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In the North Atlantic, the waters surrounding the Cape Verde Islands are a "potential hot spot" for cookiecutter shark Isistius spp. interactions with cetaceans. These occurrences were recently identified by the improved efforts of researchers to document cetacean strandings in the Cape Verde archipelago, as well as by the photo identification efforts of live whales and dolphins. The documentation of individual and mass stranding events confirmed that cookiecutter shark interactions with cetaceans in Cape Verde seas are remarkably common.
Based on both stranding and sighting records, recent data on the status and distribution of whales and dolphins in the Cape Verde Islands are presented, including records of four taxa new to the archipelago, viz. Common minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata, Dwarf sperm whale Kogia sima, beaked whale Mesoplodon cf. europaeus and False killer whale Pseudorca crassidens. Distribution elsewhere in the tropical eastern Atlantic and some taxonomic issues are discussed.
During August-September 2014 and 2015, yachtbased surveys were conducted in the Cape Verde archipelago with the main objective of trying to locate humpback whales Megaptera novaeangliae during the late boreal summer (Berrow et al. 2014). Spring breeding humpbacks in Cape Verde waters are known to have their feeding grounds in the high Arctic (e.g. Wenzel et al. 2009). While these animals have generally left the breeding grounds by mid-May, a number of sightings during the summer months (June- August) have raised the possibility that animals from southern stocks may occasionally reach as far north as Cape Verde (Hazevoet et al. 2011).
This note states the number of grounded sperm whales on the French Atlantic coast and more especially on the coast of Vendée between 1900 and 2002.
On 15 May 2013, on the beach near Calheta de Baixo, Maio Island, Cape Verde Islands (15º13ʹ20ʺN, 23º13ʹ12ʺW), the remains of a stranded cetacean were found. The animal had been butchered by local inhabitants and most of the flesh and blubber, as well as the intestines, had been removed, while the tail fluke had been chopped off. However, with the skull still present, it was immediately clear that it concerned a beaked whale Mesoplodon sp. The single pair of teeth (one of which was broken) placed back from the apex in the lower jaw allowed the animal to be identified as a male Gervais' beaked whale M. europaeus (Gervais, 1855).
On 10 February 2012, at 0845 UTC, a mass stranding involving seven (six adults and a juvenile) pygmy killer whales Feresa attenuata Gray, 1874 occurred at Praia de Boa Esperança (16º12’26”N, 22º52’00”W), along the northern coast of Boavista island, Cape Verde Islands. The event was witnessed by a group of kite-surfers, who managed to move three animals (two adults and a juvenile) back to the sea. No re-strandings were noted. At 1330 UTC, staff of the Protected Areas Department visited the site and recorded four specimens (two alive and two dead). At 1700 UTC, only two carcasses were found on the beach, the others apparently having been washed out to sea.