Ginkgo-toothed beaked whales have long remained a mystery, but a groundbreaking sighting may soon change that.
After years of failed searches, one of the planet’s rarest whales has finally been spotted in the wild.
The race to encounter the elusive ginkgo-toothed beaked whales began back in 2020 after scientists recorded high-pitched sounds off the northwestern Baja California in Mexico.
Known as echolocation pulses, or “seeing with sound”, these sounds are emitted by animals to navigate and search for food in the dark.
However, it wasn’t until last year that researchers suddenly saw what looked like a duo of juvenile beaked whales breaking through the surface.
A ‘significant finding’
Identified from a biopsy (a small chunk of skin that was carved from a whale for identification purposes using a modified crossbow) the team realised they were witnessing two ginkgo-toothed beaked whales - marking the first sighting of them alive in the wild.
Previously, the only evidence that these species existed had come from a couple of dead specimens that had washed up onto the shore in Japan.
Elizabeth Henderson, Co-Editor of Aquatic Mammals, tells Euronews Green the event was a “significant finding” that relied on perfect weather conditions as well as being in the “right place at the right time”.
“So when you are trying to find a whale that has never before been seen alive in the wild, and therefore you don't actually know where to look for it, the search is even more difficult,” she adds.
Why are ginkgo-toothed whales so hard to spot?
Beaked whales are the deepest-diving mammals on Earth, and spend most of their lives in the depths of the ocean.
They only come up for air for a few minutes at a time and are known for being easily frightened by vessels and military sonars.
This “cryptic behaviour” is what makes beaked whales such a mystery - but advances in acoustic research and tagging technology have “vastly increased” scientists’ understanding of the species.
“It is now known that each species appears to produce its own unique, frequency-modulated (FM), upswept echolocation pulse,” the study states.
“Once the echolocation pulse is identified for a given species, passive acoustic monitoring methods can be applied to learn more about its occurrence patterns, distribution, relative abundance, and habitat use.”
Henderson adds that by determining that the ginkgo-toothed beaked whales are using the habitat off the west coast of North America, researchers have “basically doubled” their known distribution through the North Pacific Ocean.
How the expedition nearly failed
It is estimated that six animals were briefly sighted during the entire expedition, including at least one calf pair and two adult-sized animals, but only five were identified.
However, the mission was almost sabotaged by a wild albatross that attempted to peck away at the biopsy.
Luckily, the crew was able to distract the bird by throwing bread rolls from breakfast overboard and later retrieved the biopsy using a small boat.
