Family Ziphiidae
There are at least 22 species of extant beaked whales. They are a mysterious and uncommon family of cetaceans. This blog will feature the many species in photos, videos, facts, etc. (If you would like to be a mod, please send me a message!) Avatar by João Quaresma.
Photo by Deron Verbeck:
Pic of the Day 4.26.15: Blainville’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon densirostris)
This was an amazing site! I was out on the research boat last Sunday when we spotted a small group of these elusive animals way off shore. Robin Baird of Cascadia Research Collective believes this was an open ocean group that is not associated with the insular groups around the Big Island of Hawaii namely the Kona Coast.
This is a sub-adult male made apparent by the high arching lower jaw. Only the males have teeth and eventually two teeth will erupt from the top of the lower jaw.
We had seen the group from a distance when they dove so we slowed and were at idle when Colin Cornforth directed our attention to the port side of the boat. The animal was coming up out of the deep within 4m of the boat! It rolled around surfacing to breathe then ducking just below the surface and rolling again. Daniel Webster was able to tag the animal with a GPS locating tag so they can monitor this animals direction of travel. Check out the Cascadia site for updates at: http://www.cascadiaresearch.org/Hawaii/April2015.htm
Image taken under NMFS Permit #15330
lovewontstopthisbob-omb reblogged this from beakedwhales
twentyoneorcas reblogged this from beakedwhales beakedwhales posted this