时隔十一年再现：约70头短鳍领航鲸现身Newport Beach外海，观鲸船拍下鲸群出水画面
11月3日（周二），在位于加利福尼亚州橙县的Newport Beach以西约5英里的太平洋海面上，观鲸船员遇上一群约70头短鳍领航鲸。运营当地观鲸航程的Davey's Locker与Newport Landing表示，这是其船员自2015年以来首次在这一海域遇上领航鲸群。鲸群多次浮出水面换气的画面被船员拍下，11月4日至5日经KTLA、Fox Weather等媒体报道后，在社交平台上扩散。
据KTLA与《橙县纪事报》经观鲸运营方的报道，Newport Coastal Adventure的船长埃丽卡·佩奇（Erica Page）最先发现这群领航鲸。Davey's Locker与Newport Landing的教育经理杰西卡·罗德里格斯（Jessica Rodriguez）在新闻稿中说：「自2015年以来，我们的观鲸船员首次遇上了一群约70头短鳍领航鲸，就在Newport Beach外约5英里处！」该运营方当天的观鲸记录显示，11月3日的6个航次都记录到了领航鲸。船员帕特里克·科因（Patrick Coyne）等人拍摄的画面经Storyful分发后，被多家媒体采用。
据美国国家海洋和大气管理局渔业局（NOAA Fisheries），短鳍领航鲸是两种领航鲸之一，分布于美国东西两岸以及夏威夷、波多黎各和美属维尔京群岛附近海域。它们社会性很强，通常以15至30头、由雌性领头的近亲群体活动，历史上也出现过数百头的大群；该局估计，目前美国西海岸约有800头短鳍领航鲸。这一物种以鱿鱼为主食，头部圆钝，体色为黑色至深灰褐色。
据《橙县纪事报》梳理，短鳍领航鲸过去常在圣卡塔利娜岛（Santa Catalina Island）附近海域出现，冬季聚集数量可达数百头。1982年至1983年的厄尔尼诺事件后，作为其重要食物的当地市场鱿鱼数量锐减，领航鲸也随之大幅减少；这一带上一次记录到领航鲸，还是2014年至2015年的强厄尔尼诺时期。
First Since 2015: Pod of About 70 Short-Finned Pilot Whales Filmed Off Newport Beach
On Tuesday, November 3, whale-watching crews encountered a pod of about 70 short-finned pilot whales in the Pacific about five miles off Newport Beach, in Orange County, California. Davey's Locker and Newport Landing, which run whale-watching trips in the area, said it was the first time since 2015 that their crews had encountered a pilot whale pod in these waters. Video of the whales surfacing repeatedly to breathe, filmed by the crews, spread on social media after KTLA, Fox Weather and other outlets reported the sighting on November 4 and 5.
According to KTLA and the Orange County Register, citing the whale-watching operators, Captain Erica Page of Newport Coastal Adventure was the first to spot the pod. "For the first time since 2015, our whale watching crews encountered a pod of approximately 70 short-finned pilot whales just five miles off Newport Beach!" Jessica Rodriguez, education manager for Davey's Locker and Newport Landing Whale Watching, wrote in a news release. The operator's sightings log for November 3 shows pilot whales recorded on all six of that day's tours. Footage shot by crew members including Patrick Coyne was distributed via Storyful and picked up by multiple outlets.
According to NOAA Fisheries, the short-finned pilot whale is one of two pilot whale species and is found off both the East and West Coasts of the United States, as well as around Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The animals are highly social, typically traveling in female-based pods of 15 to 30 close relatives, though pods of several hundred have been sighted in the past. NOAA Fisheries estimates that about 800 short-finned pilot whales exist on the West Coast today. The species feeds mostly on squid and has a bulbous head and a black to dark grayish-brown body.
Short-finned pilot whales were once regularly observed around Santa Catalina Island, where winter gatherings numbered in the hundreds, according to the Orange County Register. Their numbers declined sharply after the 1982-83 El Niño, when local market squid, an important food source, became scarce. The last time pilot whales were recorded around the Newport Beach area before this week was during the strong El Niño of 2014 and 2015.
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：短鳍领航鲸资料图（Cayambe摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经Wikimedia Commons），非本次在Newport Beach外海拍到的鲸群
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
