Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:32:09.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) and other cetaceans in Raja Ampat waters, West Papua

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2010

Philippe Borsa*
Affiliation:
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 227 ‘Biocomplexité des écosystèmes récifaux’, Centre IRD de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
Dharma Arif Nugroho
Affiliation:
Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, Ambon, South Maluku, Indonesia
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: P. Borsa, Institute de Recherche pour le Développement, UR 227 ‘Biocomplexité des écosystèmes récifaux’, Centre IRD Montpellier, 911 avenue, Agropolis, PS2 34032 Montpellier, France email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Cetaceans were surveyed using ship transects across the seas of Raja Ampat (West Papua) in November and December 2007. Sighting effort reached 120 hours, over a total distance of 1561 km. The most common cetacean sighted was the spinner dolphin, Stenella longirostris (~0.238 individuals/km) most frequently in pods of 15–20 individuals, in relatively-shallow to deep waters (82–2310 m). All those spinner dolphins that were positively identified from photographs were of the pelagic form (S. l. longirostris). Other cetaceans sighted were the short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, Risso's dolphin, Grampus griseus, the bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops sp., the false killer whale, Pseudorca crassidens and the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguilar Soto, N., Johnson, M.P., Madsen, P.T., Díaz, F., Domínguez, I., Brito, A. and Tyack, P. (2008) Cheetahs of the deep sea: deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands). Journal of Animal Ecology 77, 936947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baird, R.W. (2009) Risso's dolphin Grampus griseus. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 975976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ballance, L.T., Anderson, R.C, Pitman, R.L., Stafford, K., Shaan, A., Waheed, Z. and Brownell, R.L. Jr (2001) Cetacean sightings around the Republic of the Maldives, April 1998. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 3, 213218.Google Scholar
Barnes, R.H. (1991) Indigeneous whaling and porpoise hunting in Indonesia. In Leatherwood, S. and Donovan, G.P. (eds) Cetaceans and cetacean research in the Indian Ocean Sanctuary, Marine Mammal Technical Report (UNEP, Nairobi) 3, pp. 99106.Google Scholar
Barnes, R.H. (1996) Sea hunters of Indonesia, fishers and weavers of Lamalera. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 467 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branch, T.A., Stafford, K.M., Palacios, D.M., Allison, C., Bannister, J.L., Burton, C.L.K., Cabrera, E., Carlson, C.A., Galletti Vernazzani, B., Gill, P.C., Hucke-Gaete, R., Jenner, K.C.S., Jenner, M.-N.M., Matsuoka, K., Mikhalev, Y.A., Miyashita, T., Morrice, M.G., Nishiwaki, S., Sturrock, V.J., Tormosov, D., Anderson, R.C., Baker, A.N., Best, P.B., Borsa, P., Brownell, R.L.Jr, Childerhouse, S., Findlay, K.P., Gerrodette, T., Ilangakoon, A.D., Jørgensen, M., Kahn, B., Ljungblad, D.K., Maughan, B., McCauley, R.D., McKay, S., Norris, T.F., Oman Whale and Dolphin Research Group, Rankin, S., Samaran, F., Thiele, D., van Waerebeek, K. and Warneke, R.M. (2007) Past and present distribution, densities and movements of blue whales in the Southern Hemisphere and adjacent waters. Mammal Review 37, 160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuvier, G. (1812) Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles, où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs espèces d'animaux que les révolutions du globe paroissent avoir détruites. Tomes I–IV. Paris: Déterville, i–vj + 278 pp.Google Scholar
De Boer, M.N. (2001) A note on cetacean observations in the Indian Ocean Sanctuary and the South China Sea, Mauritius to the Philippines, April 1999. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 2, 197200.Google Scholar
Gray, J.E. (1828) Specilegia zoologica; or original figures and short systematic description of new and unfigured animals. London: Treuettel, Wurtz and Wood.Google Scholar
Gray, J.E. (1846) On the cetaceous animals. In Richardson, J. and Gray, J.E. (eds) The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross, R.N., F.R.S. during the years 1839 to 1843, by authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Volume 1: Mammalia, birds. London: E.W. Janson, pp. 1353.Google Scholar
Hoeksema, B.W. (2007) Delineation of the Indo-Malayan centre of maximum marine biodiversity: the Coral Triangle. In Renema, W. (ed.) Biogeography, time and place: distributions, barriers and islands. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 117178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, C.C. (1998) First account of Bryde's whales Balaenoptera edeni (Anderson, 1878), and of spinner dolphins Stenella longirostris (Gray, 1828), from Komodo Island, Indonesia. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 46, 324.Google Scholar
Kahn, B., James-Kahn, Y. and Pet, J. (2000) Komodo National Park cetacean surveys: a rapid ecological assessment of cetacean diversity abundance and distribution. Indonesian Journal of Coastal and Marine Resources 3, 4159.Google Scholar
Kreb, D. and Budiono, (2005) Cetacean diversity and habitat preferences in tropical waters of East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 53, 149155.Google Scholar
Linnaeus, C. (1758) Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I, editio decima, reformata. Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii, 824 pp.Google Scholar
Mustika, P.L.K., Hutasoit, P., Madusari, C.C., Purnomo, F.S., Setiawan, A., Tjandra, K. and Prabowo, W.E. (2009) Whale strandings in Indonesia, including the first record of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the archipelago. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 57, 199206.Google Scholar
Olson, P.A. (2009) Pilot whales Globicephala melas and G. macrorhynchus. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 847852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owen, R. (1846) A history of British fossil mammals and birds. London: John Van Voorst, i–xlvi + 560 pp.Google Scholar
Perrin, W.F. (2009a) Geographic variation. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 492498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrin, W.F. (2009b) Spinner dolphin Stenella longirostris. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 11001103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrin, W.F., Aquino, M.T., Dolar, M.L.L. and Alava, M.N.R. (2007) External appearance of the dwarf spinner dolphin Stenella longirostris roseiventris. Marine Mammal Science 23, 464467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perrin, W.F., Dolar, M.L.L. and Robineau, D. (1999) Spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) of the western Pacific and southeast Asia: pelagic and shallow-water forms. Marine Mammal Science 15, 10291053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, D.W. (1998) Marine mammals of the world, systematics and distribution. Society for Marine Mammalogy Special Publication 4. Lawrence: Allen Press, 231 pp.Google Scholar
Roberts, C.M., McClean, C.J., Veron, J.E.N., Hawkins, J.P., Allen, G.R., McAllister, D.E., Mittermeier, C.G., Schueler, F.W., Spalding, M., Wells, F., Vynne, C. and Werner, T.B. (2002) Marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities for tropical reefs. Science 295, 12801284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudolph, P., Smeenk, C. and Leatherwood, S. (1997) Preliminary checklist of Cetacea in the Indonesian archipelago and adjacent waters. Zoologische Verhandelingen 312, 148.Google Scholar
Whitehead, H. (2009) Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus. In Perrin, W.F., Würsig, B. and Thewissen, J.G.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of marine mammals. 2nd edition. Amsterdam: Academic Press, pp. 10911097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar