Feeding ecology of the common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, in southern Brazil: analyzing its prey and the potential overlap with fisheries

Abstract

(Montagu 1821), is of worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions in both coastal and oceanic waters (WELLS; SCOTT, 2009). In the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (SWA), the species occurs from the northern Brazilian coast (SICILIANO et al., 2008) to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (GOODALL et al., 2011).Despite the wide distribution of the species in the SWA, information on the bottlenose dolphin’s feeding habits in this region is relatively sparse. Only a comparatively small number of specimens thus far been analyzed in the few studies published to date, mainly in southeastern Brazil (DI BENEDITTO et al., 2001; GURJAO et al., 2004; SANTOS; HAIMOVICI, 2001, SANTOS et al., 2002; MELO et al., 2010).In the southern most areas of the Brazilian shore, the bottlenose dolphin is commonly sighted very close to the shore, usually within less than 0.5 nm of it, and inside estuaries and river mouths (e.g. SIMOES-LOPES, 1991; DI TULLIO et al., 2015). In some of these estuaries, bottlenose dolphins cooperate with the artisanal fishermen’s fishing activity, mainly during the mullet (