HARBOR PORPOISE (Phocoena phocoena): Gulf of Maine/Bay of Fundy Stock

• Main Authors: Stock Definition, Geographic Range
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Canada; North Atlantic; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.294.9686; http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/sars/ao2002poha-gmeb.pdf

This stock is found in USA and Canadian Atlantic waters. The distribution of harbor porpoises has been documented by sighting surveys, strandings, and takes reported by NMFS observers in the Sea Sampling Program. During summer (July to September), harbor porpoises are concentrated in the northern Gulf of Maine and southern Bay of Fundy region, generally in waters less than 150 m deep (Gaskin 1977; Kraus et al. 1983; Palka 1995a, b), with a few sightings in the upper Bay of Fundy and on the northern edge of Georges Bank (Palka 2000). During fall (October-December) and spring (April-June), harbor porpoises are widely dispersed from New Jersey to Maine, with lower densities farther north and south. They are seen from the coastline to deep waters (> 1800 m; Westgate et al. 1998), although the majority of the population is found over the continental shelf. During winter (January to March), intermediate densities of harbor porpoises can be found in waters off New Jersey to North Carolina, and lower densities are found in waters off New York to New Brunswick, Canada. There does not appear to be a temporally coordinated migration or a specific migratory route to and from the Bay of Fundy region. Though, during the fall, several satellite tagged harbor porpoises did favor the waters around the 92m isobath, which is consistent with observations of high rates of incidental catches in this depth range (Read and Westgate 1997). There were two stranding records from Florida (Smithsonian strandings data base). Gaskin (1984, 1992) proposed that there were four separate populations in the western North Atlantic: