When a mysterious beaked whale washed ashore on St. George Island in June 2014, Michelle Ridgway was already on her way there. Ridgway, a marine ecologist with Oceanus Alaska, has spent the past decade traveling to the Pribilof Islands conducting research.<\/p>\n
Now, she\u2019s co-author of a paper<\/a> published Tuesday in the Marine Mammal Science Journal that describes the genetics of a new species of whale found in the North Pacific. That whale found two years ago in Alaska was key to the discovery.<\/p>\n It\u2019s one of only eight known specimens of the new whale species in the world \u2014 five in Alaska, three in Japan. All of them were found dead.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ocean is vast and the depths of the ocean are relatively unexplored, and these deep diving species are virtually unknown,\u201d Ridgway said at her Auke Bay office Friday. \u201cAnd here we have a new species and we\u2019ve never even seen it alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Beaked whales are long and tube-shaped, often measuring more than 20 feet in length. They have beaks, big melon heads, hang out in deep canyons and feed on squid. They can spend an hour and a half underwater and surface for just a few minutes.<\/p>\n There are three common types of beaked whales in Alaska, according to Kate Wynne\u2019s, \u201cGuide to Marine Mammals of Alaska\u201d: Baird\u2019s Beaked Whale, Stejneger\u2019s Beaked Whale and Cuvier\u2019s Beaked Whale.<\/p>\n The 24-foot adult male that washed up on St. George Island most closely resembled the Baird\u2019s, but there were key differences. It was smaller than a Baird\u2019s, the dorsal fin was larger and further forward, its teeth were configured differently and the shape of the melon and beak seemed different than others found in Alaska.<\/p>\n And this whale was black.<\/p>\n \u201cBaird\u2019s is uniformly slate grey,\u201d Ridgway said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s long been a hunch in Japan that this whale was different, but there was no scientific proof.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of its black color, for many decades the Japanese have called them black Baird\u2019s or the raven Baird\u2019s,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The new species is unnamed. Since the discovery was made by a large international team, Ridgway said the naming will be a group effort, but she has two suggestions \u2014 Berardius \u2018beringiae,\u2019 or Beringian beaked whale; and Berardius \u2018baracki,\u2019 or Barack\u2019s beaked whale.<\/p>\n The first name refers to where the Alaska specimens were found. They likely occupied the deep canyon waters off the Bering Land Bridge, which connects Asia and North America \u2014 the regions where the scientists involved live. The second name would be a nod to America\u2019s first black president Barack Obama who, Ridgway said, has advanced bridging communities and ocean conservation.<\/p>\n Vanishing act<\/strong><\/p>\n Like most scientific discoveries, determining this whale was genetically different than others did not happen overnight. Just the process of getting the key tissue samples was a big endeavor.<\/p>\n Residents of St. George Island first spotted the mysterious whale washed ashore on Zapadni Bay June 18, 2014. Community members and students took photos and measurements, but it wasn\u2019t secured.<\/p>\n \u201cThis animal washed in, washed out, washed in, vanished for weeks at a time. We had to do a lot of tracking, searching the island by boat, hiking, and otherwise looking down these renowned cliffs of St. George Island trying to find this whale,\u201d Ridgway said.<\/p>\n Days, weeks, two months passed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought it was gone,\u201d she said. \u201cI was contemplating a dive expedition but it was so rough, I had to dismiss it as a possibility. And then it said, \u2018I am here. Take me if you will.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A team of Japanese birders, while suspended on cliffs, smelled something ripe and notified the whale search team, who hustled out there.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found it unfortunately far from a nice sandy beach, in a really rugged lava boulder beach,\u201d Ridgway described.<\/p>\n By that time the whale had been exposed to rough Bering Sea waves.<\/p>\n \u201cIt appeared that things had been feeding on it and it had had a rough life underwater. Fortunately, the head was still just barely connected by tissue, but had been severed and removed and was lying next to the body.\u201d<\/p>\n The team was able to retrieve the skull and enough tissue to run a DNA analysis. The tissue was sent to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s genetics lab in San Diego and it matched the seven other specimens of the mysterious black beaked whale. They were distinctly unique from other beaked whales analyzed for mitochondrial DNA \u2014 the key in differentiating species.<\/p>\n \u2018Wild deep blue world\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Ridgway said she\u2019s thrilled to be part of the discovery and happy she got to share in the experience with the people of St. George Island. The St. George Traditional Council offered to share the skull with the Smithsonian Institute, where it\u2019s currently housed with two other skulls of the new species.<\/p>\n But Ridgway is a marine ecologist, not a marine mammal biologist. She wants to see this new species alive in its home, not washed up dead.<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t feel I have fully contributed to understanding this creature until I conduct in situ observations of the new Berardius alive, in its natural deep sea habitat,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we learn from dead or captured animals can be informative about their morphology and body condition, and can provide clues to how they make their living. Observing them diving, foraging, rearing young in their wild deep blue world provides tremendous insight on their behavior and role in the vast marine ecosystem we share.\u201d<\/p>\n Remaining a mystery<\/strong><\/p>\n Besides \u201cGuide to Marine Mammals of Alaska,\u201d Kate Wynne has written the \u201cGuide to Marine Mammals and Turtles of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico\u201d and the \u201cGuide to Marine Mammals and Turtles of the U.S. Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n She helped connect Ridgway and her St. George team to beaked whale experts. While a new whale species discovery is exciting, Wynne said it\u2019s not unexpected in the beaked whale world.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re such unique animals and their habitat is so far offshore and in deep canyons, people don\u2019t see them alive,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just know so little about even the animals we see a lot that I guess it\u2019s not terribly surprising there are other species.\u201d<\/p>\n Wynne said it\u2019s too early to add this new species to her field guides, although she hopes to one day. She said there\u2019s still so much unknown about them, like their distribution, what they eat, what they look like alive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see Baird\u2019s Beaked Whales out in Dutch Harbor fairly frequently. But now we might be looking at that a lot more closely and trying to figure out if you can actually see their teeth while they\u2019re swimming or estimate their size and we might be able to figure out it\u2019s the new species,\u201d Wynne said.<\/p>\n She thinks there are more large whales to be discovered.<\/p>\n \u201cBeaked whales are in parts of the ocean that humans don\u2019t go or see them very often. You only get a glimpse of these animals when they\u2019re alive. I\u2019m sure there are more out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Ridgway wants this new discovery to spur others.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully getting the word out about this new one will also encourage people to document when they see something that looks a little different. There are fishermen out there, there are hunters out there, there are ecologists, there are tourists and people that can all be part of this discovery of a new species that we share the world’s ocean with.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n Read more news:<\/strong><\/p>\n 394-year-old Shakespeare volume goes on display in Juneau<\/a><\/p>\n Mix-up over crime bill’s effect stalls drive-by shooter’s sentencing<\/a><\/p>\n Walker signs two bills into law<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a mysterious beaked whale washed ashore on St. George Island in June 2014, Michelle Ridgway was already on her way there. Ridgway, a marine ecologist with Oceanus Alaska, has spent the past decade traveling to the Pribilof Islands conducting research<\/a>. Now, she\u2019s co-author of a paper published Tuesday in the Marine Mammal Science Journal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":16241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-16240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16240"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=16240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}