24 Dec 18 - Index To My Beaked Whale Posts

This Blog Post is an Index to all the Blog Posts covering my Beaked Whale sightings. The following Blog Posts cover all my Rorqual Whale, Baleen Whale, Sperm Whale, Beaked Whale, Beluga Whale & Narwhal, Blackfish, Atlantic Dolphin, Pacific Dolphin and Porpoise Posts. The taxonomy follows the Marine Mammals of the World (Second Edition) book. There are links to the Posts against each entry below. Alternatively, you can click on a particular species in the Keywords section on the right side of the Blog to show all Posts for the selected species. Finally, selecting the Cetaceans Keyword to show all Cetacean Posts. I will continue to add to the photos and links as I write new Cetacean Blogs.

Cuvier's Beaked Whale: Male in Northern Biscay from the Brittany Ferry (15 Aug 18)

Cuvier's Beaked Whale: At the Estancia Harberton museum, Argentina (27 Mar 18)

Blainville's Beaked Whale: At sea off Mangareva, French Polynesia (17 Nov 14)

Blainville's Beaked Whale: At sea between Ascension Island and Cape Verde (25 Apr 18)

Gervais's Beaked Whale: At sea between Ascension Island and Cape Verde (28 Apr 18)

Gervais's Beaked Whale: At sea off the Canary Islands (4 May 18)

Strap-toothed Beaked Whale: Two subadult/female Strap-toothed Beaked Whales at sea between South Georgia and Gough Island (8 Apr 18)

Strap-toothed Beaked Whale: A party at sea between Tristan da Cunha and St Helena (16 Apr 18)

4 May 18 - West African Pelagic - Day Four: Gervais's Beaked Whales Off The Canary Islands

As we cruised along the deep water channel between the Canary Islands, we had views of El Hierro & La Plama to our port & La Gomera & Tenerife to our starboard. The morning had got off to a good start with some Bryde's Whales & Short-finned Pilot Whales as an aperitif to breakfast. Additionally, there were good numbers of Cory's Shearwaters & a few other Seabirds, compared to the previous couple of days when we had been travelling through the deep oceans. The rest of the morning had been quiet for Cetaceans. Finally, in the early afternoon, my time on deck was rewarded when a pod of Striped Dolphins raced past going the other way.

Striped Dolphin

Striped Dolphin

During the afternoon, Bob Flood was lined up to give a talk on Pterodrama Petrel identification in the North Atlantic. It was a difficult decision about staying on deck given there was a fair bit of activity or attend what would have been an excellent talk. Had the talk been while we were in the deep oceans, then I would have attended the talk. But given we were close to steeply sloping seabed & land, I decided to stay on deck. Fortunately, the Cetaceans kept up the interest. Firstly, there was another pod of at least thirty Atlantic Spotted Dolphins.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin: Adult

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin: A second adult

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin: A paler-bellied individual

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin

Finally, in late afternoon, there was a shout for a Beaked Whale close to the bows on the starboard side. I was on the port bridge wing, but had the opportunity to get some photos before it started to move down the starboard side.

Gervais's Beaked Whale: With many of the Beaked Whales it is important to see the head & beak shape so to see that on the first photos is good news

Gervais's Beaked Whale: A close crop of the head. This confirms that the jaw shape does not turn up, which rules out Blainville's Beaked Whale & True's Beaked Whale. Sowerby's Beaked Whale can be ruled out as they have a longer, thinner beak & a more prominent bulge on the forehead. Cuvier's Beaked Whale have a really stubby beak & the colouration is also wrong for this species. Finally, Northern Bottlenose Whales have a completely different beak & head shape. This just leaves Gervais' Beaked Whale as the last option in range & fortunately, the head, beak & jaw shape all fit for Gervais's Beaked Whales

Gervais's Beaked Whale

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Another close crop of the head

Gervais's Beaked Whale

Gervais's Beaked Whale

Gervais's Beaked Whale

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Some Gervais's Beaked Whales show wiggly dark stripes on the back which is just visible on this photo

Gervais's Beaked Whale: I can see a few wiggly dark stripes in front of the dorsal fin on this photo

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Going down & more importantly I'm running out of opportunity to lean right from the port bridge wing & photograph it. Time to move as fast as possible to the starboard side

Many of the least known Cetaceans are Beaked Whales. They do not have obvious blows like the large Whales, do not linger on the surface for long periods of time like the Pilot Whales or regularly jump of out the water like the Dolphins. Additionally, many are a dull grey or brown & do not stand out, especially when the light makes the seas look grey. A number of the Beaked Whales species are thought to dive deep to hunt Squid & so they will spend a fair bit of time underwater. Finally, with the exception of three Northern Bottlenose Whales that I've seen from land, all the Beaked Whales that I've seen have moved straight past the ships I've been on, without taking any interest in the ships. With this air of mystery, then they are generally the group of Cetaceans I want to see the most.

