Quality, not quantity, important in whale food

Yes and with water quality being affected and so much more disease prevalent due to shark over fishing in some countries.. it’s a scary though how it can all topple down,,.

Lost in Science

During the FV Margiris Abel Tasman supertrawler fiasco, one issue that worried people was the impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems. But recent research suggests that, at least for some whales and dolphins, getting the right food is more important than getting enough food.

This study looked at the diets of 11 species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) in the North Atlantic and found a close correlation with their ‘cost of living’, i.e. those species whose muscles burn more energy tended to seek out higher calorie food (Spitz J, Trites AW, Becquet V, Brind’Amour A, Cherel Y, Galois R & Ridoux V 2012, “Cost of living dictates what whales, dolphins and porpoises eat: the importance of prey quality on predator foraging strategies”, PLoS ONE, vol. 7, no. 11, e50096, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0050096).

This was independent of body size, as some similar species – such as the Common and Striped…

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