Feeding habits of Baird's beaked whale Berardius bairdii, in the western North Pacific and Sea of Okhotsk off Japan

Abstract

We examined the stomach contents of 26 Baird's beaked whales caught off the coast of Japan by small-type coastal whalers. The main prey for these whales was rat-tails and hakes in the western North Pacific. Pollock and squids were also important food in the whales collected from the southern Sea of Okhotsk. The prey species found in the stomachs of the whales were almost identical to those caught in bottom-trawl nets at depths greater than about 1000 m in the western North Pacific, which suggests that the Baird's beaked whale forages for prey at depths of about 1000 m or more. Baird's beaked whales in the western North Pacific migrate to waters of 1000-3000 m in depth, where demersal fish are abundant. This implies that Baird's beaked whales migrate to waters where demersal fish, especially rat-tails and hakes, are abundant. Although there is limited information on the feeding habits of ziphiid whales, they are generally thought to prefer squid. The present data suggest that demersal fish are also important prey for ziphiid whales.