Lagenorhynchus albirostris

– Lower Risk Least Concern

Taxonomy

Kingdom:

ANIMALIA

Phylum:

CHORDATA

Class:

MAMMALIA

Order:

CETACEA

Family:

DELPHINIDAE

Scientific Name:

Lagenorhynchus albirostris

Species Authority:

(Gray, 1846)

Common Name/s:

English	—	WHITE-BEAKED DOLPHIN
French	—	DAUPHIN À BEC BLANC, LAGÉNORHYNQUE À BEC BLANC DE L'ATLANTIQUE
Spanish	—	DELFÍN DE PICO BLANCO

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

LR/lc ver 2.3 (1994)

Year Assessed:

1996

Annotations:

Needs updating

Assessor/s:

Cetacean Specialist Group

Justification:

Extract from Reeves et al. (2003, pp. 41): "White-beaked Dolphins are endemic to the northern North Atlantic, where they occur mainly on the continental shelf and in semi-enclosed waters, notably the Gulf of St. Lawrence and North Sea (Northridge et al. 1997, Kinze et al. 1997, Reeves et al. 1999). Eastern and western populations are phenotypically distinct (Mikkelsen and Lund 1994). Estimates of abundance for a number of areas indicate that there are at least tens of thousands of these dolphins, with particularly large numbers in the Barents, Norwegian, and North seas (Øien 1996, Hammond et al. 2002). White-beaked Dolphins are hunted for food in Newfoundland and Labrador, but no records are kept of numbers killed, and there has been little effort to assess stocks (but see Alling and Whitehead 1987)."

History:

1994

Insufficiently Known (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range

Countries:

Native:

Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Faroe Islands; France; Germany; Greenland; Iceland; Ireland; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Russian Federation; Sweden; United Kingdom; United States

Vagrant:

Portugal; Spain

FAO Marine Fishing Areas:

Native:

Atlantic-northeast; Atlantic-northwest

Habitat and Ecology

System:

Marine

List of Habitats:

10.1	Marine Oceanic - Epipelagic (0-200m)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Alling, A.K. and Whitehead, H.P. 1987. A preliminary study of the status of White-beaked Dolphins, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, and other small cetaceans off the coast of Labrador. Canadian Field-Naturalist 101: 131–135.

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Hammond, P.S., Berggren, P., Benke, H., Borchers, D.L., Collet, A., Heide-Jørgensen, M.P., Heimlich, S., Hiby, A.R., Leopold, M.F. and Øien, N. 2002. Abundance of harbour porpoise and other cetaceans in the North Sea and adjacent waters. Journal of Applied Ecology 39: 361–376.

Kinze, C.C., Addink, M., Smeenk, C., García Hartmann, M., Richards, H.W., Sonntag, R.P. and Benke, H. 1997. The White-beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris and the White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus) in the North and Baltic seas: review of available information. Report of the International Whaling Commission 47: 675–681.

Mikkelsen, A.M.H. and Lund, A. 1994. Intraspecific variation in the dolphins Lagenorhynchus albirostris and L. acutus (Mammalia: Cetacea) in metrical and non-metrical skull characters, with remarks on occurrence. Journal of Zoology, London 234: 289–299.

Northridge, S., Tasker, M., Webb, A., Camphuysen, K. and Leopold, M. 1997. White-beaked Lagenorhynchus albirostris and Atlantic White-sided Dolphin L. acutus distributions in northwest European and US North Atlantic waters. Report of the International Whaling Commission 47, 797–805.

Reeves, R.R., Smeenk, C., Kinze, C.C., Brownell Jr., R.L. and Lien, J. 1999. White-beaked Dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris (Gray, 1846). In: S.H. Ridgway and R. Harrison (eds) Handbook of Marine Mammals. Volume 6: The Second Book of Dolphins and the Porpoises, pp. 1-30. Academic Press, San Diego.

Reeves, R.R., Smith, B.D., Crespo, E.A. and di Sciara, G.N. (compilers) 2003. Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans. IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Øien, N. 1996. Lagenorhynchus species in Norwegian waters as revealed from incidental observations and recent sighting surveys. International Whaling Commission, Scientific Committee Document SC/48/SM15, Cambridge, UK

Citation:	Cetacean Specialist Group 1996. Lagenorhynchus albirostris. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 08 September 2008.
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