STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2003
• Subjects: Caldwell; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.227.7866; http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/nefsc/publications/tm/tm182/pdfs/146.pdf

The Atlantic spotted dolphin is endemic to the Atlantic Ocean in temperate to tropical waters (Perrin et al. 1987, 1994). In the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic spotted dolphins occur primarily from continental shelf waters 10-200 m deep to slope waters <500 m deep (Fulling et al. 2003; Mullin and Fulling, in review). This species has also been reported around oceanic islands and far offshore in other areas (Perrin et al. 1994). Atlantic spotted dolphins were seen in all seasons during GulfCet aerial surveys of the northern Gulf of Mexico from 1992 to 1998 (Hansen et al. 1996; Mullin and Hoggard 2003). It has been suggested that this species may move inshore seasonally during spring, but data supporting this hypothesis are limited (Caldwell and Caldwell 1966; Fritts et al. 1983). In a recent study, Bero (2001) presented strong genetic support for differentiation between Gulf of Mexico and western North Atlantic management stocks using both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. However, this study did not test for further population subdivision with the Gulf of Mexico. Perrin et al. (1994) suggested that island and offshore form of the Atlantic spotted dolphin may be a different stock from those occurring on the continental shelf. However, the Atlantic spotted dolphin has not been sighted in the deep waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (Mullin and Fulling, in review).