Odontocete sightings collected during offshore cruises in the western and southwestern Caribbean Sea

M A Pardo,S Beltrán-Pedreros,A Mejía-Fajardo,F Trujillo,I Kerr,D M Palacios

doi:10.5597/lajam00135

Abstract

Odontocete sightings collected during offshore cruises in the western and southwestern Caribbean Sea

Highlights

The other two cruises were organized by the Dirección General Marítima de Colombia (DIMAR), through its Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas (CIOH) aboard the 50.9m R/V Malpelo
The CIOH conducts oceanographic surveys in Colombian waters on a regular basis, and for these cruises it invited marine mammal biologists to use the vessel as a platform of opportunity
Fourteen sightings of six odontocete species were collected during the four cruises: Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis), pantropical spotted dolphins (Stenella attenuata), common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris), false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) and sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The other two cruises were organized by the Dirección General Marítima de Colombia (DIMAR), through its Centro de Investigaciones Oceanográficas e Hidrográficas (CIOH) aboard the 50.9m R/V Malpelo. A medium-sized group (30-40 animals) of spinner dolphins was sighted during the Siben cruise in May 1988 in Panamanian waters. This group occurred near the Colombian border over a submarine ridge in 1578m waters (Table 1, Figure 1c).

Results

Conclusion