Phocoena dioptrica

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	MAMMALIA	CETARTIODACTYLA	PHOCOENIDAE

Scientific Name:

Phocoena dioptrica

Species Authority:

(Lahille, 1912)

Common Name/s:

English	–	Spectacled Porpoise
French	–	Marsouin De Lahille, Marsouin À Lunettes
Spanish	–	Marsopa De Anteojos

Synonym/s:

Australophocaena dioptrica

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Data Deficient ver 3.1

Year Assessed:

2008

Assessor/s

Hammond, P.S., Bearzi, G., Bjørge, A., Forney, K., Karczmarski, L., Kasuya, T., Perrin, W.F., Scott, M.D., Wang, J.Y., Wells, R.S. & Wilson, B.

Evaluator/s:

Rojas-Bracho, L. & Smith, B.D. (Cetacean Red List Authority)

Justification:
This is a very poorly known species, and there is a lack of information to make an assessment of its extinction risk.

History:

1996	–	Data Deficient (Baillie and Groombridge 1996)
1996	–	Data Deficient (Baillie and Groombridge 1996)
1994	–	Insufficiently Known (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	Previously known primarily from the southern coast of eastern South America, from Uruguay and southern Brazil to Tierra del Fuego, this species is now known from offshore in the southern Hemisphere (Brownell and Clapham 1999). There are records from the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, Macquarie Island, and the Auckland Islands. Although rarely seen at sea (there are only a few dozen live sightings), this information suggests that the spectacled porpoise’s range may be circumpolar in the sub-Antarctic zone (with water temperatures of at least 1-10°C) (Goodall 2002). The southernmost sighting is from 64°34'S.
Countries:	Native: Argentina; Australia (Macquarie Is.); Brazil; Chile; Falkland Islands (Malvinas); French Southern Territories (the) (Kerguelen); Heard Island and McDonald Islands; New Zealand; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Uruguay Presence uncertain: Antarctica
FAO Marine Fishing Areas:	Native: Atlantic – southwest; Atlantic – Antarctic; Indian Ocean – Antarctic; Indian Ocean – eastern; Pacific – southeast; Pacific – southwest
Range Map:	(click map to view full version)

Population [top]

Population:	There are no estimates of abundance.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Spectacled porpoises seem to occur only in cold temperate waters. Although they have been observed or incidentally caught in coastal waters and reported from rivers and channels, their habitat is thought to be primarily oceanic. Where recorded, water temperatures associated with sightings ranged from 5.5°C to 9.5°C (Brownell and Clapham, 1999). Only four stomachs have been examined; the contents included anchovies and stomatopods (mantis shrimp).
Systems:	Marine

Habitat and Ecology:

Spectacled porpoises seem to occur only in cold temperate waters. Although they have been observed or incidentally caught in coastal waters and reported from rivers and channels, their habitat is thought to be primarily oceanic. Where recorded, water temperatures associated with sightings ranged from 5.5°C to 9.5°C (Brownell and Clapham, 1999).

Only four stomachs have been examined; the contents included anchovies and stomatopods (mantis shrimp).

Systems:

Marine

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	Spectacled porpoises may be taken deliberately for crab bait off southern Chile. The effects of these catches on spectacled porpoise subpopulations are not known (Jefferson et al.1993). Like all phocoenoids, spectacled porpoises are caught in gillnets. At least 34 animals were killed incidentally between 1975 and 1990 in coastal gill nets set in Tierra del Fuego, and there was a co-occurrence of strandings and fishing activity in southeastern Chile, suggesting additional undocumented mortality from this source. Some mortality of spectacled porpoises was also reported from bottom and mid-water trawls off the coast of Chubut, Argentina (Brownell and Clapham, 1999).

Major Threat(s):

Spectacled porpoises may be taken deliberately for crab bait off southern Chile. The effects of these catches on spectacled porpoise subpopulations are not known (Jefferson et al.1993).

Like all phocoenoids, spectacled porpoises are caught in gillnets. At least 34 animals were killed incidentally between 1975 and 1990 in coastal gill nets set in Tierra del Fuego, and there was a co-occurrence of strandings and fishing activity in southeastern Chile, suggesting additional undocumented mortality from this source. Some mortality of spectacled porpoises was also reported from bottom and mid-water trawls off the coast of Chubut, Argentina (Brownell and Clapham, 1999).

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	The species is listed in Appendix II of CITES. Estimates of abundance are needed as well as information on direct and incidental takes.

Conservation Actions:

The species is listed in Appendix II of CITES.

Estimates of abundance are needed as well as information on direct and incidental takes.

Citation:	Hammond, P.S., Bearzi, G., Bjørge, A., Forney, K., Karczmarski, L., Kasuya, T., Perrin, W.F., Scott, M.D., Wang, J.Y., Wells, R.S. & Wilson, B. 2008. Phocoena dioptrica. In: IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 03 December 2008.
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