NOAA Technical Report NMFS 151 A Technical Report of the Fishery Bulletin Cetaceans of Venezuela: Their Distribution and Conservation Status Aldemaro Romero A. Ignacio Agudo Steven M. Green Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara January 2001 U.S. Department of Commerce Seattle, Washington 1 Abstract.–Sighting, stranding, and cap Cetaceans of Venezuela: Their Distribution and ture records of whales and dolphins for Venezuela were assembled and analyzed Conservation Status to document the Venezuelan cetacean fauna and its distribution in the eastern Caribbean. An attempt was made to con Aldemaro Romero firm species identification for each of the Macalester College records, yielding 443 that encompass 21 Environmental Studies Program and Department of Biology species of cetaceans now confirmed to 1600 Grand Ave. occur in Venezuelan marine, estuarine, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105-1899 and freshwater habitats. For each species, E-mail address:
[email protected] we report its global and local distribu tion, conservation status and threats, and the common names used, along with our A. Ignacio Agudo proposal for a Spanish common name. Fundacetacea, Fundación Sudamericana Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera edeni) is the “Saida Josefina Blondell de Agudo” most commonly reported mysticete. The para la Conservación de Mamíferos Acuáticos long-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus P. O. Box 010, 88010-970 capensis) is the most frequent of the odon Florianópolis, Santa Catarina-SC, Brazil tocetes in marine waters. The boto or tonina (Inia geoffrensis) was found to be ubiquitous in the Orinoco watershed. The Steven M. Green distribution of marine records is consis Department of Biology tent with the pattern of productivity of University of Miami Venezuelan marine waters, i.e., a concen P.O.