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(a) Map of the Caribbean Sea showing the areas where the cruises took place. Insets: tracks and cetacean sightings in the western and southwestern Caribbean during the (b) Malpelo-1990 , (c) Siben-1988 and Odyssey-1994 , and (d) Malpelo-2008 cruises, respectively. Sighting locations are shown as circles with numbers corresponding to those in Table 1. The limits of the Colombian and Panamanian Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) (source: VLIZ, 2009 12 ; striped lines) and selected bathymetric contours (source:
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... et al. , 2001; Pardo and Palacios, 2006). The common bottlenose dolphin was sighted during all four cruises in small- to medium-sized groups of 2-50 animals. Locations included: near Cartagena, in Panamanian waters near the Colombian border, north of the San Andrés, Providencia and the Cays Archipelago, and off the central Colombian coast. The sightings occurred in depths ranging between 161 and 1241m (Table 1, Figure 1). This species is commonly reported along the Colombian coast in groups of 2-20 individuals (Vidal, 1990; Flórez-González and Capella- Alzueta, 1995; Pardo and Palacios, 2006), and throughout the Caribbean Sea (Grigg and Markowitz, 1997; Kerr et al. , 2005; Romero et al. , 2001). Off the central coast of Venezuela groups average 14.7 and range from 4-30 individuals (Bolaños-Jiménez et al., 2007 13 ). This note documents some of the earliest (as well as more recent) efforts to conduct marine mammal research in the Colombian Caribbean, a region that has not received much attention from the scientific community. The cruises presented here were exploratory in nature and were not designed as surveys for estimating abundance. Except for the Malpelo cruise in 2008, important information such as the time of start and end of the observation periods, the sea state and weather conditions, and the segments of track covered at nighttime was not recorded or is missing. Nevertheless, the sighting data collected during the cruises has proved to be valuable for documenting species occurrence in the western and southwestern portions of the Caribbean, where minimal or no information is available (Ward et al ., 2001). Further, these cruises have provided ...
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... sightings of six odontocete species were collected during the four cruises: Atlantic spotted dolphins ( Stenella frontalis ), pantropical spotted dolphins ( Stenella attenuata ), common bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ), spinner dolphins ( Stenella longirostris ), false killer whales ( Pseudorca crassidens ) and sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) ( Table 1). A medium-sized group (30-40 animals) of spinner dolphins was sighted during the Siben cruise in May 1988 in Panamanian waters. The sighting occurred at a depth of 548m over the continental slope (Table 1, Figure 1). The species is known from several sightings and strandings in the eastern Caribbean around Curaçao, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, the Virgin Banks, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Venezuela (Caldwell et al. , 1971; Erdman et al. , 1973; Taruski and Winn, 1976; Jefferson and Lynn, 1994; Romero et al. , 2001; 2002), but this one is the first record for the southwestern Caribbean. Two sperm whale sightings were made during these cruises: the first one was a group of ten individuals in 441m water near San Andrés Island, during the Malpelo cruise in August 1990, while the second one was a group of eight individuals, including two calves, in Panamanian waters during the Odyssey cruise in April 1994. This group occurred near the Colombian border over a submarine ridge in 1578m waters (Table 1, Figure 1c). A photograph of an animal’s fluke was taken and submitted to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sperm Whale Catalogue (NAMSC, catalogue numbers: WCI-1994-376-14, WCI- 1994-376-15, and WCI-1994-376-16) (Figure 2). Sperm whales were also heard on the Siben ’s hydrophones off Barranquilla, prior to the ship’s arrival to Cartagena. These are the first records of the species in the western and southwestern Caribbean and it is uncertain whether these animals belong to either of the better-known populations of the eastern Caribbean (Gordon et al. , 1998; Gero et al. , 2007) or the Gulf of Mexico (Weller et al. , 2000), or whether they are their own entity (no matches were found with the NAMSC). False killer whales were sighted during the Malpelo cruise in August 1990 close to Serrana Cay, to the northeast of Providencia Island, in 798m water (Table 1, Figure 1). This is the first record of the species for Colombian waters and for the western Caribbean. Three subsequent sightings have been recently reported along the continental coast near Santa Marta and in the Tayrona National Natural Park (Fraija et al. , 2009), and a stranding of a single animal occurred in the nearby Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos in June 2001 (Pardo et al. , 2009). The species is better known from the eastern Caribbean, where it prefers deep waters around oceanic islands (Mignucci-Gianonni, 1998). In the Gulf of Mexico it ...
