The Dall's Porpoise

Dolphins and Porpoises

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The Dall's Porpoise, or Phocoenoides dalli weighs between 135 and 220 kilograms and is 1.8 to 2.1 meters in length. They have 19 to 29 pairs of small, spade-shaped teeth in each jaw. Dall's tend to be black in coloration with variable white patches on their flanks and belly, and a white tipped dorsal fin and tail flukes. They have a very stout body, with a small head and no defined beak. They have small pointed flippers, and pronounced keel on their tail-stock. They have a fairly triangular dorsal fin which is often largly white, with a hooked tip. There are four recognized subspecies of Dall's Porpoise. Their color patterns range from being all black, another striped, and one with white lateral patch below and posterior of their dorsal fin. The Dall's Porpoise is a fast mover that generates a trail of spray behind the dorsal fin. They are found confined to the coastal or deep waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea northwards from southern Japan in the west and southern California in the east. They spend at least part of the summer as far north as the Pribilof Islands. Their population size is estimated by strip transect to be between 0.79 and 1.738 million, particularly common in the Sea of Okhotsk and the southern Bering Sea.

Andrea Vanessa & Erica @ the Advanced Technologies Academy