IR Home
MEPS
Home
Editors
Forthcoming
Information
Subscribe
Journals
Home
MEPS
AME
CR
DAO
ESEP
Search
Subscribe
Book Series
EE Books
Top Books
ESEP Books
Order
EEIU Brochures
(pdf format)
Discussion Forums
Home
Research
Endangered Species Programs
Institutions
International Ecology Institute
Eco-Ethics International Union
Foundation
Otto Kinne Foundation
![](../../../images/pixel.gif) | ![](../../../images/pixel.gif) |
MEPS 264:123-135 (2003)
|
Abstract
|
![](../../../images/hline.gif)
Summertime foraging ecology of North Atlantic right whales
Mark F. Baumgartner1,3,*, Bruce R. Mate2
1104 Ocean Administration Building, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA.
2Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon State University, Newport, Oregon 97365, USA
3Present address: Biology Department, MS #33, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543, USA
*Email: mbaumgartner@whoi.edu
![](../../../images/hline.gif)
ABSTRACT: 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.
KEY WORDS: Right whale · Eubalaena glacialis · Calanus finmarchicus · Diving behavior · Energetics · Aggregation
Full text in pdf format
![](../../../images/hline.gif)
Published in MEPS Vol.
264
(2003) on December 15
Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599.
Copyright © Inter-Research, Oldendorf/Luhe, 2003
|