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About the Authors:
Leslie F. New
* E-mail: [email protected]
Affiliation: U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
David J. Moretti
Affiliation: Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport, Rhode Island, United States of America
Sascha K. Hooker
Affiliation: University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland
Daniel P. Costa
Affiliation: University of California, Santa Cruz, California, United States of America
Samantha E. Simmons
Affiliation: U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America
Introduction
Beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) have become a conservation priority following the species’ responses to military sonar and seismic surveys, which range from changes in behavior to stranding and death [1]-[5]. As a result, there is a need to understand how beaked whales respond to disturbance. There have been several studies investigating short-term behavioral responses to sound, e.g., [6]. However, to link such immediate responses to long-term impacts we require improved knowledge of their life history traits, such as survival and reproduction. One approach to better understanding the potential effects of disturbance on marine mammals is to develop a bioenergetics model that integrates short-term behavior, such as foraging, with reproductive output [7], [8]. Development of such a bioenergetics model can improve our understanding of the species’ life history requirements and provide an important framework to understand the response of animal populations to both natural and anthropogenic disturbance.
The six genera and 21 species of beaked whales comprise one of the most diverse and least known families of marine mammals. Some species, such as Hector’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus) are known from only a few specimens [9], [10]. Necropsies of stranded individuals and historic whaling data, e.g., [11], [12], provide the majority of knowledge on beaked whale biology and physical characteristics (size, weight and sexual dimorphism), and the species’ diets are mostly informed from stomach contents [13]. It is only recently that detailed studies of living individuals and populations have taken place, e.g., [14]-[16]. Due to the development of small data loggers that can acquire information on the whales’ acoustics and their remarkable deep-diving behavior we now have incredibly detailed information on their habitat use, foraging behavior and ecology, e.g., [6], [17], [18]. However, since the geographic distribution of many Ziphiidae species are little known and individuals spend only a brief time...