SHORT-FINNED PILOT WHALE (Globicephala macrorhynchus): Western North Atlantic Stock

STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE The short-finned pilot whale is distributed worldwide in tropical to warm temperate waters (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983). There are two species of pilot whales in the western North Atlantic the Atlantic or long-finned pilot whale, Globicephala melas, and the short-finned pilot whale, G. macrorhynchus. These species are difficult to differentiate at sea; therefore, much of the descriptive material below refers to Globicephala sp. and is identified as such. Sightings of these animals in the U.S. Atlantic EEZ occur in oceanic waters (Mullin and Fulling 2003) and along the continental shelf and continental slope in the northern Gulf of Mexico (Hansen et al. 1996; Mullin and Hoggard 2000; Mullin and Fulling 2003). Information on stock differentiation for the Atlantic population based on morphological, genetic and/or behavioral data is in progress. Pending these results, the western North Atlantic Globicephala sp. population(s) are provisionally being considered a separate stock from the northern Gulf of Mexico stock(s).