Wild Side Wednesday's Secret Cetaceans of Hawaii

Описание: Biologists Erin Adams and April Irvin narrates on the secret cetaceans of Hawaii
What is a cetacean? Whales, dolphins and porpoises, have streamlined bodies, blowhole/s for breathing air, hind limbs have been reduced, forelimbs have become flippers.
The Hawaiian islands have 18 species of toothed cetaceans and 7 species of baleen whales documented. The most well-known and studied cetaceans are the humpback whales and spinner dolphins. The other species may be here year round, but prefer deeper waters or are found in the more remote island and thus require more resources to document, or they transient in nature - such as orca.

1:46 Orca - the largest species of oceanic dolphins and family Delphinidae. Cascadia Research Collective (CRC) under the direction of Robin Baird had documented only four sighting of transient killer whales or Orca in the years 2000-2020. but has catalogued ~57 individuals with a couple of resightings. Three sightings of an orca pod/s in June of 2020, twice off the west coast of Oahu and then off the Big Island of Hawaii. Observed feeding on a small sperm whale.

3:29 Sperm Whale - the largest toothed whale (up to 60 ft.), named for the spermaceti organ in their head used for oil. Largest and most complex animal brain known. It's encompasses 1/3 of its body. Sperm whales rosses ocean basins, including transiting Hawaiian waters. Deep divers (up to two hours at a shot), feed on giant squid. In the years 2000-2012, CRC documented 32 sightings of sperm whales in Hawaii. During aerial transits of cetacean population surveys in the 1990's a white sperm whale (Moby Dick!) was sighted just a few miles off the coast of the Big Island amongst a pod of 11 other sperm whales (our owner Tori Cullins was an observer onboard the plane running the transits with Dr. Joe Mobley of Marine Mammal Research Consultants).

5:46 Beaked Whales - the least known group of cetaceans, the deepest divers. Twenty-species of beaked whales - two that we've seen on our charters are the Blainville's beaked whales as well as the Cuvier's beaked whales. Male Blainville's beaked whales have characteristic barnacled 'tusks', which look like bushy eyebrows.

7:16 Fraser's Dolphin, offshore species that looks similar to a bottlenose dolphin with a blunt rostrum and tri-colored. The first ever recorded sighting of Fraser's dolphins on Oahu was on one of our charters this spring (2020). They were encountered in a mixed group of themselves and melon-headed whales. A couple other other sighting of Fraser's dolphins (only four island-wide to date) were also with a pod of melon-headed whales.

8:15 Rough-toothed Dolphin - of the lesser species, rough-toothed dolphins are the ones we do encounter most frequently, though the number of times we see them appears to be dropping. Of all the cetaceans, the rough-toothed are the most often encountered in interspecies minglings, and have been sighted with hybrid calfs. Round protruding eyes, concave forehead/rostrum, blotchy-scarred bodies. Often found near Fishing Aggregating Devices (FADS)

10:33 Other Baleen Whales sighted in Hawaii include Fin, Sei and Blue whales.
11:40 Help wildlife out by reducing your single plastic use, know where your seafood is coming from (sustainable fisheries), choosing your travel wisely.

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