WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN (Lagenorhynchus albirostris): Western North Atlantic Stock
White-beaked dolphins are the more northerly of the two species of Lagenorhynchus in the Northwest Atlantic (Leatherwood et al. 1976). The species is found from southern New England, north to western and southern Greenland and Davis Straits (Leatherwood et al. 1976, CeTAP 1982). Stock structure is u...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.9239 http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao1995dowb-wn.pdf |
| Summary: | White-beaked dolphins are the more northerly of the two species of Lagenorhynchus in the Northwest Atlantic (Leatherwood et al. 1976). The species is found from southern New England, north to western and southern Greenland and Davis Straits (Leatherwood et al. 1976, CeTAP 1982). Stock structure is unknown. In waters off the northeastern U.S. coast, white-beaked dolphin sightings have been concentrated in the western Gulf of Maine and around Cape Cod (CeTAP 1982). The limited distribution of this northern species in U.S. waters has been attributed to opportunistic feeding (CeTAP 1982); however, white-beaked dolphins may have been more common in the Gulf of Maine before the 1960s. It has been hypothesized to have exchanged habitat with whitesided dolphins, which were once more common offshore (Katona et al. 1993). POPULATION SIZE The total number of white-beaked dolphins in U.S. and Canadian Atlantic waters is unknown. Seasonal abundance estimates are available from an aerial line transect survey program conducted in the continental shelf and continental shelf edge waters between Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and Nova Scotia from 1978 to 1982 (CeTAP 1982). A population estimate of 573 white-beaked dolphins [coefficient of variation (CV) = 0.69] in waters off Cape Cod was based on CeTAP (1982) spring sightings. White-beaked dolphins were not encountered during an August-October 1991 aerial survey in the CeTAP study area, nor were white-beaked dolphins sighted during several fine-scale |
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