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Comparison of odontocete populations of the Marquesas and Society Islands (French Polynesia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2008

Alexandre Gannier
Alexandre Gannier*
Affiliation:
Groupe de Recherche sur les Cétacés, BP715-06633 Antibes, cedex, France
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Alexandre Gannier, Groupe de Recherche sur les Cétacés, BP715-06633 Antibes, cedex, France email: a_o.gannier@club-internet.fr
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Abstract

Small boat surveys were organized to study cetaceans of the Marquesas (9°S and 140°W) and the Society Islands (17°S and 150°W) in French Polynesia. Prospecting took place from 12–15 m sailboats, between 1996 and 2001 with systematic visual searching. Boats moved according to sea conditions, at a mean speed of 10 km/h. Effective effort of 4856 km in the Marquesas and 10,127 km in the Societies were logged. Relative abundance indices were processed for odontocetes using data obtained with Beaufort 4 or less. In the Marquesas, 153 on-effort sightings were obtained on 10 delphinids species including the spotted dolphin, spinner dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, melon-headed whale and rough-toothed dolphin. In the Societies, 153 sightings of 12 odontocetes included delphinids (spinner, rough-toothed and bottlenose dolphins, short-finned pilot and melon-headed whales, Fraser's dolphin, Risso's dolphin and pygmy killer whale) and two species of beaked whales, the sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale. Relative abundance indices were higher in the Marquesas than in the Societies both inshore (0.93 ind/km2 against 0.36 ind/km2) and offshore (0.28 ind/km2 against 0.14 ind/km2). Differences in remote-sensed primary production were equally important, the Marquesas waters featuring an annual average of 409 mgC.m−2 · day−1 and the Societies of only 171 mgC · m−2 · day−1. The presence of a narrow shelf around the Marquesas also accounted for differences in odontocete populations, in particular the delphinids.

Keywords

surveydistributionodontocetestropical Pacificarchipelagooligotrophytopography
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 89 , Special Issue 5: Cetaceans , August 2009 , pp. 931 - 941
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2008

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