Deborah Thiele

Periodic variability in cetacean strandings: links to large-scale climate events

Cetacean strandings elicit much community and scientific interest, but few quantitative analyses have successfully identified environmental correlates to these phenomena. Data spanning 1920–2002, involving a total of 639 stranding events and 39 taxa groups from southeast Australia, were found to demonstrate a clear 11–13- year periodicity in the number of events through time. These data positively correlated with the regional persistence of both zonal (westerly) and meridional (southerly) winds, reflecting general long-term and large-scale shifts in sea-level pressure gradients. Periods of persistent zonal and meridional winds result in colder and presumably nutrient-rich waters being driven closer to southern Australia, resulting in increased biological activity in the water column during the spring months. These observations suggest that large-scale climatic events provide a powerful distal influence on the propensity for whales to strand in this region. These patterns provide a powerful quantitative framework for testing hypotheses regarding environmental links to strandings and provide managers with a potential predictive tool to prepare for years of peak stranding activity.

Sei whale sounds recorded in the Antarctic

Sei whales are the least well known acoustically of all the rorquals, with only two brief descriptions of their calls previously reported. Recordings of low-frequency tonal and frequency swept calls were made near a group of four or five sei whales in waters west of the Antarctic Peninsula on 19 February 2003. These whales also produced broadband sounds which can be described as growls or whooshes. Many of the tonal and frequency swept calls (30 out of 68) consist of multiple parts with a frequency step between the two parts, this being the most unique characteristic of the calls, allowing them to be distinguished from the calls of other whale species. The average duration of the tonal calls is 0.45 +/- 0.3 s and the average frequency is 433 +/- 192 Hz. Using a calibrated seafloor recorder to determine the absolute calibration of a sonobuoy system, the maximum source level of the tonal calls was 156 +/- 3.6 dB re 1 microPa at 1 m. Each call had different character and there was no temporal pattern in the calling.

Cetacean observations during a winter voyage into Antarctic sea ice south of Australia

Cetacean observations were made from aplatform of opportunity (a winter seaice and oceanography research voyage) in Antarctic sea ice south of Tasmania. Minke whales and killer whales were sighted well within the sea ice. Minkes were found between 180-350 km south of the ice edge, while killer whales were nearly 450 km south of the ice edge. Minkes were sparsely distributed throughout the seasonal sea ice, even in areas of apparent total ice cover. Killer whales (including calves) were found at the northern edge of a major coastal polynya system. The winter sea ice is a complex and dynamic environment in which lead and polynya systems may enable travel and foraging by some cetacean species. While biological productivity is known to be reduced from summer levels, large numbers of seals, penguins - and possibly small numbers of whales - may be supported by krill and other biota intimately associated with the sea ice habitat during winter.

Body fat and condition in sperm whales, Physeter macrocephalus , from southern Australian waters

Blubber thickness (n=102) and lipid content (n=37) were measured in sperm whales from three mass stranding events on the west and north-west coasts of Tasmania, Australia in February 1998. Blubber thickness was highly variable, ranging from 43.0 to 168.0 mm (mean 98.4+/-18.4 mm) while lipid fat content, also highly variable, ranged from 16.19 to 89.34% (mean 49.2+/-17.9%). Blubber thickness was significantly and positively related to total length, but a blubber thickness index based on the residuals of this relationship was not related to age, sex or reproductive condition. No relationship was found between blubber thickness index and blubber lipid content, indicating that blubber thickness may not provide a comprehensive indication of body fat condition in sperm whales when only measured at a single site. Blubber lipid content was not related to total length, age or sex. Blubber lipid content was stratified vertically throughout the blubber layer, suggesting that the inner blubber layer may be a more active site for lipid deposition and mobilisation, while the outer blubber layer may serve in a structural or thermoregulatory role. The social structure and foraging ecology of this species may serve to minimise the need to rely on stored energy reserves to meet reproductive energy requirements. In addition, the broader role of blubber for structural, buoyancy and insulative functions coupled with high individual variability may cause a lack of obvious relationships between these variables and body size, age, sex and reproductive state in this species.

Location and range of calling blue and fin whales off the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Blue and fin whales were heavily whaled from the Southern Ocean during the 20th century and their populations today remain at extremely low levels. Both species produce loud, low‐frequency calls that are well suited for long propagation. Eight acoustic recording packages (ARPs) were deployed off the Western Antarctic Peninsula, with instrument spacing from 100 to 180 km. Blue and fin whale calls were commonly heard and two different methods were used to determine locations and ranges to the calling whales. Blue whales were localized using the differences in call arrival times to three different instruments. It also was possible to calculate ranges to blue whales from multipath arrivals of their calls and verify the results obtained by the difference in arrival times method. Short detection ranges for fin whales precluded localization, but multipath arrival difference allowed range estimation. Source levels for both species were calculated using these ranges and the measured received levels.