Gervais's Beaked Whale: I reached the starboard side to find one was very close. But it would be very hard to identify it as it wasn't possible to see much on the head or dorsal fin

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Two of the three Gervais's Beaked Whales in this party

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Another photo of the same two individuals

Gervais's Beaked Whale: The third Gervais's Beaked Whale appeared (in the bottom right). The other two are top left, albeit one had already slipped below the water

It was the start of Happy Hour in the Observation lounge & a number of people were below decks when the Gervais's Beaked Whales came through. However, they had a second chance a couple of hours later when there was another Gervais Beaked Whale sighting.

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Other people's photos also confirmed this was a Gervais's Beaked Whale, although my photos don't. It clearly has an odd dorsal fin shape

Gervais's Beaked Whale

In early evening, there was final Atlantic Spotted Dolphin pod that briefly appeared by the Plancius, to put on a final show for those still on deck.

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin: Sub adult. This was the only individual I managed to photograph in this pod

Atlantic Spotted Dolphin: Sub adult. The white tip to the beak & the grey & pale markings indicates this is a sub adult Atlantic Spotted Dolphin. Note, most of the pale spots are probably water droplets rather than markings

I had spent another twelve hours or so on deck, but it had been rewarding.

28 Apr 18 - Atlantic Odyssey - Day Thirty: A Frustrating Cetacean Day

On the fourth day at sea between Ascension Island and Cape Verde, we started the day with some close views of Cymene Dolphins & more distance views of Pantropical Spotted Dolphins. Additionally, there had been good, but short, views of Sea Turtles during the morning. We had a good Cetaceans list by the end of the day, but despite seeing most species, it was a frustrating day for me for Cetaceans. There was been a shout for some Dolphins on the port side of the Plancius. I didn't react immediately as I assumed they were more Clymene Dolphins or Pantropical Spotted Dolphins. Then I heard they were Rough-toothed Dolphins. I headed over to the aft side of the top deck & had brief bins views of the small pod heading rapidly down the side of the ship. I had seen them, but briefly. It was the only ones I saw on the Odyssey & there weren't any seen on the follow-on West African Pelagic. Some of the others who were better positioned managed to get some decent photos of the pod. Late morning, there were a couple of Orcas seen at long range on the port side: one of which was breaching. Again, I saw them with the bins, but failed to get any photos other than the splash the breaching Orca made.

Splash from the breaching Orca

Just before lunchtime, we had views of a couple of Dwarf Sperm Whales. One was logging on the surface, while the second slowly surfaced next to it. Again, it was good to get some photos of them, but the views weren't fantastic.

Dwarf Sperm Whale: A second individual starts to surface to the left of the logging individual

Dwarf Sperm Whale

Dwarf Sperm Whale

Dwarf Sperm Whale

Dwarf Sperm Whale: A close crop of the right hand individual

Dwarf Sperm Whale

While everybody was at lunch, I was heading down to the Observation lounge to top up on coffee & biscuits, when I ran into Marijke & several of the Expedition staff who appeared from the staff mess room. Apparently, there was a shout of a close Whale. There wasn't time to head back to the bridge wing, so I headed out to one of the forward decks to see a couple of Short-finned Pilot Whales right next to the bows. There was time to grab a few photos, before we were sailing past them. I then headed back to get the coffee & biscuits. After lunch, Marijke explained the full story. She had gone to the opposite side of the Plancius to me & also seen a Short-finned Pilot Whale go down her side of the Plancius, followed by a large pool of blood. Apparently, some of the Birders who were at the bows had also seen a close Orca, which both Marijke & I had missed. What Marijke thinks is that one of the Short-finned Pilot Whale calves became separated from the rest of the pod and was attacked by the Orca. I ended up getting a good close photo of one of the Short-finned Pilot Whales going down the starboard side. But it was frustrating & sad to hear of the demise of one of the pod.

Short-finned Pilot Whale: This photo shows the blunt head shape and the right-hand flipper can be seen. This is shorter in length than the overall length of the dorsal fin. Long-finned Pilot Whales have a flipper length that is similar to the overall dorsal fin length

In late afternoon, we had brief views of a Gervais's Beaked Whale.

Gervais's Beaked Whale: Quite a few people managed to miss this completely, so getting a record shot photo was doing better than many. Fortunately, Hans or Marijke managed to get decent photos to confirm the identification

Overall, it had been a fairly frustrating day with generally poor photos of the Whales, not to mention the unfortunate Short-finned Pilot Whale.