WOODS HOLE — Scientists have found a reliable gathering place east of Cape Cod for the elusive and little-known True’s beaked whales, following a month’s effort this summer.

“It was huge for us,” Danielle Cholewiak, research ecologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole, said. Cholewiak was chief scientist for the trip east of Georges Bank, on the edge of the continental shelf.

Only a dozen sightings of True’s beaked whale had occurred since 1913 when Smithsonian Institution curator Frederick True first identified and named the species from an animal stranded on a North Carolina beach. But the dedicated study in July 200 miles east of Cape Cod yielded dozens of sightings, acoustic recordings, genetic samples and photographs, Cholewiak said.

The repeated sightings of whales during the trip allowed scientists to begin a tracking database. The whales now named Elvis and Trident are the “founding members” of the North Atlantic True's beaked whale photo identification catalog. With over 300 acoustic detections from a hydrophone towed 24 hours a day across the research area the scientists were able to map out where the animals were living, Cholewiak said. The first-time use on a True’s beaked whale of a suction-cup digital recording tag, for 12 hours, is expected to reveal new information about their movements and acoustic behavior.

“This is a 5- or 6-meter whale that we didn’t know anything about until now,” said Dee Allen, research program officer for the Marine Mammal Commission, who was on the trip. In its oversight role of other federal agencies, the commission wants to make sure that the best available science is used for decision-making. There is great value in new or more information on a species that is little-known, Allen said.

“It shows that it can be done,” Allen said. “We can continue to learn more about beaked whales.”

Cholewiak returned in July to the same area where she and other researchers had seen some True’s beaked whales a year ago on a shorter trip. But as they arrived in the area this summer, Cholewiak said the wind and other weather conditions made it seem as though they might not see the whales, which tend to be inconspicuous in the water. They travel in small groups, have no noticeable blows and are about the size of large dolphins. They also stay underwater a good amount of time, and tend to look alike, Allen said.

But, then the researchers’ luck changed.

“We had an animal that just popped up next to the boat,” Cholewiak said.

That was the break the team needed, she said, to wait out the bad weather for a few more days to really get down to work and study the animals.

Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, New England Aquarium, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, among others, also participated. Also on board was National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Teacher At Sea Michelle Greene, who teaches math at Lamar High School in Lamar, South Carolina.

“It was the biggest classroom that any one person could ever have,” Greene said. During the month onboard, she said she had trouble spotting the beaked whales, but made a breakthrough after a lot of trying to spot the True’s beaked whale that was eventually named Elvis, at her suggestion.

“We found out that Elvis had four or five women whales with him,” Greene said with a laugh. “Right then and there I named him Elvis and his entourage.”

The True’s beaked whale is one of six beaked whales worldwide known to live in the North Atlantic Ocean. Generally, beaked whales deep-dive to forage for food and can hold their breath for 30 minutes or longer. A beaked whale uses an acoustic mechanism similar to bats to understand its surroundings, by making high-frequency clicks and interpreting the echos, according to Cholewiak.

True’s beaked whales are protected under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, and ocean noise is considered a threat to their existence, according to NOAA. There is no population estimate.

In a photo from the research trip, the whale named Elvis shows an important and telling characteristic of the male True’s beaked whale, a tiny tooth prominent at the front of his jaw. A male typically has two teeth in the front. The females have no teeth. Elvis, as evident in the photo, has a winding white scar on his back almost like a sled track that shows how he’s been scraped by another male, Cholewiak said. The True’s species is also known for a particularly pale “melon,” which is a rounded mound in front of their blowhole.

“He was big and beautiful,” Greene, the teacher, said. “He had lots of scars on his back. It’s a social thing that the males do to each other.”

— Follow Mary Ann Bragg on Twitter: @maryannbraggCCT.