Overwintering humpback whales adapt foraging strategies to shallow water environments at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA

Abstract

Some humpback whales from the Northwestern Atlantic population forgo migration to the Caribbean, spending winter months feeding along the U.S. mid‐Atlantic coast. We studied the foraging behavior of these whales at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia during winter from 2017 to 2022. While shipping channels here reach depths of up to 30 m, most of the area is 11–15 m deep. This shallow‐water environment poses physical constraints on classical humpback whale feeding modes. We deployed 20 digital acoustic tags (DTAGs) on humpback whales and identified foraging lunges from accelerometer data, detecting 788 lunges from 10 animals. Tagged whales averaged a single lunge per dive, lunging primarily in a horizontal orientation, with limited maneuvering compared to other study sites. Our results indicate that some elements of humpback whale foraging behavior are conserved across environments, but that the shallow depths in our study area constrain how animals are able to feed. The relatively high lunge rates we observed suggest this area is an important foraging ground. However, foraging in shipping channels increases the risk of ship strikes, which frequently occur in this area.