• Login
    About WHOAS
    View Item 
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Biology
    • View Item
    •   WHOAS Home
    • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
    • Biology
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of WHOASCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywordsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesKeywords

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters?

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Author's manuscript (672.4Kb)
    Supplementary material (450.3Kb)
    Date
    2017-02
    Author
    Cronin, Thomas W.  Concept link
    Fasick, Jeffry I.  Concept link
    Schweikert, Lorian E.  Concept link
    Johnsen, Sonke  Concept link
    Kezmoh, Lorren J.  Concept link
    Baumgartner, Mark F.  Concept link
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8737
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067
    Keyword
     Right whale; Visual sensitivity; Contrast vision; Environmental radiometry 
    Abstract
    North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) feed during the spring and early summer in marine waters off the northeast coast of North America. Their food primarily consists of planktonic copepods, Calanus finmarchicus, which they consume in large numbers by ram filter feeding. The coastal waters where these whales forage are turbid, but they successfully locate copepod swarms during the day at depths exceeding 100 m, where light is very dim and copepod patches may be difficult to see. Using models of E. glacialis visual sensitivity together with measurements of light in waters near Cape Cod where they feed and of light attenuation by living copepods in seawater, we evaluated the potential for visual foraging by these whales. Our results suggest that vision may be useful for finding copepod patches, particularly if E. glacialis searches overhead for silhouetted masses or layers of copepods. This should permit the whales to locate C. finmarchicus visually throughout most daylight hours at depths throughout their foraging range. Looking laterally, the whales might also be able to see copepod patches at short range near the surface.
    Description
    Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 372 (2017): 20160067, doi:10.1098/rstb.2016.0067.
    Collections
    • Biology
    Suggested Citation
    Preprint: Cronin, Thomas W., Fasick, Jeffry I., Schweikert, Lorian E., Johnsen, Sonke, Kezmoh, Lorren J., Baumgartner, Mark F., "Coping with copepods: do right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) forage visually in dark waters?", 2017-02, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0067, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/8737
     

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, sightings in Cape Cod waters 

      Schevill, William E.; Moore, Karen E.; Watkins, William A. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1981-06)
      Sightings of right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, in Massachusetts waters have been recorded by workers at Woods Hole Oceanographic In stitution since 1955. These observations do not represent a census, because emphasis ...
    • Thumbnail

      Acoustic communication in the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) 

      Parks, Susan E. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2003-09)
      The focus of this thesis is the use of sound for communication by the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). The surface active group (SAG) is the predominant social interaction in this species for which use ...
    • Thumbnail

      Absolute probability estimates of lethal vessel strikes to North Atlantic right whales in Roseway Basin, Scotian Shelf 

      van der Hoop, Julie; Vanderlaan, Angelia S. M.; Taggart, Christopher T. (Ecological Society of America, 2012-10)
      Vessel strikes are the primary source of known mortality for the endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Multi-institutional efforts to reduce mortality associated with vessel strikes include vessel-routing ...
    All Items in WHOAS are protected by original copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. WHOAS also supports the use of the Creative Commons licenses for original content.
    A service of the MBLWHOI Library | About WHOAS
    Contact Us | Send Feedback | Privacy Policy
    Core Trust Logo