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Scientists Caught This Shy, Portly Whale on Video for the First Time Ever

Beaked whales are notoriously hard to find.

It's so rare to see a beaked whale at sea that many researchers devoting their lives to the study of whales and porpoises have never seen one. But these mysterious beaked whales make up the second largest family of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises).

Of the 22 species of these portly and pointy-nosed creatures, the True's beaked whale is among the rarest. Yet in a miraculous turn of fortune, an international team of scientists from across Europe and the United States has found a potential hotspot of these marine creatures in the North Atlantic—and managed to capture the first ever underwater footage of it in the process. Their findings are published in the journal PeerJ.

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Beaked whales spend almost 92 percent of their lives submerged. They make record setting dives in the deep ocean far offshore—for up to two hours at a time—that reach depths of two miles down. These toothy critters also shy away from boats and ships, adding to their invisibility to humans.

In their study, the researchers made seven live sightings of True's beaked whales around the Azores and Canary Islands off the coast of Portugal and North Africa in the North Atlantic. Previously, True's beaked whales had only been spotted three times. In their first ever video of the whales, a small group of portly True's can be seen gently cruising along in coordination.  The scientists posit that the deep waters surrounding these archipelagos could be a hotspot for future study of these creatures.

Beaked whales. Image: Dylan Walker

Scientists do know that beaked whales are sensitive to human activity. Mass strandings occur after large naval exercises using intense sonar signals and many also fall victim to the most pernicious of ocean pollutants—plastic.

Being able to study them regularly is critical for their conservation.

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