Cuvier’s Beaked Whale in the waters of the North Aegean – one of the most important recent recordings by Archipelagos’ marine mammal research team. Research and conservation action continues despite the challenging conditions of the season, as is every winter.
It gives us great hope that in specific sea areas such as the waters of the North Ikaria Trench, in Archipelagos Institute we have been recording the continuous presence of Cuvier’s Beaked Whales for over 21 years.
The beaked whales are out of the least known cetacean species globally, but also the least known cetacean of the Greek seas. They live in small pods in marine areas with steep deep trenches.
The large knowledge gaps about beaked whales globally, is also due to the fact that while searching for their prey they can do deep dives, the deepest having been recorded at almost 3000 meters and with a longer duration of 3 hours and 42 minutes.
The key threat for Beaked Whales is underwater noise pollution caused by explosions, seismic explorations and various types of naval sonars. Despite the human stressors impacting increasingly marine and terrestrial ecosystems over the past decades, the fact that these large mammals continue to survive in our seas gives us great hope, but also reminds us of the great responsibility we all share in order for them to continue to survive.
