Beaked whales of the family Ziphiidae are perhaps the least known of marine mammals.
Rarely sighted at sea, several species are known only from dead stranded specimens (Mead 1989).
Recent mass strandings of beaked whales in several areas (Simmonds and Lopez-Juraco 1991; Frantzis 1998;
Jepson et al. 2003), including the northern Bahamas (Balcomb and Claridge 2001, NOAA 2001) have correlated with
international naval operations, raising concern that beaked whales may be particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic noise.
As such, information on the basic population ecology of beaked whales is necessary to understand and mitigate the effects
of such activities. However, ecological studies of beaked whales are logistically difficult due to the challenges of reliably
detecting beaked whales at sea.
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May 2007
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October 2007
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May 2008
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Report November 2008
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May 2009
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September 2009
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Report June 2010
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