BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (Tursiops truncatus): Western North Atlantic Coastal Stock STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Indian; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.8979; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1995dobn-wnco.pdf

There are two hematologically and morphologically distinct bottlenose dolphin ecotypes (Duffield et al. 1983; Duffield 1986) which correspond to a shallow, warm water ecotype and a deep, cold water ecotype; both ecotypes have been shown to inhabit waters in the western North Atlantic Ocean (Hersh and Duffield 1990). Bottlenose dolphins which had stranded alive in the western North Atlantic in areas with direct access to deep oceanic waters had hemoglobin profiles matching that of the deep, cold water ecotype (Hersh and Duffield 1990). Hersh and Duffield (1990) also described morphological differences between the deep, cold water ecotype dolphins and dolphins with hematological profiles matching the shallow, warm water ecotype which had stranded in the Indian/Banana River in Florida. Because of their occurrence in shallow, relatively warm waters along the U.S. Atlantic coast and because their morphological characteristics are similar to the shallow, warm water ecotype described by Hersh and Duffield (1990), the Atlantic coastal bottlenose dolphin stock is believed to consist of this ecotype. There are currently insufficient data to allow separation of locally resident bottlenose dolphins (such as those from the Indian/Banana River) from the coastal stock in the western North Atlantic. The structure of the coastal bottlenose dolphin stock in the western North Atlantic is uncertain, but what is known about it suggests that the structure is complex. A