GULF OF MEXICO 



547 



earth. It is the one mammal swimming the seas 

 for which the killer whales show some respect. 

 The largest known males attain a length of 65 feet. 

 Females are onlj' about half this size or less. The 

 sperm whale lives largely on giant squid which it 

 seeks out at great depths. One was found en- 

 twined in a broken trans-Pacific cable which had 

 to be raised from a depth of a thousand fathoms. 

 It also feeds on octopuses and fishes. 



There is no dorsal fin. The head is huge and 

 rectangular, but the jaw is long and narrow. 

 Teeth are present only in the lower jaw. The 

 color is almost black above shading to lighter 

 below. It is social in habit and was reported to 

 congregate in schools of hundreds during days of 

 former abundance. 



This whale was the prime prey of the old-time 

 whalers because it is a relatively slow swimmer, 

 does not often sink when killed, and has large 

 amounts of oil, a great part of which is stored 

 in the head. Spermaceti, used in making fine 

 candles, is also found in quantity in this whale. 

 It is also the producer of the somewhat fabulously 

 valuable ambergris, a substance now largely re- 

 placed by synthetic chemicals. Pursuit of this 

 whale was started in the eighteenth ceatury and 

 was at its height during the middle of the nine- 

 teenth. Townsend (1935) plotted the locality of 

 capture of 53,877 whales by 744 vessels on 1,665 

 voyages out of New England ports from 1761 to 

 1920. He had logs of something less than 10 per- 

 cent of the American vessels operating during this 

 time. His data show that between 60 and 100 

 sperm v'lales were taken in the Gulf during this 

 period. The total from all ships must have been 

 closer to a thousand. None were taken in the 

 western Gulf, and the westernmost was a little 

 beyond the mouth of the Mississippi. All cap- 

 tures were made in the months of March to July. 

 A slightly greater number were taken in the Carib- 

 bean Sea. All Caribbean catches were made in 

 March, April, and May, as the whales returned 

 from the south. Townsend's maps indicate strik- 

 ingly, as the whalers well knew, that the sperm 

 whale goes south of the Equator in winter and 

 returns to northern temperate waters in summer, 

 staying mostly between the parallels of 50° N. 

 and S. 



One stranding of a sperm whale on the east 

 Texas coast was reported by Newman (1910). 



Moore (1953) has recorded two strandings on the 

 west Florida coast in 1939. One was a fetal male. 



Family KOGIIDAE. Pygmy Sperm Whales 

 Kogia breviceps (Blainville). Pygmy Sperm Whale 



The pygmy sperm is an uncommonly reported 

 cosmopolitan animal which possibly is often con- 

 fused with larger porpoises and thus thought to 

 be rarer than it actually is. The maximum length 

 is around 13 feet. It is more or less black and 

 has a dorsal fin. Like its larger relative, it has 

 teeth only in the lower jaw and produces sperm- 

 aceti. As far as is known, it lives largely on 

 cuttlefish. Enders (1942) has given a description 

 and listed much of the literature on strandings. 



Moore (1953) reported the stranding of a female 

 9K feet long on the beach of Pinellas County, 

 Florida, in November 1949. It gave birth to a 

 calf 5 feet 4 inches long, weighing 181 pounds. 

 This is the only known record from the Gulf of 

 Mexico. 



Family ZIPHIDAE. Beaked Whales 



The beaked whales are related to sperm whales 

 and produce spermaceti. They have prolonged 

 snouts similar to the dolphins and have only two 

 teeth, both in the lower jaw. They have a dorsal 

 fin. The midpoint of the flukes projects, and 

 there are two grooves along the throat. 



Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier. Goose-beaked Whale 



This is a cosmopolitan animal which attains a 

 length of 20 feet. The color may be black to 

 gray above and sometimes white on the head and 

 back. The two teeth are in the tip of the lower 

 jaw. Moore (1953) has listed strandings in Pasco 

 and Manatee Counties on the Florida Gulf coast 

 and one on the west side of the Keys. 



Other Beaked Whales 



True's beaked whale, Mesoplodon mirum True, 

 is known from the southeastern United States 

 coast and probably enters the Gulf. It reaches 

 a length of 16 feet and is dull black above. The 

 teeth are on the outer tip of the jaw. The Gulf- 

 stream beaked whale, Mesoplodon europaeus (Ger- 

 vais), has been reported from the ocean side of 

 Key Largo in 1935 (Moore 1953). This is very 

 close to the Gulf, and the species is to be expected 

 there. 



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