To forage effectively, cetaceans must find aggregated prey in the open ocean and coastal seas. Recent studies indicate that whales and dolphins may exploit prey aggregations associated with predictable but ephemeral meso- to fine-scale ocean features,such as upwellings, fronts, and eddies (e.g., Griffin 1999, Biggs et al. 2000, Mendes et al. 2002). For example, Johnston et al. (2005) demonstrated that harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) forage in focal regions of the Bay of Fundy where localized fronts form during flood tides. These results support the hypothesis that odontocete prey can become aggregated in regions of enhanced relative vorticity, making important the identification and prediction of ocean dynamics that create such features.
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