crystal krill') and Thysanoessa macrura, are also known as prey species for whales (Nemoto and Nasu 1958;Nemoto 1959;Steele 1970).…”

Grey Wolf Algorithm for Requirements Prioritization

“…The main distinction between GWO and other meta-heuristic optimization algorithms is the social dominant hierarchy which its main purpose is to develop the candidate solution during each iteration. Thus, the GWO imitates the hunting behavior of grey wolves in terms of finding and attacking prey (Mirjalili et al, 2014) (Goldbogen et al, 2013). The social hierarchy of wolves and their responsible is illustrated in the following Fig.1.…”

Data Clustering Based on the Whale Optimization

“…Suyun altında soluk vererek kabarcık bulutları oluşturan balinalar bu sayede avlarını bir araya toplarlar. Kabarcık bulutunu su yüzeyine çıkana kadar devam ettirerek avlarının bu bulutun içerisinde kalmasını sağlarlar [15]. Ayrıca bu sayede kendilerini gizlemiş olurlar.…”