The Finless Porpoise

Dolphins and Porpoises

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The Finless Porpoise, or Neophocaena phocaenoides are also called the Black or Black Finless Porpoise. The can weigh between 30 to 45 kilograms and have a length of 1.4 to 1.65 meters. They have 13 to 22 pairs of teeth that are crown spade-shaped in some in each of their jaws. They are uniformally grey often with bluish tinge, lips and chin are lighter except for a darker 'chin-strap'. They are only black at death. They have a fairly rotund body with a rounded head, no beak, and flippers that are realitivly long with blunt tips. They have no dorsal fin but a ridged back with small tubercles. Finless Porpoises can be found in coastal waters and estuaries of the Indo-Pacific from Iran and Pakistan in the west, throughout the coasts of India, southeast Asia and Indonesia, north to China (including the upper reaches of the Yangtze River) and northern Japan. There is some morphological variations between their populations in the western and eastern locations of their range. Their population size is unknown, except around Japan where it is estimated to be between 1,600 to 4,900.

Andrea Vanessa & Erica @ the Advanced Technologies Academy