Description of a new beaked whale echolocation pulse type in the California Current Marine Mammal Science

Beaked whales (family Ziphiidae) present unique challenges to visual monitoring and mitigation efforts because they have long foraging dives, short surface times, and have inconspicuous surface behavior (Barlow et al. 2005). For Cuvier's beaked whale, Ziphius cavirostris, one of the better studied beaked whales, the mean dive and surface times are 58 min and 1.9 min, respectively (Tyack et al. 2006, Schorr et al. 2014). Fortunately, many beaked whales produce species-specific frequency modulated (FM) pulses, or upswept echolocation clicks (Baumann-Pickering et al. 2013, 2014), and have stereotypic vocalizing behavior, making them amenable to passive acoustic monitoring.