Cuvier's Beaked Whale 



Ziphius cavirosim G. Cuvier, 1825 



Cuvier's beaked whale, the most nearly cosmopolitan of the beaked 

 whales, is widely but sparsely distributed throughout the tropical and 

 temperate oceans of the world. It is the most widely distributed and 

 frequently sighted beaked whale in the northeastern Pacific, although 

 knowledge of its distribution in this area, as elsewhere, is based 

 primarily on stranding records, more than 40 of which exist for the 

 west coast of North America. In the northeastern Pacific in general 

 there are records from the western Aleutians 'winter and summer ) and 

 southern Bering Sea ! mostly spring and summer) south to the equator 

 (year-round). In Southern Calitornia stranded whales have been re- 

 ported from Santa Catalina, San Nicolas and San Clemente islands, 

 and from mainland sites in Pacific Beach, La JoUa, Del Mar, Newport 

 Beach and Malibu. Such stranding records show no clear seasonal or 

 geographic patterns. Neither do the thirty or so sighting records from 

 Southern and Central California, except that most are from pelagic 

 waters and that sightings are rare in continental shelf regions, even 

 where survey effort has been extensive. We have seen Cuvier's beaked 

 whales on both coasts ot San Clemente Island, west of San Nicolas 

 Island and m the San Nicolas Basin in April, June and September, 

 respectively, and others have reported seeing them from near Catalina 

 Island and near Tanner and Cortez Banks. It is our impression from all 

 information available to date that Cuvier's beaked whales are most 

 likely to be encountered near the western boundaries ot the SCB and 

 that they are not likely to be found routinely in any except deep water 

 portions of the CINMS. 



Figure ^o. A Cuvier's beaked v\hale breaching off the northuestcrn B,i|.i 

 coast m April 1975. i Top, photo by S. Lcatherwood. I Though there are onh' 

 a handful of confirmed sightings ol this species in the SCB it appears, from 

 stranding records, to be the most common beaked whale in and near the area. 

 (Right, photo by John E. Law) 



Figure ;i. An approximately 6 m Cuvier's beaked whale stranded at La Jolla on 12 June 1959. (Photo from the C. L. Hubbs collection courtesy of L. Hubbs.J 

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