Right Whale Feeding and Baleen Rattle

Watkins, William A.; Schevill, William E.

doi:10.2307/1379512

Cited by 54 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Observations from this survey and from surveys conducted in 1980 (Stone, 1980} suggest that whales in the Brown's Bank area are engaged in both sexual behavior and feeding during late August. Although no extruded penises and no intromission were observed, the clustering and positioning of whale bodies in the second group of sightings closely parallels right whale courtship and mating behavior described by Kraus and Prescott (1982) Kraus and Prescott, 1982;Nemoto, 1970;Watkins and Schevill, 1976).…”

supporting

confidence: 83%

Cruise Report W-65 : scientific activities undertaken aboard R/V Westward, Woods Hole - Lunenburg - Bay d'Espoir - Grand Banks - St Pierre - Bar Harbor - Bath - Newport, 22 July - 31 August 1982

Wilber¹

1982

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PREFACEThis cruise report presents a basic outline of the scientific research and academic program conducted on board the R/V Westward during her sixty-fifth cruise in the summer of 1982. It consists primarily of the abstracts from the twenty-three student projects completed during this cruise as well as data which are being incorporated into the long-term studies of SEA staff and associated researchers. The bulk of this report was written at sea and is not intended to represent a final analysis or interpretation of data generated during W-65.W~65 was a highly successful and productive cruise characterized by excellence in sailing, quality research in a wide variety of marine environments, an unusually large number of delightful port stops, incredibly deluxe dining, and the untiring efforts of all aboard.It was a cruise of consistently high spirits and genuine camaraderie which even the light winds and maximum engine hours could not diminish. The success of a Westward cruise is in large part reflected in the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction derived from it. For me and indeed, for all aboard, W-65 was a time of accomplishment and satisfaction.W-65 sailed under the excellent supervision of our captain, CarlChase. Carl's skill as a skipper was obvious and his patience, leadership and highly effective teaching method quickly earned the respect of all aobard, The music he provided and his nightly "bedtime" readings of ~'The Boat That Wouldn't Float" delighted us all. As chief scientist, I was continually grateful for his sustaining support and enthusiastic participation in accomplishing the scientific mission of W-65. Carl was i assisted by a truly outstanding nautical staff who not only made the completion of scientific stations a pleasure, but greatly contributed to the spirit of W~65. First Mate Andy Chase, Second Mate "Bosun Bill"Fanning and Third Mate Sue Maffei all demonstrated exceptional skill in handling Westward and were always available to assist the students in learning these skills. Their participation was essential to the success of our cruise. MaLinda Jones, our Steward, never ceased to amaze us all with her galley magic. By the third week, we had all developed a W-65 pudge and the nicknaming of the Westward as "the old D/V'' was in large part a result of her efforts in developing the cooking talents of all aboard. To our Engineer, Ray Minchak, I am particularly grateful. Becquse W-65 was in large part·a benthic sampling cruise, we were plagued by an unusually high incidence of broken and damaged sampling gear. '·'Raybo'·' not only got Westward through a. new record of engine hours (l70+l but was of invaluable assistance in helping to repair this steady string of mangled equipment. His non-stop good humor and unique world views kept.many of us going through trying times. W-65 was particularly fortunate to have as Assistant ScientistsCliff Eow, Patty Owens and Margaret Sulanowska. As Chief Scientist I could not have asked for more. ''Doctor Duck" brought with him years of Westward experience, th...

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 83%

Cruise Report W-65 : scientific activities undertaken aboard R/V Westward, Woods Hole - Lunenburg - Bay d'Espoir - Grand Banks - St Pierre - Bar Harbor - Bath - Newport, 22 July - 31 August 1982

Wilber¹

1982

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Given this, a better understanding of physical and biological oceanographic processes can aid conservation. Direct observations of right whales feeding on dense aggregations of Calanus finmarchicus have been documented in several studies (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Wishner et al 1988, Mayo & Marx 1990, Beardsley et al 1996, and indirect evidence of right whales feeding at depth on this copepod has been inferred from simultaneous surface observations, water-column sampling (Murison & Gaskin 1989) and dive records (Baumgartner & Mate 2003). The diet of right whales, however, is not monospecific; it includes mesozooplankton such as Pseudocalanus spp., Centropages spp., larval barnacles and possibly euphausiids (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Murison & Gaskin 1989, Mayo & Marx 1990.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Regional-scale mean copepod concentration indicates relative abundance of North Atlantic right whales