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... sightings of six odontocete species were collected during the four cruises: Atlantic spotted dolphins ( Stenella frontalis ), pantropical spotted dolphins ( Stenella attenuata ), common bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ), spinner dolphins ( Stenella longirostris ), false killer whales ( Pseudorca crassidens ) and sperm whales ( Physeter macrocephalus ) ( Table 1). A medium-sized group (30-40 animals) of spinner dolphins was sighted during the Siben cruise in May 1988 in Panamanian waters. The sighting occurred at a depth of 548m over the continental slope (Table 1, Figure 1). The species is known from several sightings and strandings in the eastern Caribbean around Curaçao, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, the Virgin Banks, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Venezuela (Caldwell et al. , 1971; Erdman et al. , 1973; Taruski and Winn, 1976; Jefferson and Lynn, 1994; Romero et al. , 2001; 2002), but this one is the first record for the southwestern Caribbean. Two sperm whale sightings were made during these cruises: the first one was a group of ten individuals in 441m water near San Andrés Island, during the Malpelo cruise in August 1990, while the second one was a group of eight individuals, including two calves, in Panamanian waters during the Odyssey cruise in April 1994. This group occurred near the Colombian border over a submarine ridge in 1578m waters (Table 1, Figure 1c). A photograph of an animal’s fluke was taken and submitted to the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sperm Whale Catalogue (NAMSC, catalogue numbers: WCI-1994-376-14, WCI- 1994-376-15, and WCI-1994-376-16) (Figure 2). Sperm whales were also heard on the Siben ’s hydrophones off Barranquilla, prior to the ship’s arrival to Cartagena. These are the first records of the species in the western and southwestern Caribbean and it is uncertain whether these animals belong to either of the better-known populations of the eastern Caribbean (Gordon et al. , 1998; Gero et al. , 2007) or the Gulf of Mexico (Weller et al. , 2000), or whether they are their own entity (no matches were found with the NAMSC). False killer whales were sighted during the Malpelo cruise in August 1990 close to Serrana Cay, to the northeast of Providencia Island, in 798m water (Table 1, Figure 1). This is the first record of the species for Colombian waters and for the western Caribbean. Three subsequent sightings have been recently reported along the continental coast near Santa Marta and in the Tayrona National Natural Park (Fraija et al. , 2009), and a stranding of a single animal occurred in the nearby Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos in June 2001 (Pardo et al. , 2009). The species is better known from the eastern Caribbean, where it prefers deep waters around oceanic islands (Mignucci-Gianonni, 1998). In the Gulf of Mexico it ...
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... recorded mainly in summer, in groups ranging from 1 to 35 animals and in waters ranging in depth from 974 to 1091m (Jefferson, 1996; Mullin et al. , 2004). A medium-sized group (12-17 individuals) of Atlantic spotted dolphins was sighted near Cartagena during the Siben cruise in May 1988. The group occurred over a narrow slope in 1234m waters (Figure 1c). A similarly sized group was sighted aboard R/V Malpelo in August 2008, to the north of Santa Marta, over the continental slope at a depth of 2162m (Table 1, Figure 1b). This is one of the most frequently seen species in the Caribbean Sea (Perrin, 2002), inhabiting shallow coastal waters and the vicinity of oceanic islands ( e.g. Jefferson and Lynn, 1994). It is also common throughout the continental coast of Colombia, often found in groups of 1-30 individuals (Pardo and Palacios, 2006). A large group (300-400 animals) of pantropical spotted dolphins was sighted during the Malpelo cruise in August 1990 in oceanic waters of the western Caribbean, within the Colombia-Jamaica Joint Regime. The depth of this sighting (2283m) was the greatest among all sightings collected during the four cruises (Table 1, Figure 1), and the size of this group is among the largest for the Caribbean Sea, since the average is around 34.8 individuals (Mignucci- Giannoni et al. , 2003). Although there are only four previous records of the species for the Colombian Caribbean (Vidal, 1990; Jefferson and Lynn, 1994; Pardo and Palacios, 2006), it has been reported both in the eastern and western Caribbean (Jefferson and Lynn, 1994). In coastal waters off Venezuela and Colombia the groups are small (2-3 ...
