CIMA Research Foundation has specialized in the study and monitoring of the Cuvier’s beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), one of the most mysterious species among living marine mammals. The ZIPHIUS project started in 2004, focusing on two main preliminary goals: to describe the preferred habitat of this species and to understand how many of these whales inhabit the Pelagos Sanctuary, identifying possible trends in their abundance.
The Cuvier’s beaked whale belong to the ziphiidae family and is a medium-sized cetacean odontocete, which generally does not exceed 6.5 meters in length and 3.5 tons in weight. Among air-breathing animals, the Cuvier’s beaked whales are the most extreme divers: their dives can last more than 120 minutes reaching deep sea depths, up to 3000 meters, to hunt its favorite preys: the mesopelagic squids. These characteristics make this species difficult to study this species because it seldom remains on the surface for more than a few minutes before resuming a deep dive, giving researchers a little time to gather useful information from the surface.
Ecological information on this species are urgently needed due to the increase of Cuvier’s beaked whale mass strandings which have caused, in the Mediterranean Sea, the death of over one hundred animals during the last 20 years. Mass standings appear to be caused by the use of low active frequency sonar, used during military exercises / activities, and by seismic surveys that use airgun blasting in order to identify hydrocarbon deposits. Cuvier’s beaked whale might identifies these sound emissions, which generally last for several days and propagate for hundreds of kilometres, as a threat and it reacts by escaping. This useless and prolonged escape causes the animal no longer respecting the physiological diving / emerging cycles, with the consequent onset of nitrogen embolisms in the animal body.
CIMA researchers have identified a resident population of about 100 animals inhabiting the Ligurian Sea, which is distributed predominantly where water depth is between 1000 and 2000 meters deep, making this area one of the most important hotspots for this species in the Mediterranean.
Since 2013, CIMA Research Foundation is studying the level of pollution in free-ranging whales – thank to the collaboration with the University of Siena (Italy) – and the gene flow between individuals living in different areas of the Mediterranean Sea, in collaboration with SMRU (St. Andrews, UK) and the Natural History Museum of Denmark (Copenhagen, DK).
Recently, CIMA Research Foundation has started using drones (UAS) to improve photo-identification sampling, individual photogrammetry and to collect with appropriate samplers the “breath” of the whales, in order to monitor their health state.