Harbour Porpoise

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Harbour Porpoise

The Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is one of six species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of porpoise

Porpoise

Porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen....
. It is one of the smallest ocean mammals. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries and as such is the most familiar porpoise to whale watchers. This porpoise often ventures up rivers and has been seen hundreds of miles from the sea.

The species is sometimes known as the Common Porpoise in texts originating in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, though this usage appears to be dying out.

Harbor Porpoise is a little smaller than the other porpoises.

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Encyclopedia

The Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is one of six species

Species

Porpoise

United Kingdom

Physical description

The Harbor Porpoise is a little smaller than the other porpoises. It is about 67-85 cm (26-33 in) long at birth. Both sexes grow up to be 1.4 m to 1.9 m (4.6-6.2 ft). The females are correspondingly heavier, with a maximum weight of around 76 kg

Kilogram

The kilogram or kilogrammeThe spelling kilogram is used by the International Committee for Weights and Measures and the U.S....
(167 pounds

Pound (mass)

The pound or pound-mass is a Units of measurement of massused in the Imperial unit, United States customary units and other systems of measurement....
) compared with the males' 61 kg (134 pounds). The body is robust and the animal is at its maximum girth just in front of its triangular dorsal fin

Dorsal fin

A wikt:dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of some fish, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the ichthyosaurs. Its main purpose is to stabilize the animal against rolling and assist in sudden turns....
. The beak is poorly demarcated. The flippers, dorsal fin, tail fin and back are a dark grey. The sides are a slightly speckled lighter grey. The underside is much whiter, though there are usually grey stripes running along the throat from the underside of their body.

Population and distribution

The species is widespread in cooler coastal waters in the Northern Hemisphere, largely in areas with a mean temperature of about 15°C. In the Atlantic, Harbour Porpoises may be present in a concave band of water running from the coast of western Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:...
round to the eastern seaboard of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, including the coasts of Spain

Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea at the geographical centre of the British Isles....
, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
, Iceland

Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland , is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland....
, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
and Newfoundland. In prehistoric times this animal was hunted by the Alby People of the east coast of Oland, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
. There is a similarly-shaped band in the Pacific Ocean running from Sea of Japan

Sea of Japan

The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, bordered by Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Russia. It is referred to in North Korea as the Korea East Sea and in South Korea as the East Sea....
, Vladivostok

Vladivostok

File:vladivostokrussia.jpgVladivostok is Russia's largest port types of inhabited localities in Russia on the Pacific Ocean and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai....
, the Bering Strait

Bering Strait

The Bering Strait is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65? 40' north, slightly south of the polar circle....
, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
and down to Seattle and Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It is the largest city in British Columbia and the second largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest region....
. There are diminishing populations in the Black

Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
and Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53?N to 66?N latitude and from 20?E to 26?E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Denmark islands....
s.

Prey and predators

Harbour Porpoises feed mostly on small fish, particularly herring

Herring

Herring are small, oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific Ocean and the North Atlantic Ocean, including the Baltic Sea....
, capelin

Capelin

The capelin or caplin, Mallotus villosus, is a small fish of the smelt family found in the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf....
, and sprat. The deepest dive recorded was 224 m (735 ft) deep. Young porpoises need to consume about 7% to 8% of their body weight each day in order to survive.

Significant predators of Harbor Porpoises include white shark

Great white shark

The great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, also known as white pointer, white shark, or white death, is an exceptionally large lamniformes shark found in coastal surface waters in all major oceans....
s and orca

Orca

The Killer Whale or Orca , less commonly, Blackfish or Seawolf, is the largest species of the dolphin family. It is found in all the world's oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctica regions to warm, tropical seas....
s. Researchers at the University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen is an ancient university founded in 1495, in Old Aberdeen, Scotland. It is the fifth oldest university in what is now the United Kingdom, and in the wider English-speaking world....
in Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
have also discovered that the local Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins, the genus Tursiops, are the most common and well-known members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins....
s attack and kill Harbour Porpoises without eating them due to competition for a decreasing food supply.

Conservation

Harbor Porpoises were traditionally hunted for food and especially fat used for lighting purposes in Denmark, especially in the Little Belt

Little Belt

The Little Belt is a strait between the Denmark island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula.The belt is about 50Kilometre long and 800Metre to 28km wide, the maximum depth is approximately 75m....
strait. Currently, however, this species is not subject to commercial whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales and dates back to at least 4,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity with early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale "har...
. The global population is in the hundreds of thousands and the Harbor Porpoise is not under threat of widespread extinction. However a key concern is the large number of porpoises caught each year in gill nets and other fishery equipment. This problem has led to a documented decrease in the number of Harbor Porpoises in busy fishing seas such as the Black and Baltic. It is known that the porpoises' echolocation

Animal echolocation

Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several animals such as dolphins, shrews, most bats, and most whales....
is sufficiently discriminating to detect the presence of the nets , but this does not stop porpoises from becoming trapped. Scientists have developed beacons to attach to the nets to try to deter curious porpoises. These are not yet widespread and there is some controversy regarding their use—some concerns have been raised about the value of adding more noise pollution to the seas.

Bibliography

External links

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