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... En la primera región se ha generado información por más de 30 años, acerca de la distribución, estimación poblacional, y ecología del movimiento y uso de hábitat y abundancia (Holguín et ál., 2005). Así mismo, con el apoyo de la Fundación Omacha, Conservación Internacional, la Corporación Autónoma Regional de los Valles del Sinú y del San Jorge -CVS y el Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, se dio inicio a un programa de liberación de manatíes que se encontraban en semicautiverio en el departamento de Córdoba como parte del Plan de manejo y conservación formulado por la Corporación entre el 2003 y 2004 (CVS & Fundación Omacha, 2004, 2006, 2009 al 2019) y para el 2002, la Corporación Autónoma Regional del Dique -Cardique, formuló el Plan Estratégico de conservación del manatí, actualizado en 2019. En el Magdalena Medio, particularmente en la ciénaga Paredes en Santander, se ha generado información sobre el estado de conservación de los manatíes, y se han adelantado procesos de conservación con las comunidades locales por parte de investigadores de la Fundación Cabildo Verde Sabana de Torres (Arévalo-González et ál., 2014). ...
Trujillo, F., Caicedo, D., Diazgranados, M.C. & I.C. Avila. (2022). Plan de Acción Nacional para la Conservación de los Mamíferos Acuáticos de Colombia 2022-2035. In: Avello-Castiblanco, G.C., González-Delgadillo, A.M., Quintero-Gil, J.A. (Eds.) Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, Bogotá, DC. Colombia. 96p. ISBN: 978-958-5551-82-4.
... Boat-based surveys are an effective way to evaluate the presence of marine mammal species in a region (Mullin & Fulling, 2004), and are useful for baseline estimates of their relative abundance and distribution (Dawson et al., 2004). Sightings of marine mammals obtained during dedicated or opportunistic boat-based surveys at the northern (Roden & Mullin, 2000), western (Pardo et al., 2009), eastern (Gero & Whitehead, 2006), southwestern (Farías-Curtidor et al., 2017) and southeastern (Smultea et al., 2013) Caribbean Sea, suggest marine mammal diversity, abundance, and distribution can vary dramatically throughout the basin. Dedicated monitoring of marine mammals provides data necessary to study the distribution patterns and trends in relative abundance species, and provide relevant baseline data to inform management decisions (e.g. ...
Baseline data on the distribution and occurrence of marine mammals are needed to better understand their role in marine ecosystems and to protect them from the negative impacts of climate change and human activity. Here, we report the results of vessel-based surveys to document marine mammals throughout the territorial waters of Belize in the Western Caribbean Sea. In 2016 and 2017, 543 km of transects (85 h of survey effort) aboard a 14-m catamaran resulted in 17 sightings of four species of marine mammal: inshore and offshore bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus, Atlantic spotted dolphins Stenella frontalis, pantropical spotted dolphins Stenella attenuata, and Antillean manatees Trichechus manatus manatus. Coastal manatees and bottlenose dolphins were found in shallow waters and all other species exclusively in deep waters east of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. These preliminary findings suggest there is a low density of marine mammals in the offshore habitats of Belize. Future studies should employ vessel-based distance sampling techniques and passive acoustic monitoring to reliably track the occurrence of marine mammals in this region and assess their distribution and abundance.
... The pantropical spotted dolphin (S. attenuata) and the spinner dolphin (S. longirostris) are more widely distributed in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans (Jefferson et al., 2008), and appear to have similar patterns of habitat use that favor their presence over deeper waters (Davis et al., 1998(Davis et al., , 2002Baumgartner et al., 2001;do Amaral et al., 2015). Although these three species have been previously reported in the Caribbean Basin (e.g., Caldwell et al., 1971;Mignucci-Giannoni, 1998;Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b;Niño-Torres et al., 2015;Ramos et al., 2016), little is known about their habitat preferences and spatial distribution in coastal or oceanic areas. Hence, it is important to identify areas where these species are likely to be found in order to direct research and improve management measures. ...
... Particularly in Colombia's Caribbean Sea, cetacean research has been limited, with most studies focusing on specific coastal mainland locations, including Santa Marta (Pardo and Palacios, 2006;Fraija et al., 2009;Pardo et al., 2009), Bay of Cispatá (García and Trujillo, 2004), Gulf of Morrosquillo (Palacios et al., 2013b), and La Guajira (Combatt and González, 2007;Palacios et al., 2012;Farías-Curtidor et al., 2017). To date, almost no research effort has been conducted in the remote oceanic region surrounding the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b). ...
