SHORT-FINNED PILOT WHALE (Globicephala macrorhynchus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Reeves; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.4985; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2005whps-wn.pdf

There are two species of pilot whales in the western North Atlantic: the Atlantic or long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) and the short-finned pilot whale (G. macrorhynchus). These species are difficult to differentiate to the species level at sea; therefore, some of the descriptive material below refers to Globicephala sp. and is identified as such. The species boundary is considered to be in the New Jersey to Cape Hatteras area. Sightings north of this area are likely G. melas. The short-finned pilot whale is distributed worldwide in tropical to warm temperate waters (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983). The northern extent of the range of this species within the U.S. Atlantic Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is generally thought to be Cape Hatteras, North Carolina (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983). Sightings of these animals in U.S. Atlantic EEZ occur in oceanic waters (Mullin and Fulling 2003) and along the continental shelf and continental slope in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Hansen et al. 1996; Mullin and Hoggard 2000; Mullin and Fulling 2003). There is no information on stock differentiation for the Atlantic population. POPULATION SIZE The total number of short-finned pilot whales off the eastern U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast is unknown, although estimates from selected regions of the habitat do exist for select time periods. Sightings were almost exclusively in the continental shelf edge and continental slope areas (Fig. 1). Two estimates were derived from catch data and population models that estimated the abundance of the entire stock. Seasonal estimates are available from selected regions in U.S. waters during spring, summer and autumn