Abstract
The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) requires a thorough assessment of the abundance, distribution, and habitat preferences of a variety of marine species. Small cetacean spatial distribution and abundance were examined in the Pacific waters of Guatemala to provide this information. Boat surveys were conducted for 38 months between January 2008 and June 2012. A total of 64,678 cetaceans in 505 sightings from nine Delphinidae species were recorded. Three species, referred to as common species, accounted for 90% (n= 456) of all sightings. They includedTursiops truncatus(56%,n= 278),Stenella attenuata(29%,n= 143), andStenella longirostris(7%,n= 35). Group size was significantly different among the common species (p< 0.001).S. longirostrishad the largest group size (444 ± 75 dolphins), followed byS. attenuata(28 ± 5 dolphins), andT.truncatus(15 ± 2 dolphins).T. truncatuswas the most common in the study area (0.02 ± 0.002 sightings/km of survey effort), andS. attenuata(0.37 ± 0.16 dolphins/km) andS. longirostris(1.62 ± 0.41 dolphins/km) were the most abundant in the neritic (≤200 m depth) and oceanic zones (≥200 m depth), respectively. The wide-ranging distribution ofT. truncatusoverlapped with the distribution ofS. attenuatain the neritic zone andS. longirostrisin the oceanic zone. Little overlap was observed in the distribution ofS. attenuataandS. longirostris. Most hot spots (∼66%) were in the oceanic zone and no hot spots were near or in the MPAs. Hot spots were identified along the 200 m isobath, the Middle America trench, and the San José Canyon. These could be areas of high productivity where dolphins concentrate to feed. To the north of the San José Canyon, five species of small cetaceans were observed in a stretch of the neritic zone including three MPAs. No other section of this zone had such high diversity. Results need to be taken with caution given the small sample size. Our results suggest that the protection of small cetaceans needs to consider the creation of oceanic MPAs that should be integrated into the existing network.
Highlights
The effective management of wild animal populations depends on a strong foundation of knowledge regarding their distribution and abundance
Three species accounted for 90% (n = 456) of all sightings (Table 2) and were referred to as the common species, which included: T. truncatus (56%, n = 278), S. attenuata (29%, n = 143), and S. longirostris (7%, n = 35)
Those species corresponded to nine out of 13 species of small cetaceans confirmed for the Guatemalan Pacific Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) during the most extensive survey effort conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Southwest Fisheries Science Center surveys (NOAA-SWFSC; Quintana-Rizzo and Gerrodette, 2009)
Summary
The effective management of wild animal populations depends on a strong foundation of knowledge regarding their distribution and abundance. In Guatemala, baseline information on species abundance and distribution is relevant as the government is currently in the process of expanding four existing coastal protected areas to include a marine zone and creating a new area that will include both terrestrial and marine zones in the Pacific Ocean This initiative is part of the 2012–2022 Guatemalan National Strategy for Biological Diversity and Plan of Action that seeks to promote the sustainable use and conservation of at least 10% of local coastal–marine ecosystems (CONAP, 2013). Information at a large scale is available from studies conducted in the 1990s in the eastern tropical Pacific (e.g., Wade and Gerrodette, 1993), which includes Guatemala, and describes species at the regional level (e.g., Reilly and Thayer, 1990; Escorza-Treviño et al, 2005; Chivers et al, 2007) Those studies reported two endemic subspecies of small cetaceans (S. attenuata graffmani and S. longirostris centroamericana) in the region (Dizon et al, 1994). The results represent a vital contribution to marine spatial planning in Guatemala and fill a critical gap in knowledge to ensure that reserve designs are based primarily on the information obtained for species of interest (Hyrenbach et al, 2000)
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