... Particularly in Colombia's Caribbean Sea, cetacean research has been limited, with most studies focusing on specific coastal mainland locations, including Santa Marta (Pardo and Palacios, 2006;Fraija et al., 2009;Pardo et al., 2009), Bay of Cispatá (García and Trujillo, 2004), Gulf of Morrosquillo (Palacios et al., 2013b), and La Guajira (Combatt and González, 2007;Palacios et al., 2012;Farías-Curtidor et al., 2017). To date, almost no research effort has been conducted in the remote oceanic region surrounding the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b). Located in this region, the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) is one of the largest marine reserves in the western hemisphere, containing the most extensive open-ocean coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea (Mow et al., 2007;Coralina-Invemar, 2012). ...
Population structure studies play an increasingly integral role in conservation and management of marine mammal species. Genetic markers are commonly used; however, ecological markers (i.e. chemical compounds) are a fairly recent and useful tool to investigate ecological management units. The objective of this study is to investigate the population structure of the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) within its distribution in the Atlantic Ocean using data from stable isotopes of δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N and persistent organic pollutants as ecological markers. Based on previous studies that addressed distribution, morphometric analyses and molecular and ecological markers, we hypothesize that there are several ecological management units within the Atlantic Ocean. Our results confirmed population differentiation previously detected using genetic markers. Additionally, dolphins from the south-eastern coast of Brazil do not show complete ecological segregation from the Caribbean ones, while molecular analyses suggested genetic differentiation between the two regions. In the light of these results, we propose that at least two ecological management units should be considered, east and west of the Atlantic Ocean; however, the presence of one or two management units along the Atlantic coast of Central and South America needs further investigation.
... The pantropical spotted dolphin (S. attenuata) and the spinner dolphin (S. longirostris) are more widely distributed in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans (Jefferson et al., 2008), and appear to have similar patterns of habitat use that favor their presence over deeper waters (Davis et al., 1998(Davis et al., , 2002Baumgartner et al., 2001;do Amaral et al., 2015). Although these three species have been previously reported in the Caribbean Basin (e.g., Caldwell et al., 1971;Mignucci-Giannoni, 1998;Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b;Niño-Torres et al., 2015;Ramos et al., 2016), little is known about their habitat preferences and spatial distribution in coastal or oceanic areas. Hence, it is important to identify areas where these species are likely to be found in order to direct research and improve management measures. ...
... Particularly in Colombia's Caribbean Sea, cetacean research has been limited, with most studies focusing on specific coastal mainland locations, including Santa Marta (Pardo and Palacios, 2006;Fraija et al., 2009;Pardo et al., 2009), Bay of Cispatá (García and Trujillo, 2004), Gulf of Morrosquillo (Palacios et al., 2013b), and La Guajira (Combatt and González, 2007;Palacios et al., 2012;Farías-Curtidor et al., 2017). To date, almost no research effort has been conducted in the remote oceanic region surrounding the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b). ...
... Particularly in Colombia's Caribbean Sea, cetacean research has been limited, with most studies focusing on specific coastal mainland locations, including Santa Marta (Pardo and Palacios, 2006;Fraija et al., 2009;Pardo et al., 2009), Bay of Cispatá (García and Trujillo, 2004), Gulf of Morrosquillo (Palacios et al., 2013b), and La Guajira (Combatt and González, 2007;Palacios et al., 2012;Farías-Curtidor et al., 2017). To date, almost no research effort has been conducted in the remote oceanic region surrounding the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina (Pardo et al., 2009;Palacios et al., 2013b). Located in this region, the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) is one of the largest marine reserves in the western hemisphere, containing the most extensive open-ocean coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea (Mow et al., 2007;Coralina-Invemar, 2012). ...
Dolphins of the genus Stenella occur in pelagic waters of both tropical and warm-temperate oceans. Three species, the Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), the pantropical spotted dolphin (S. attenuata), and the spinner dolphin (S. longirostris) are abundant worldwide, but in the Caribbean Basin they have been poorly studied and information on their distribution patterns is scarce. Specifically, in Colombia’s remote Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) S. attenuata has been reported occasionally, but S. frontalis and S. longirostris have never been recorded before. To address this information gap, an ecological niche modeling approach was used to determine the potential distribution patterns of these three dolphin species in the region. Records of these species for the Caribbean Basin were compiled, including both published and unpublished data. Environmental information, including bathymetry, bathymetric slope, distance to shore, sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, and chlorophyll-a concentration was gathered from public databases (MARSPEC and Bio-ORACLE) in raster format. The maximum entropy algorithm (Maxent) for modeling species’ geographic distributions with presence-only data was used. After filtering the data, 210 records of S. attenuata, 204 of S. frontalis, and 80 of S. longirostris were used to run models. The best configuration for each model was chosen based on the ΔAICc criterion. For all three species, the final ecological niche models returned AUC test values higher than 0.8, indicating satisfactory model performance. The resulting potential distribution maps suggested that areas closest to continental shorelines of the Caribbean Basin and surrounding islands had the highest environmental suitability for all species (>70%). All models reported high environmental suitability for S. attenuata and S. longirostris in the SFBR, mainly in the southernmost part surrounding San Andrés and Providence Archipelago. Assessment of niche overlap from the predictions of species distributions using the similarity statistic and pairwise map overlap indicated that S. frontalis and S. longirostris had niches slightly more similar in comparison to S. attenuata. As this was a first effort to fill a gap in our understanding of the distribution of species in the genus Stenella in the Caribbean Basin, further studies are necessary using both niche modeling and biological/ecological approaches.
