Records of Cetacean Strandings in the Northern Territory of Australia

Abstract

Fifty-seven cetacean strandings are here documented for the Northern Territory (NT) coastline. This total includes events discovered in the course of Parks and Wildlife surveys, chance encounters reported by a variety of observers, and records held by various other government agencies and institutions. A total of 35 of these records are identified to species, seven to genus (Globicephala, Balaenoptera), and the remainder can be listed only as 'dolphin' (3), 'beaked whale ' (1) or 'not known' (11). Of 26 species known to occur in Australia's tropical waters only 12 had previously been confirmed for the NT, and two others were provisionally listed on the basis of specimen material requiring further analysis. Strandings reported here include 10 of those 12 species and verify the two previously listed as uncertain (Globicephala macrorhynchus, Kogia simus). The total confirmed list for NT waters (within three nautical miles of the coast) is further expanded to 16 species, now including the melon-headed whale Peponocephala electra (2 strandings) and killer whale Orcitws orca (sighting). A further species, the sei whale Balaenoptera borealis (trawled carcass), can also be added to the Commonwealth waters (within two hundred nautical miles) off the NT coast.