Images of Rare Gervais’ beaked whales in Dominica waters captured by photographer Patrick Dykstra

Images of Rare Gervais’ beaked whales swimming in Dominica’s waters were captured by photographer/videographer Patrick Dykstra.  Gervais’ beaked whales are easily one of the most elusive mammals to swim through our oceans. Most of the information we have about them comes from studies of corpses that have washed ashore, and that of the first live whale was spotted only 20 years ago.
 
On February 27, photographer and videographer Patrick Dykstra captured what may be the first drone or aerial footage of Gervais’ beaked whales. He was filming about three miles off the west coast of Dominica in the Caribbean Sea. Dykstra and his Picture Adventure Expeditions team accidentally came across the rare beaked whales when they were filming sperm whales for an upcoming production.
 
Autopsies from Gervais’ beaked whale corpses tell us that the animals eat cephalopods, so Dykstra says the whales were probably drawn to squid that the sperm whales in the area were feeding on.
 
Dykstra said "We thought we saw dolphins at first. Gervais' beaked whales are certainly not something you expect to see. There's been less than 10 live sightings anywhere in the world, ever."
 
After taking a closer look at the drone footage, Dykstra and his team saw they had filmed a family, with two males, one female, and a calf. They brought their footage to Polish beaked whale expert Wojtek Bachara and Antonio Mignucci, an oceanographer and founder of the Caribbean Stranding Network Conservation Database, who confirmed the sighting.
 
"Although it's not much, it's a new window in the lives of an incredibly rare species," Dykstra told National Geographic via email.