Researchers mapping several species of whales and dolphin converging towards their Pisces prey reveal the universe of species - specific forage zones in the Atlantic Ocean . The findings , issue inNaturethis week , facilitate us better infer marine mammal distribution , behavior , and fundamental interaction with prey species .
discover nautical mammal populations continuously over the expansive ocean areas they dwell has been challenging . Northeastern University ’s Purnima Ratilal and fellow turn to a technique address passive sea acoustical wave guide outback sensing to map the vocalizations and spacial distributions of diverse dolphin and whale species – include aristocratic , fin , crookback , sei , minke , sperm , pilot film , and orca hulk – over a 100,000 - kilometer - straight herring feeding ground in the Gulf of Maine . The acoustical recordings were obtain using a 160 - hydrophone raiment that was towed by a inquiry vas along designated cut northwards of Georges Bank from September 19 to October 6 of 2006 . That coincided with the yearly herring spawning flow .
By instantly detecting , localize , and classifying marine mammal vocalizations from multiple mintage , the squad found that predators dissever the shallow into overlapping foraging sector – which are species - specific but with varying level of spatial convergence . And these sector are keep for at least two week of the herring spawning period . The vocalization rates of all the nautical mammalian study here follow a 24 - hour cps , with some being more vocal at night and others during the daytime .
With so many nautical mammals , mix - ups can happen – peculiarly for the smaller toothed whales . “ But our work shows that there is much high likelihood that soul from the same mintage will tend to aggroup together , ” Ratilal tells IFLScience in an e-mail . “ That could be the rationality for their focused species - specific feeding area . ”
These finding lend to our cognition of the kinetics ( in both time and space ) of the conflate forage activities of multiple maritime mammal metal money in the neighborhood of an extensive fish prey discipline – which turn out to be a monumental ecological hotspot . The researchers hope that their finding will improve the understanding of our impact on leatherneck protected specie and aid with the direction of their ecosystems .
A humpback whale photograph during the Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing Gulf of Maine Fall 2006 experimentation . Michael T. Einhorn
