WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN (Lagenorhynchus acutus): Western North Atlantic Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Newfoundland; Greenland; Hudson; Payne; Lower Bay; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.8289; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1995dows-wn.pdf

White-sided dolphins are found in temperate and sub-polar waters of the North Atlantic, primarily on continental shelf waters to the 100 m depth contour. The species occurs from central west Greenland to the Chesapeake Bay (about 37EN) and perhaps as far east as 55 o W (Evans 1987). There is no information concerning stock structure within this range. White-sided dolphins are most common in continental shelf waters from Hudson Canyon (approximately 39EN) north through Georges Bank, in the Gulf of Maine to the lower Bay of Fundy. Low numbers of white-sided dolphins occur from Chesapeake Bay to Jeffreys Ledge (off New Hampshire) during winter and early spring (January to April). From May through June, large aggregations are found from Georges Bank to the southwest Gulf of Maine, while some animals have been seen from the southern Grand Banks, along Newfoundland and into the Labrador Sea. From July to December, the distribution of sightings extends from Georges Bank to the lower Bay of Fundy (Payne and Heinemann 1990) and along Nova Scotia all the way along the coasts to the Labrador Sea and west Greenland (Gaskin 1992). Before the 1960's, white-sided dolphins in U.S. waters were usually found offshore on the continental slope. There has been an apparent increase in the number of white-sided dolphins seen on the continental shelf from the 1960's to the present. This shift may be due to an increase in sand lance in continental shelf waters of the Gulf of