Scientists Wanted to Know How Many Squid Pilot Whales Eat Each Day. What They Found Was Astounding

Here are some important life tips: Don’t try to challenge the short-finned pilot whale (globicephala macrorynchus) In a squid eating competition. Research today shows that these marine mammals can pack hundreds of live calamari per day.

For the first time ever, a large international team of researchers has measured the diet of short-finned pilot whales that live in waters near Hawaii. They found that a single whale can eat up to 200 squid a day, while whales in the region may collectively eat about 416 million squid a year. Researchers say that despite the huge numbers, local squid populations are doing well, as are the whales that feed on them.

“Fortunately for us and for pilot whales, squid reproduce quickly and have high growth rates, which means pilot whales seem to have found a reliable food source, at least for now,” study lead author William Goff, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii in the Marine Mammal Research Program at Mānoa, told Gizmodo.

Data is incomplete

Gough and his team weren’t really trying to solve the diet of these whales, at least not initially.

They initially hoped to learn more about false killer whales (Pseudomonas crassidens) in the region. But identifying these animals – which are actually a type of dolphin – proved much more difficult than they expected. During their fruitless attempts to track down false killer whales, they kept running into large groups of pilot whales offshore. These encounters eventually gave them the idea to conduct a new study, aimed at filling in the gaps in what we know about these whales.

“We did some digging, and as it turns out, the Hawaiian population of short-finned pilot whales is considered ‘data deficient’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature,” Goff said. “So any additional data on their movements or behavior could greatly benefit conservation and management efforts for this species in Hawaiian waters.”

Short-finned pilot whales are one of two species of pilot whales (the other is the long-finned pilot whale). They are commonly found in tropical and temperate waters around the world, with about 8,000 whales living near Hawaii. Although their populations are generally strong, they face some man-made threats, such as ship strikes, fishing gear entanglements, and climate change, the latter of which may push them into more northern waters.

The whales live primarily on a steady diet of squid, although their exact calorie needs — and how many squid they need to meet those needs daily — have until now been a mystery.

How much does a pilot whale eat?

To figure out how many calories the short-finned pilot whale was eating, Gough says, the team had to combine data from a variety of sources, including movement data from short-term tags, daily feeding rates from satellite tags, body measurements collected via drones, and sifting through the stomachs of unfortunate whales that ended up stranded on land.

Once the team put all this data together, they estimated that a typical whale would eat between 82 and 202 squid per day. To meet its energy needs, a whale must consume an average of 140 squid per day. Annually, that’s about 74,000 squid per whale. For all the whales in the region, that amounts to about 88,000 tons of squid eaten annually.

The team’s findings were published Thursday in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Diet trackers

This research doesn’t just provide a bit of new trivia to share with your whale-loving friends.

The same methods the team devised to calculate the diet of these whales could also be used for other whales and dolphins, according to Goff. They then plan to study more.

“Over the past 10 to 15 years, researchers have built some really impressive datasets from tags and drones for a variety of whale and dolphin species, so we hope to follow up on this current study using our comparative analytical framework on species ranging in size from porpoises to blue whales,” Gough said.

This all sounds great. I just hope scientists never try to figure out how many wings I eat during an MLB baseball season.