Feeding Resilience of Odontocetes in the aNThropocene

Objective

Deep-diving toothed whales are mega-predators that supposedly shape and maintain healthy marine ecosystems. Human activity is on the rise in these ecosystems due to deep-sea fishing and mining, which can alter the prey landscape of toothed whales and therefore negatively affect their fitness with potential trophic cascades on entire deep-water ecosystems. To address such concerns, models for Population Consequences of Disturbance (PCoD) have been developed linking disturbance to fitness of individual whales and entire populations. While the robustness of these models relies on data of energy budgets from undisturbed individuals, a shortage of related, quantitative measures precludes the effective use of these models and hence the efficient conservation of these predators. Through FRONT, I propose to fill this important knowledge gap by applying an innovative combination of state-of-the-art tagging technology and motion analysis to, for the first time in deep-diving toothed whales, (i) quantify fine-scale feeding behaviour and foraging effort, and (ii) estimate overall energy requirements and hunting costs. As a result, FRONT will generate novel data on baseline energy budgets that are crucial bioenergetic parameters for PCoD models. By informing these models, FRONT will be of direct relevance to the European Union’s (EU) Marine Strategy Framework Directive for maintaining healthy populations of these apex predators through the management of underwater anthropogenic disturbance.