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SPRING 2016
feeding methods among aquatic vertebrates.” To fuel
the intense energetic demand of maintaining and
operating a huge body at high speed, fin whales must
consume more than a ton of krill every day.
Fin whales can maintain high speeds over large
distances when traveling between areas with
large concentrations of prey. A whale Panigada
tagged in March 2015 swam from Lampedusa
to the northern tip of Corsica, traversing the
Mediterranean from south to north in five days.
It averaged more than 100 miles per day while
crossing some of the world’s busiest shipping
lanes. A second whale tagged the same day made a
similar migration, confirming that the same whales
feed seasonally on both sides of the Mediterranean.
“The fog surrounding our understanding of fin-
whale movements in the Mediterranean seems to be
lifting to some extent,” Notarbartolo di Sciara said.
The dramatic results were more cause for concern
than celebration, however. Ship strikes are the
leading known cause of death in fin whales, and these
whales swim close to the surface and come up to
breathe regularly while migrating. The confirmation
of the Lampedusa area as an important feeding
ground is also of concern due to the “exponential
growth of fishing effort” in the region, according to
the report Panigada and his colleagues submitted to
the International Whaling Commission.
Fin whales are classified as endangered worldwide.
Commercial whaling has never targeted the
Mediterranean fin-whale population, but ship
strikes, fishery interactions, chemical pollution,
sound pollution and disturbance by whale-
watching operations are all significant threats. The
Mediterranean fin whales constitute a genetically
distinct subpopulation that has been isolated from
the North Atlantic population for 200,000 years. The
Mediterranean whales rarely leave the Mediterranean
except for short forays into the Atlantic just beyond
the Strait of Gibraltar. Researchers can distinguish
Mediterranean and Atlantic whales by the unique
characteristics of their calls.
After a long campaign by the Tethys Research
Institute, Italy, France and Monaco created the
Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine
Mammals in 2002, making it the world’s first
marine protected area (MPA) that is international
and the first that is mostly in pelagic waters. The
sanctuary covers almost 34,000 square miles,
stretching from just offshore of the French and
Italian Riviera almost to the northern coast of
From top:
Viridiana
Jimenez-Moratalla Pelhate
of the Tethys Research
Institute and Capt.
Roberto Raineri of the R/V
Pelagos
prepare to deploy
a plankton sampling net
in the Pelagos Sanctuary.
Krill are the primary
food for fin whales. A
giant devil ray performs
an aerial maneuver in
the Pelagos Sanctuary.
Longfin pilot whales swim
in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Nino Pierantonio of the
Tethys Research Institute
studies acoustic data from
a towed hydrophone array
aboard the R/V
Pelagos
during a research cruise.
DOUG PERRINE
SIMONE PANIGADA / TETHYS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
ALESSIA SCUDERI / TETHYS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
DOUG PERRINE
DOUG PERRINE