1 Captures of “toninhas ” in Angola during the 20th

• Main Authors: Cristina Brito, Nina Vieira
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Management; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.548.4683; http://www.iwcoffice.co.uk/_documents/sci_com/SC61docs/SC-61-SM18rev.pdf

References to the capture of “toninhas”, a Portuguese word used mainly to name common dolphins, Delphinus delphis (or eventually to name harbor porpoises, Phocoena phocoena and stripped dolphins, Stenella coeruleoalba), are part of the 20th century fishing statistics of Angola. National fishing books from this former Portuguese colony, where consulted in the National Institute of Statistic in Lisbon and data, between 1940 and 1969, were obtained. Information on fish captures is given in tons, total of about 25 tons of “toninhas”. If we consider these animals may weigh between 75 to 150 kg each, we can evaluate the total number of captured individuals as varying between about 320 and 650. Each year there were some variations in the amount of captures, but they were regular all the period. We cannot be completely certain about the captured species, as several small dolphins occur off Angola. It is evident that a fishing effort focused on these cetaceans occurred in the region. This is a small but relevant contribution to the knowledge on captures of small cetaceans in the region, also indicative of their historical occurrences.