Scientists dedicate countless years exploring mysteries that few ever notice. Near Baja California, their persistence brought results when a group following an unusual sonar sound encountered a live ginkgo-toothed beaked whale. Until that moment, experts had learned about this species by studying dead specimens. After five years of searching the open ocean, spotting a living one surfacing left the team stunned. Amid the excitement, someone grabbed a crossbow and took a shot.
No, they didn’t try to kill it. Let’s get that out of the way before anyone imagines a Moby-Dick reenactment.
The new Marine Mammal Science study details how the discovery ties back to 2020, when researchers recorded an unfamiliar echolocation pulse echoing through the North Pacific. The sound didn’t match any known species, which was enough to hook a small crew of scientists into returning to the same region every year. “Beaked whales are the largest, least-known animals left on the planet,” Oregon State University’s Robert Pitman told Live Science. Coming from someone who has spent decades studying them, that observation reads as both scientific fact and quiet warning: these animals remain shadows in an ocean we barely understand.
Rare Tusked Whale Found Alive for the First Time. Scientists Shot It.
Last June, the shadow finally broke the surface. First a lone whale, then a trio—an adult female, a calf, and a heavily scarred male with tusks worn from underwater fights. Male ginkgo-toothed beaked whales grow a pair of small, leaf-shaped teeth tucked low in their jaw. Pitman explained that the species feeds by suction, so females stay toothless for life while males keep their pair strictly for combat and access to mates.
But spotting them wasn’t enough. Several beaked whale species appear nearly identical, and after chasing the wrong lead for years, the researchers needed proof. When one whale drifted within about 20 meters of the stern, Pitman used a 150-pound crossbow fitted with a punch-tip arrow to take a small biopsy. Study lead author Elizabeth Henderson compared the momentary sting to an ear-piercing gun. Pitman added that cookiecutter sharks, the little terrors that leave round divots on almost every deep-diving creature, remove far more tissue in one bite.
The genetic test delivered a curveball. The team expected Perrin’s beaked whales, a species known only from six stranded animals off Southern California. Instead, the results confirmed ginkgo-toothed beaked whales far outside their known range. “We were all a bit shocked,” Henderson told Live Science. “But we were also thrilled to finally have the mystery solved.”
Three other beaked whale species have still never been seen alive. This discovery gives the team hope that those remaining ghosts might surface one day, too. They plan to keep following unidentified calls across the Pacific, looking for the next species willing to show itself. The ocean still holds plenty of secrets, and sometimes it hands over one in the form of a rare whale and a perfectly legal reason to fire a crossbow.
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