... Ocasionalmente en zonas más costeras de los departamentos del Cauca, Valle del Cauca y Chocó, aunque estos registros corresponden principalmente a varamientos (Flórez-González & Capella, 2001a;. En el Caribe se encuentra en aguas oceánicas de la ZEE, aunque ha sido escasamente registrado Pardo et al., 2009). ...
... Algunos datos de avistamientos y varamientos indican la presencia de crías, por lo que podría tratarse de invernantes con reproducción ocasional o migrantes con reproducción. Avistado durante la primavera y verano boreal (Pardo et al., 2009). ...
... The most common purpose for downloading data was research (33.9%) with main disciplines oceanography (22.2%), environmental and biodiversity sciences (7.3%), and political and economic geography (4.2%). A literature review indicated that the maritime boundaries were used to, for example, compare species distribution patterns (Howey-Jordan et al. 2013;Romanov et al. 2013;Barcelo et al. 2013;Damalas and Megalofonou 2012;Croxall et al. 2012;Pardo et al. 2009), for fisheries (Cardinale et al. 2013) and conservation management (Ban et al. 2013;Schiavetti et al. 2013;Punt et al. 2013), and were used as reporting units for the calculation of global marine indices (Halpern et al. 2012). In 2.7% of the cases, data were used for standardization purposes in marine data management. ...
GIS has become an indispensable tool for managing and displaying marine spatial data. However, a unique georeferenced standard of marine place names and boundaries has yet to be established. As such, an online, open-access, standardized, hierarchical list of geographic names, that is, Marine Regions, has been developed, linking each of these names to information and maps of the geographic location. The objectives are to capture all geographic marine names worldwide, including ocean basins, seas, seamounts, sandbanks, ridges, bays, and other marine geographical place names and attributes, and to display univocally the boundaries of marine biogeographic or other managed marine areas in order to facilitate marine data management, marine (geographic) research and the management of marine areas. Marine Regions is freely available at http://www.marineregions.org.
... Similar habitat use has been reported throughout the Caribbean (Mignucci-Giannoni et al., 2003 ). Pantropical spotted dolphins have been documented off Curaçao (LeDuc et al., 1997; Debrot et al., 1998), Colombia (Pardo & Palacios, 2006; Pardo et al., 2009a), and Venezuela (Bolaños-Jiménez et al., 2006; Oviedo, 2007). The adults observed off Aruba had dark ventral spotting and light dorsal spotting, consistent with the offshore populations of this species worldwide (Jefferson et al., 2008). ...
... Spinner dolphin was observed in all seasons, indicating residence in Aruban waters. It is common off Curaçao, Bonaire and Venezuela (Debrot et al., 1998; Romero et al., 2001) but only one sighting has been reported for Colombia (Pardo et al., 2009a). Bottlenose dolphin was observed in all months of the year except June and December. ...
Aruba is one of the most densely populated islands in the Caribbean. However, very little is known about its cetaceans. In 2010 and 2011, a total of 19721 km (1686 h) boat-based surveys over nearshore transects resulted in 117 positively-identified sightings comprising eight species. New records are also added for one of three previously-documented species. Five additional species were documented from strandings or reports by others. This brings the total number of cetacean species identified in Aruban waters to 16, of which nine are authenticated here for the first time. Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis (N = 59) and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) (N = 33) were the most frequently observed species, with sightings of both year-round, followed by spinner dolphin (S. longirostris) and false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens). Additional species recorded are pantropical spotted dolphin (S. attenuata), striped dolphin (S. coeruleoalba), common dolphin (Delphinus capensis), rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis), short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), killer whale (Orcinus orca), Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus), humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), Bryde's/Eden's whale (Balaenoptera brydei/edeni), spermwhale (Physeter macrocephalus) and an unidentified beaked whale (Mesoplodon sp.). All cetaceans were sighted within 22 km of the coast in relatively shallow waters. Sighting rate was low (0.69 cetacean sightings per 100 km). Sightings of calves and neonates indicate that Aruba may be a nursing or breeding area for some species. The presence of several species of cetaceans in Aruba's coastal waters year-round indicates that status and threat assessments are needed to protect them.
