Fishery Bulletin/U S Dept of Commerce National Oceanic
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CETACEANS FROM THE LESSER ANTILLEAN ISLAND OF ST. VINCENT DAVID K. CALDWELL,' MELBA C. CALDWELL,' WARREN F. RATHJEN," AND JOHN R. SULLIVAN' ABSTRACT A preliminary list of cetaceans collected and observed during the course of a fishery for blackfish or pilot whales (Globicephala) in the waters of the Lesser Antillean island of St. Vincent is presented and includes: Megaptera novaeangliae, Steno bredanensis, Tursio]Js truncatus, Grampus griseus, two species of .'itenella to which specific names are not formally applied, Fprtma attenuata, Pseudorca cras .~idens, Globicephala macrorhyncha, Orcinu.~ orca, Physeter catodon, and Ziphius cavirostris. Nearest published records in the western Atlantic are given, as weJl as limited biological notes on some of the species. The taxonomic relationships of the two forms of .'itenella are suggested and both species are illustrated. Landings of pilot whales in the fishery over a period of 9 years are included. There is a small but active fishery for blackfish (1967),' Rathjen and Sullivan (1970), Caldwell or pilot whales (Globicephala) centered around and Caldwell (in press), and others. In brief the village of Barrouallie on the western or lee it is conducted from small open boats launched side of the Lesser Antillean island of St. Vincent. daily from shore and powered primarily by sail While the major direction of this fishery is the and oar (see Rathjen and Sullivan, 1970). One pursuit of blackfish, intensive studies made by motor launch recently has been employed and it the writers independently and cooperatively produces the majority of the catches of the faster over the past several years have shown that a swimming small dolphins. Other motor launch number of other small cetaceans are captured es, both inboard and outboard, are planned as well. The primary purpose of the fishery (Caldwell and Caldwell, in press). The ceta is the production of meat and cooking oil, both ceans are taken both by hand harpoon and by used locally, and the species taken is not espe small gun harpoons fired from a fixed stand on cially important to the fishermen, except that the bow of the boat. the larger animals are the more profitable. We present here a summary of our findings Hence the concentration on blackfish. Anything to date regarding species taken in the fishery. that is seen is pursued except the larger and The records of odontocetes are supported by fast baleen whales. The techniques and history skeletal remains and/or recognizable photo of the blackfish fishery have been discussed by graphs of carcasses or parts of carcasses. Copies Brown (1945, 1947), Hickling (1950), Morice of all of the photographs mentioned below are (1958), Allen (1966),' Morris (1966): Jackson in the Caldwells' files with duplicates of some in those of Rathjen and Sullivan. The skeletal , The Florida State Museum and the Communication material, unless otherwise stated, presently is Sciences Laboratory, University of Florida, Gainesville, being studied by the Caldwells at the Florida Fla. 32.601. • The Communication Sciences Laboratory, University State Museum, Gainesville. The "SV" numbers of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. 32601. associated with records discussed in the text :I National Marine Fisheries Service Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research Base, Woods Hole, Mass. are field numbers in the Caldwells' files. With 0254:l. more collecting and analysis of the results, , Formerly, U.S. Peace Corps, St. Vincent, West In dies; present address: 49 Monroe Street, Lynbrook, N.Y. 1156:3. College, Kingstown, St. Vincent, Unpublished report • Allen, W. O. 1966. The fishing industry in St. Vin (file no. 39), 51 p. cent. St. Vincent Teachers College, Kingstown, St. 'Jackson, L. R. 1967. The bJackfish industry of Vincent, Unpublished report (file no. 50), 42 p. Barrouallie, St. Vincent. St. Vincent Teachers College, • Morris, Eo L. 1966. A brief history of Barrouallie Kingstown, St. Vincent, Unpublished report (file no. 26), from 1719 to present day (1966). St. Vincent Teachers 38 p. Manuscript received JanuJry 1971. FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69. NO.2, 1971. 