The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Dall’s Porpoise

(Phocaenoides dalli), a mammal of the family Phocaenidae. The body is up to 2 m long. The teeth are very small, with up to 24 pairs in the upper jaw and up to 28 pairs in the lower. The coloration of the body is dark, with white sides and abdomen, and the edges of the caudal and dorsal fins are also white; on each side of the body is a large white field, or “wing,” hence its name in Russian of belokrylaia morskaia svin’ia (white-winged sea pig). The animal can move with great speed; it has a sharply enlarged heart and an increased volume of blood, as well as tall keels (upper and lower) on the caudal stem. The Dall’s porpoise lives in the northern half of the Pacific Ocean, to the north of California and Japan, and in the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan, and the Bering Sea. It sometimes visits the Sea of Chukotsk. Its main food is cephalopods and also fish. The animals stay in small groups. They have no commercial significance.

REFERENCE

A. V. IABLOKOV

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References in periodicals archive

Fauna ALLEN'S SWAMP MONKEY, BAIRD'S TAPIR, BRYDE'S WHALE, BURCHELL'S ZEBRA, COMMERSON'S DOLPHIN, COOPER'S HAWK, DALL'S PORPOISE, DARWIN'S FINCH/FROG/ SHEEP, DAVID'S SQUIRREL, DE BRAZZA'S MONKEY, DEMIDOFF'S BUSHBABY, DEVILLE'S TAMARIN, EVERETT'S TREE SHREW, FOWLER'S TOAD, GEOFFROY'S CAT, GOELDI'S MARMOSET, GRANT'S ZEBRA.

SOME MORE POSSESSIONS

Two other species that are present in the vicinity are the Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) and Pacific White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens).

Observation of a super pod of Pacific Harbor Porpoises (Phocoena phocoena vomerina) in the Salish Sea

Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus), Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli), Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) whales, fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), northern right whale dolphins (Lissodelphis borealis) and killer whales (Orcinus orca) were sighted occasionally or during their migrations.

Cetacean ecology for Santa Monica Bay and nearby areas, California, in the context of the newly established MPAs

1959) and two odontocete species: Pacific white-sided dolphins, Lagenorhynchus obliquidens, and Dall's porpoise, Phocoenoides dalli (Fig.

Forty years of winter: cetaceans observed during the southbound migration of gray whales, Eschrichtius robustus, near Granite Canyon, central California

Items 1 and 4 are the major concern for the estimation of perception bias and for line-transect survey analysis, and it is generally assumed that the observer completes items 2 and 3 correctly or indicates uncertainty correctly (e.g., species code "unidentified porpoise" indicates uncertainty between Dall's porpoise [Phocoenoides dalli] and harbor porpoise).

Abundance of harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in three Alaskan regions, corrected for observer errors due to perception bias and species misidentification, and corrected for animals submerged from view

Samples of Dall's porpoise, the most commonly harvested cetacean in Japan, had an average total mercury level of 1.26 ppm, with the highest sample at 2.51 ppm.

Mercury in Japan's whale meat

In past years, viewers have seen a variety of cetaceans, from gray, humpback, fin, sperm and killer whales to other species like Dall's porpoise and Pacific white-sided dolphins.

Kodiak's wondrous whale fest: for seven years, people have gathered in Kodiak to view migrating whales heading to the arctic. (Alaska this Month)

His call comes as animal welfare campaigners plan a demonstration in London in protest at Japanese whalers, who kill some 18,000 Dall's porpoise a year, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency.

Britain pledges to resist commercial whaling

The ship was not diverted if observers felt that group size and species could be determined from the transect line, as was frequently the case of nearby sightings of Dall's porpoise or large baleen whales.

Abundance and population density of cetaceans in the California current ecosystem

After about 30 minutes of sailing toward Haro Strait, we saw the unmistakable sign of a Dall's porpoise: a shiny black dorsal fin.

Gulf Islands idyll

As much as 30 percent of whale meat sold in Japan may in fact be mislabeled dolphin meat originating from Japanese fisheries like those at Futo Bay [Winter '96-97 EIJ] and the Dall's porpoise harpoon fishery on Japan's Sanriku Coast.

IWC debates whaling proposals

The most frequently encountered cetacean was the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae; 834 sightings), followed by Dall's porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli; 521 sightings).

Ecotypic variation and predatory behavior among killer whales (Orcinus orca) off the eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska