Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T17:31:56.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Diet of Sperm Whales (Physeter Macrocephalus) Captured Between Iceland and Greenland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A.R. Martin
Affiliation:
Sea Mammal Research Unit, Natural Environment Research Council, c/o British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OET
M. R. Clarke
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association, Citadel Hill, Plymouth PL1 2PB

Extract

The stomach contents of 221 sperm whales were examined at the Icelandic whaling station between 1977 and 1981. Evidence of at least eight species of fish and 22 species of cephalopod was found, together with an assortment of foreign bodies including rock fragments and fishing nets. Fish remains were found in 87% and cephalopods in 68% of the sperm whale stomachs in this area, but quantification of dietary input is complicated by differential rates of digestion and variation in the retention of indigestible remains in the stomach. Prey species are benthic or pelagic in habit and are caught by the whale in waters from 400 m to at least 1200 m in depth. One fish, the lumpsucker Cyclopterus lumpus, forms a major part of the diet. Ninety-four per cent of cephalopods are oceanic and neutrally buoyant and 84 % of these are ammoniacal. Cranchiids contribute 57% by number and an estimated 25% of the weight, and histioteuthids 26% by number and 38 % of the weight of cephalopods eaten. Three species offish and two of cephalopod have not been previously recorded in sperm whale diets. Comparison with an earlier study shows that the diet is essentially stable over a 14-year period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Berzin, A. A., 1972. The Sperm Whale. Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations. [Translated from Russian.]Google Scholar
Betesheva, E. I. & Akimushkin, I. I., 1955. Food of the sperm whale (Physeter catodori) in the Kurile Islands region. Trudy Instituta okeanologii. Akademiya nauk SSSR, 18, 8694.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1976. Observation on sperm whale diving. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 56, 809810.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R., 1980. Cephalopoda in the diet of sperm whales of the southern hemisphere and their bearing on sperm whale biology. ‘Discovery’ Reports, 37, 1—324.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R. (ed.), 1986. A Handbook for the Identification of Cephalopod Beaks. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. R. & Macleod, N., 1976. Cephalopod remains from sperm whales caught off Iceland. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 56, 733749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, R., 1956. Sperm whales of the Azores. ‘Discovery’ Reports, 28, 237298.Google Scholar
Gambell, R., 1972. Sperm whales off Durban. ‘Discovery’ Reports, 35, 199358.Google Scholar
Gaskin, D. E. & Cawthorn, M. W., 1967. Diet and feeding habits of the sperm whale (Physeter catodon L.) in the Cook Strait region of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1, 156179.Google Scholar
Kawakami, T., 1980. A review of sperm whale food. Scientific Reports of the Whales Research Institute, 32, 199218.Google Scholar
Lockyer, C. H., 1977. Observations on diving behaviour of the sperm whale Physeter catodon. In A Voyage of Discovery (ed. M., Angel), Oxford: Pergamon Press. [George Deacon 70th Anniversary Volume.]Google Scholar
Martin, A. R., 1982. A link between the sperm whales occurring off Iceland and the Azores. Mammalia, 46, 259260.Google Scholar
Nemoto, T. & Nasu, K., 1963. Stones and other aliens in the stomachs of sperm whales in the Bering Sea. Scientific Reports of the Whales Research Institute, 17, 8391.Google Scholar
Roe, H. S. J., 1969. The food and feeding habits of the sperm whales (Physeter catodon L.) taken off the west coast of Iceland. Journal du Conseil, 33, 93102.Google Scholar
Voss, N. A., 1985. Systematics, biology and biogeography of the cranchiid cephalopod genus Teuthowenia (Oegopsida). Bulletin of Marine Science 36, 185.Google Scholar
Wheeler, A., 1978. Key to the Fishes of Northern Europe. London: Frederick Warne.Google Scholar