William Perrin

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | NOAA · Southwest Fisheries Science Center

The conservation status of small cetaceans has significantly worsened since the 1980s, when the baiji was the only species of small cetacean listed as Endangered by IUCN. Now the baiji is almost certainly extinct and 13 other species, subspecies, or populations (hereafter units-to-conserve or units) of small cetaceans are listed as Critically Endan...

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Sousa plumbea. 2017

This book summarizes and analyzes the biology, ecology, exploitation and management of small cetaceans in Japan. It describes the various types of cetacean fisheries in Japan and their historical development, the life histories and ecologies of the main species involved, and the history and problems of conservation and management. The data show tha...

There are at least two races of spotted dolphin, Stenella attenuata, in the eastern Pacific, based on length, color pattern, and skeletal differences. The coastal form is provisionally called S. attenuata graffmani. The offshore form is distinct from a third, Hawaiian race. Likewise, at least three unnamed races of spinner dolphin, S. longirostris,...

Animals that die or become enfeebled at sea of course may be brought passively to shore by wind and wave action. More intriguing are those cases where marine mammals in distress purposely come ashore. A stranded animal when returned to the water may deliberately strand again. This is very frustrating to those who are trying to “rescue” it. It must...

This chapter discusses the blue whale, a whale belonging to the family Balaenopteridae, which includes the group of cetaceans known as rorquals. On average, Southern Hemisphere blue whales are larger than those in the Northern Hemisphere. The largest recorded were caught off the South Shetlands and South Georgia and were 31.7–32.6 m (104–107 ft) lo...

Marine mammals are not as colorful as birds, fishes, or reptiles, but many have striking and distinctive coloration patterns that are useful in their taxonomy, presumably have function and adaptive value, and can vary individually and with age, sex, geographic region, and even time of the year. The overall color pattern in at least some delphinids...

This chapter discusses the Atlantic spotted dolphin. This sturdy spotted dolphin is found only in the Atlantic and is commonly seen around the “100-fathom curve” along the southeastern and Gulf US coasts, in the Caribbean, and off West Africa. A constant diagnostic external feature of S. frontalis is a spinal blaze sweeping up into the dorsal cape;...

The pantropical spotted dolphin can be identified externally by its long beak sharply demarcated from the melon, slender body, strongly falcate dorsal fin, and (in adults) spots. The newborn calf is unspotted. Dark spots begin to appear ventrally in large juveniles. Near-adult animals and some young adults have large discrete or overlapping spots b...

Until relatively recently, only one species of minke whale was thought to exist; all minke whales were referred to as Balaenoptera acutorostrata. Morphological and genetic evidence of a second species accumulated through the last quarter of the twentieth century, and the Antarctic minke whale, B. bonaerenis, came to be fully recognized in the late...

Although the term “species” is widely used, there is no agreement on exactly what it means beyond the general conception of a basic taxonomic or evolutionary unit. There are a number of species concepts in use for vertebrates. In the biological species concept, a species is a group of interbreeding or potentially interbreeding individuals separated...

This chapter focuses on geographic variation in morphology. When morphological variation and range are discontinuous, i.e., the populations or metapopulations are allopatric and can be diagnosed from one or, more commonly, a few characters, they are usually recognized as species, with the inference that they have diverged irrevocably in their evolu...

This chapter discusses the history of marine mammal research. Yamase (1760) began the science of marine mammalogy in Japan at about the same time as serious studies began in the West. He presented accurate figures and descriptions of the external morphology of six toothed and seven baleen whale species and distinguished them from fishes. His work w...

This chapter describes the Bryde's whale, least known of the large baleen whales. Bryde's whales are medium-sized balaenopterids. They were long confused with sei whales (. Balaenoptera borealis) because of morphological similarities; this confusion lasted into the 1970s. Bryde's whales were first described based on examination of a stranded balaen...

This chapter discusses the characteristics, taxonomy, distribution, abundance, and ecology of California, Galapagos, and Japanese sea lions. These are closely related species that together comprise the genus Zalophus. The three sea lions are now regarded as separate species: Zalophus californianus, Z. wollebaeki, and Z. japonicus, respectively. Pre...

In general, little is known about cetacean abundance and distribution in Southeast Asia. This paper investigates the species composition, interactions/associations, abundance and distribution of cetaceans in an archipelagic tropical habitat characterised by deep, oceanic waters approaching the shore, high water temperatures and deep, stable thermoc...

During a survey in 1999 covering the coastal waters of the northwestern Sulu Sea and Malampaya Sound, Palawan, we sighted several groups of Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). Distribution was restricted to very shallow waters (≤ 15 m) of the inner part of Malampaya Sound. No Irrawaddy dolphin sightings were made in the Sulu Sea. No directe...

The marine mammal fauna of Southeast Asia consists of approximately 30 species, about 1/4 of the world's species, and includes several endemic species or subspecies. Examples of problems of conservation include bycatch in a tuna driftnet fishery, inshore habitat degradation, and depletion of humpback whales in the Philippines; possible disappearanc...

Portions of the cytochrome b gene and control region of the mitochondrial DNA molecule were sequenced to investigate systematic relationships among the six extant species of true porpoises, (Cetacea: Phocoenidae). Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences support a close relationship between Burmeister's porpoise, Phocoena spini...

This volume is based on the symposium and workshop held in La Jolla, California, in 1990. After a report of the workshop and a report to the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development on significant direct and incident catches of small cetaceans, 51 papers on incidental catches, generally of small cetaceans are published. These ar...

A bstract The taxonomy of the spotted dolphins has been confused. Two apparent species exist, one endemic to the Atlantic and the other pantropical. They have sharply different color patterns and non‐overlapping vertebral counts. However, the holotype specimens for most of the names that have been applied to the spotted dolphins (including S. atten...

Small cetaceans vary morphologically sharply over sometimes relatively short distances. Species for which such data are reviewed include Stenella attenuata, S. longirostris, Delphinus delphis and Tursiops truncatus. Two major patterns are variation between animals in enclosed vs. open seas and in offshore waters. A hypothesis of ecological characte...

The c40 revised symposium papers are arranged in session theme: review of cetacean reproduction; problems and new approaches in methodology; case studies of populations; are cetacean reproductive rates density-dependent?; morphology, behaviour and physiology of reproduction. There are also c30 abstracts of papers, and a 24-page workshop report. Mos...

Stenella clymene has not been recognized as a valid species in recent lists of cetaceans. Examination of new material allows the redescription of this valid species. Externally, it closely resembles S. longirostris; cranially, it resembles S. coeruleoalba in shape, but is smaller. S. clymene shares many features with these two species and is probab...

This study is based on data from several thousand specimens of spotted porpoise, Stenelfa attenuata, incidentally killed in the purse seine fishery for yellowfin tuna, Thunnus albacares. Average length at, birth is 82.5 em. Gestation is 11.5 mo. Average length at 1 yr is 138 em. Length-weight equations are given for fetuses and postnatal males and...

Weights of heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and spleen of 68 eastern Pacific spotted porpoise (Stenella graffnzani) and 14 eastern Pacific spinner porpoise (S. cf. S. longirostris) are presented and related to total body weight. Values of Huxley's growth coefficient a are presented. Adult female spotted porpoise have on the average smaller spleens than...