303 FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69. NO.2 both of which are ongoing, it should be possible Megaptera novaeangliae (BOROWSKI) to say more about some of the St. Vincent faunal HUMPBACK WHALE elements than is appropriate now. Our purpose In early May 1968, an individual of adult here is only to provide an annotated summary size slowly passed close along the lee shore of of the existing records for this island in order St. Vincent in a southward direction. Several to give for the first time a relatively complete of the St. Vincent whalemen, familiar with this list of such a fauna from one specific locality species from seeing it in a nearby humpback in the Antilles and to provide a firmer basis for fishery at Bequia, observed this individual from zoogeographic statements required for ongoing boats but made no effort to harpoon it. The studies in this and other disciplines in the West St. Vincent whalemen tell us that they see a Indies and Caribbean. few individuals of this species each year but that Although there are a number of individual they never try to harpoon one because of the records of cetaceans from the West Indies (in large size of these whales. part summarized by Hershkovitz, 1966), or re A few humpbacks are usually taken each year ports which include as many as three or four (mostly from February to April) in the Bequia species, there are few reports which incl.ude fishery just to the south in the St. Vincent Gren enough of the expected species to give sufficIent adines which utilizes bomb guns in addition to data for evaluating the local cetacean fauna. hand harpoons. Accounts of the latter fishery The best of these are from the northern Antilles were given by Brown (1945), Fenger (1958), (from Cuba by Cuni, 1918, and Aguayo, 1954; Mitchell (1965), and Quashie (1966).' Anearly and from Puerto Rico to Antigua by Erdman, account of New England whaling vessels hunt 1970) . ing humpbacks in the region was included by Studies similar to ours on small cetaceans, but Lindeman (1880), but Clark (1887: pI. 183) for more detailed, have been conducted on the At as early as 1880 included waters near St. Vincent lantic coast of Africa in the vicinity of Senegal on a map showing abandoned humpback whaling and to some lesser degree the Ivory Coast and grounds. These and other reports mention the Cape Verde Islands. The odontocete ceta Megar>tem in St. Vincent and/or nearby waters. cean fauna in those similar latitudes is remark ably similar to that of St. Vincent even though Steno bredanensis (LESSON) the two areas lie some 5000 km apart across the ROUGH-TOOTHED DOLPHIN open sea. This similarity extends even to forms such as Steno and Fercsa that are generally A skull (SV-I-SB) of a specimen of unknown rare in collections. Cadenat and others have size and sex was obtained from the fishery in published a series of reports on their studies the spring of 1969. This is the first record for of the African fauna, but a list of the species this species from St. Vincent and from the Ca found can be had by consulting a combination ribbean. We find no prior and contemporary of two of these (Cadenat, 1949, 1959). The basis for Kellogg's (1940: 69) inclusion of this latter also summarizes much of the other liter species in the Caribbean fauna, nor for the in ature on the cetaceaJJs of the area. Van Bree dication by Hall and Kelson (1959: 819) that and Cadenat (1968) in addition recorded Per>0 its range is continuous in the western Atlantic nocelJhala electra from Senegal. from Virginia to South America. The records closest to St. Vincent in the west ern Atlantic are from off Havana, Cuba (and SPECIES ACCOUNTS thus non-Caribbean) to the north, as S. rostratu!> (see Aguayo, 1954), and from an unstated lo With the exception of a spotted dolphin, we cality off the Brazilian coast to the south (Ham- follow Rice and Scheffer (1968) in our arrange ment of species and in the scientific and/or com , Quashie, I. N. 1966. The whale industry in Requia. St. Vincent Teachers College, Kingstown, St. Vincent, mon names applied to them. Unpublished report (file no. aD), a2 p. 304 CALDWHL ET AL.: CETACEANS OF ST. VINCENT ilton, 1945). S. fuscus Gray, from an un Stenella, SPECIES A-LONG-SNOUTED stated area in Cuban waters, may be this species OR SPINNER DOLPHIN (True, 1889: 27) and if so would represent another Cuban record. However, the unique The Caldwells have color photographs of the type of this latter species, a preserved fetus, head of a specimen of unknown size and sex apparently was lost even in True's time and the taken in the fishery on 17 May 1968. The skull record cannot be substantiated. Presumably the (SV-1-SL) was saved but is split longitudinally previous Caribbean records of this species (see (see TursiojJs account above). above) have been based on this Cuban material. The Caldwells measured three females (177.0 [SV-2-SL], 166.5 [SV-3-SL] and 150.0 [SV-4 SL] cm from tip of upper jaw to fluke notch) Tursiops truncatus (MONTAGU) which were taken on 24 May 1968. They have BOTTLENOSED DOLPHIN black and white photographs (Figure 1) of the The Caldwells have color photographs of the middle-sized animal taken from several angles, head of an immature specimen of unknown size and the skulls of the two largest. and sex taken in the fishery on 17 May 1968. There is confusion in the literature regarding The head was obtained from a market where the systematics of the long-snouted spinning it had been split longitudinally in order to get dolphins of the genus Stenella, and the group to the brains, which are eaten.