Stranding of four Sowerby's beaked whales (Mesoplodon bidens) in Terceira, Azores

Sowerby's beaked whales are little known members of the beaked whale family (Ziphiidae). Based on data collected from strandings, this species is found in temperate and subarctic waters in the eastern and western North Atlantic. A very rare stranding record, involving four juvenile animals, found dead in the Azores, is here reported.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Beaked whales strandings in El Salvador

This short communication summarizes all the stranding records of beaked whales in El Salvador that could be located or were available, all in the Pacific Ocean and presents first records of Peruvian, Cuvier's and Blainville's beaked whales in El Salvador

First stranding record of a Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris) on the island of Barbuda, Eastern Caribbean

Cuvier's beaked whale is the most cosmopolitan of the beaked whales and is found in all oceans except in the high polar waters. This species is known from over 1800 strandings. In the Caribbean strandings are rare, and we present a first record from Antigua and Barbuda

Stranding and sighting records of Gervais’ beaked whale in Cabo Verde

Gervais’ beaked whale Mesoplodon europaeus (Gervais, 1855) is restricted to the Atlantic Ocean. Although most records are from the North Atlantic, it is probably continuously distributed in deep warm waters around the equator (Mead 1989, Norman & Mead 2001). Its occurrence in West Africa is poorly known, as records are rare. It is classified as Data Deficient (Taylor et al. 2008)

True’s beaked whale (<i>Mesoplodon mirus</i>) in Macaronesia

The True’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon mirus, True 1913) is a poorly known member of the Ziphiidae family. Its distribution in the northern hemisphere is thought to be restricted to the temperate or warm temperate waters of the North Atlantic, while a few stranding records from the southern hemisphere suggest a wider and antitropical distribution, extending to waters from the Atlantic coast of Brazil to South Africa, Mozambique, Australia and the Tasman Sea coast of New Zealand. This paper (i) reports the first molecular confirmation of the occurrence of the True’s beaked whale at the southern limit of its distribution recorded in the northeast Atlantic: the Azores and Canary Islands (macaronesian ecoregion); (ii) describes a new colouration for this species using evidence from a whale with molecular species confirmation; and (iii) contributes to the sparse worldwide database of live sightings, including the first underwater video recording of this species and close images of a calf. Species identification was confirmed in two cases using mitochondrial DNA control region and cytochrome b gene markers: a subadult male True’s beaked whale that stranded in El Hierro, Canary Islands, in November 2012, and a subadult male found floating dead near Faial, the Azores, in July 2004. The whale that stranded in the Canary Islands had a clearly delimited white area on its head, extending posteriorly from the tip of the beak to cover the blowhole dorsally and the gular grooves ventrally. This colouration contrasts with previous descriptions for the species and it may be rare, but it exemplifies the variability of the colouration of True’s beaked whales in the North Atlantic, further confirmed here by live sightings data. The recording of several observations of this species in deep but relatively coastal waters off the Azores and the Canary Islands suggests that these archipelagos may be unique locations to study the behaviour of the enigmatic True’s beaked whale