Pendleton

Pershing²,

Brown³

et al. 2009

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Assessing the abundance of this copepod at spatial scales that are relevant to a right whale (10s of cm to m in the vertical, 10s to 100s of m in the horizontal) is nearly impossible with conventional net sampling methods. Targeted net sampling is only feasible when right whales are feeding at or very near the surface and copepod patches can be visually identified (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Wishner et al 1988, Mayo & Marx 1990, Beardsley et al 1996. With the advent of instrumentation to estimate the abundance of zooplankton, however, the distribution of C. finmarchicus can now be adequately and rapidly sampled at spatial scales much closer to those utilized by the whales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent results linking temporal variability in both crude right whale survival probability (Fujiwara & Caswell 2001) and right whale reproductive success to the North Atlantic Oscillation, which, in turn, affects C. finmarchicus abundance (Fromentin & Planque 1996, Greene & Pershing 2000, Conversi et al 2001, seem consistent with this hypothesis. Right whales have been observed feeding on older copepodite stages of Calanus finmarchicus in Cape Cod Bay (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Mayo & Marx 1990 and in the Great South Channel (Wishner et al 1988, Beardsley et al 1996 in the late winter and spring. Surface feeding occurs occasionally, but subsurface feeding is much more common (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Mayo & Marx 1990, Kenney et al 1995.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Right whales have been observed feeding on older copepodite stages of Calanus finmarchicus in Cape Cod Bay (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Mayo & Marx 1990 and in the Great South Channel (Wishner et al 1988, Beardsley et al 1996 in the late winter and spring. Surface feeding occurs occasionally, but subsurface feeding is much more common (Watkins & Schevill 1976, Mayo & Marx 1990, Kenney et al 1995. During the summer, right whales can be found in the lower Bay of Fundy and on the SW Scotian Shelf, where they continue to feed on older stages of C. finmarchicus (Stone et al 1988, Murison & Gaskin 1989, Woodley & Gaskin 1996.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Summertime foraging ecology of North Atlantic right whales

Baumgartner

Mate²

2003

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

199

201

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

North Atlantic right whales were instrumented with suction-cup mounted, time-depth recorders (TDR) during the summers of 2000 and 2001 to examine their diving and foraging behavior. Simultaneous observations of temperature, salinity and the vertical distribution of their principal prey, Calanus finmarchicus stage 5 copepodites (C5), were obtained along each whale's track with a conductivity-temperature-depth instrument (CTD) and an optical plankton counter (OPC). Right whale feeding dives were characterized by rapid descent from the surface to a particular depth between 80 and 175 m, remarkable fidelity to that depth for 5 to 14 min and then rapid ascent back to the surface. The average depth of dive was strongly and positively correlated with both the average depth of peak C. finmarchicus C5 abundance and the average depth of the bottom mixed layer's upper surface. Significantly longer surface intervals were observed for reproductively active females and their calves when compared to other individuals, indicating that this critical segment of the population may be at increased risk of ship strikes owing to their diving behavior. Ingestion rates calculated from TDR and OPC data exceeded estimated daily metabolic requirements for most of the tagged right whales; however, short deployment durations and uncertainty in metabolic rates make it impossible to judge whether individual right whales were obtaining sufficient energy to meet the metabolic costs of reproduction. Improvements in attachment durations and the development of novel methods to estimate the metabolic rates of large whales in situ are required to determine whether right whale reproduction is limited by insufficient food resources.

show abstract

Right Whale Feeding and Baleen Rattle

Cited by 54 publications

References 9 publications

Cruise Report W-65 : scientific activities undertaken aboard R/V Westward, Woods Hole - Lunenburg - Bay d'Espoir - Grand Banks - St Pierre - Bar Harbor - Bath - Newport, 22 July - 31 August 1982

Cruise Report W-65 : scientific activities undertaken aboard R/V Westward, Woods Hole - Lunenburg - Bay d'Espoir - Grand Banks - St Pierre - Bar Harbor - Bath - Newport, 22 July - 31 August 1982

Regional-scale mean copepod concentration indicates relative abundance of North Atlantic right whales

Summertime foraging ecology of North Atlantic right whales

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About