... The Siben and Odyssey expeditions Two expeditions to study cetaceans in South American waters were conducted under the joint auspices of the Ocean Alliance (under the former names of Long-term Research Institute and Whale Conservation Institute) and the Interpolar Research Society. The purpose of these expeditions was to study the biology of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and the humpback whale while providing training in cetacean research techniques to local scientists (see also Pardo et al., 2009 ...
Cetacean sighting data collected under various programmes in Colombian Pacific waters were collated with the goal of assessing the distribution and abundance patterns of all species occurring in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Distribution maps are presented for 19 species and one genus based on 603 sightings collected between 1986 and 2008. Ordered by sighting frequency, these species were: humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae); striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba); common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus); pantropical spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata); common dolphin (Delphinus delphis); Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus); sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus); rough-toothed dolphin (Steno bredanensis); short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus); mesoplodont whales (Mesoplodon spp.); Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris); melon-headed whale (Peponocephala electra); false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens); killer whale (Orcinus orca); spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris); dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima); Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni); pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata); minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus). Concentrations of sightings were observed in three geographic areas: (1) the continental shelf (depths <200m) and the contiguous continental slope (200–2,000m); (2) over the Malpelo Ridge, an offshore bathymetric feature and (3) the northeast corner of the EEZ between Golfo de Cupica and the border with Panamá, although we do not rule out that these patterns could be an artefact of non-random effort. In inshore waters, the most frequently seen species were pantropical spotted dolphin, common bottlenose dolphin and humpback whale. For several of the data sets we provide encounter rates as indices of relative abundance, but urge caution in their interpretation because of methodological limitations and because several factors that affect sightability could not be accounted for in these estimates. Our results provide useful information for ongoing regional research and conservation initiatives aimed at determining occurrence, population status and connectivity within adjacent EEZs in the eastern tropical Pacific. Suggested research priorities include conducting dedicated surveys designed for estimating abundance and monitoring trends throughout the EEZ and focused studies in areas of special interest like the continental shelf, the Malpelo Ridge and the vicinity of Cupica and Cabo Marzo. More research is also needed in terms of quantifying the sources and impact of anthropogenic mortality on population size. Studies characterising genetic diversity and stock discreteness in coastal species (pantropical spotted dolphin and common bottlenose dolphin) would help inform local management strategies.
... Considering the region's marked oceanographic seasonality, steep bathymetric relief and complex coastal geomorphology, it is not surprising that a diverse cetacean assemblage including species of oceanic habits occurs close to shore, underscoring the need to conduct further surveys extending to the offshore environments to more completely characterize their populations (e.g. Pardo et al., 2009). ...
... In the Wider Caribbean, the false killer whale has been reported for Cuba, Saint John's in the Virgin Islands, Saint Vincent, Tobago, and Venezuela (Mignucci-Giannoni, 1998;Romero et al., 2001 13 ). In Colombian waters, one sighting had been previously reported near the oceanic archipelago of San Andrés and Providencia (Palacios et al., 1995 14 ;1996 15 ;Pardo et al., 2009b). In addition, a stranded specimen was reported in the Santuario de Fauna y Flora Los Flamencos (11°24'N, 73°07'W), to the northeast of Santa Marta, by Pardo et al. (2009a). ...
Until recently, cetacean presence in the Santa Marta region of the Colombian Caribbean was poorly documented and limited to incidental reports (Cuervo et al., 1986; Prieto- Rodríguez, 1988; Vidal, 1990; Flórez-González and Torres, 19945; Flórez-González and Capella-Alzueta, 1995; Flórez- González et al., 2004). Continued presence and interest by researchers in the area since the early 2000’s has resulted in significant new information, including a better understanding of species occurrence, environmental influences, and human impacts on the local populations (Pardo and Palacios, 2006; Jiménez-Pinedo and Domínguez- García, 2007; Lozano, 2007). With the aim of providing continuity to the study of cetaceans in the region, this study reports on the cetacean community around Santa Marta during the first months of 2007. We evaluate our methods and results in the context of these recent studies and provide recommendations for future research in the region.
