Common dolphins, common in neritic waters off southern Israel, demonstrate uncommon dietary habits. (22nd October 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Common dolphins, common in neritic waters off southern Israel, demonstrate uncommon dietary habits. (22nd October 2019)
- Main Title:
- Common dolphins, common in neritic waters off southern Israel, demonstrate uncommon dietary habits
- Authors:
- Brand, Denna
Edelist, Dor
Goffman, Oz
Hadar, Nir
Scheinin, Aviad
Kerem, Dan - Other Names:
- Pace Daniela S. guestEditor.
Mussi Barbara guestEditor.
Vella Joseph G. guestEditor.
Vella Adriana guestEditor. - Abstract:
- Abstract: During the last decade, the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ) has become the second most sighted species in Israeli coastal waters, after the common bottlenose dolphin. Documentation mostly relies on opportunistic, photo and/or video‐backed second‐party reports, delimited within a 10 km near‐shore strip. Sightings occur year round, are confined to the southern part of the Israeli coast and typically comprise relatively large groups (mean ± SD: 21.5 ± 13.3), often with young calves. Strandings are relatively scarce, typically one per year, and have so far yielded five upper digestive tract contents for diet analysis. Cephalopods comprised 1.2% of the estimated number of prey items in the combined content. Surprisingly, by far the most abundant and prevalent prey item found (57% of pooled prey items; present and dominant in four out of five tracts) was the Balearic eel ( Ariosoma balearicum ), a sand burrower which is also a major dietary component of the common bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins in Israel are known to forage in association with bottom trawlers, leading to the notion that common dolphins also make use of this foraging mode. Indeed, in addition to their association with purse seiners, they have been documented accompanying bottom trawlers, by both day and night. The slender Balearic eels are frequently found protruding from the net's eyes, presumably making easy prey for both dolphin species. Information gaps on common dolphins include rangeAbstract: During the last decade, the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ) has become the second most sighted species in Israeli coastal waters, after the common bottlenose dolphin. Documentation mostly relies on opportunistic, photo and/or video‐backed second‐party reports, delimited within a 10 km near‐shore strip. Sightings occur year round, are confined to the southern part of the Israeli coast and typically comprise relatively large groups (mean ± SD: 21.5 ± 13.3), often with young calves. Strandings are relatively scarce, typically one per year, and have so far yielded five upper digestive tract contents for diet analysis. Cephalopods comprised 1.2% of the estimated number of prey items in the combined content. Surprisingly, by far the most abundant and prevalent prey item found (57% of pooled prey items; present and dominant in four out of five tracts) was the Balearic eel ( Ariosoma balearicum ), a sand burrower which is also a major dietary component of the common bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins in Israel are known to forage in association with bottom trawlers, leading to the notion that common dolphins also make use of this foraging mode. Indeed, in addition to their association with purse seiners, they have been documented accompanying bottom trawlers, by both day and night. The slender Balearic eels are frequently found protruding from the net's eyes, presumably making easy prey for both dolphin species. Information gaps on common dolphins include range extension to the south/south-west, abundance estimation and genetic flow/isolation. Even so, its unusual diet and the fact that the closest known populations to the north/north-west are from the Aegean Sea, were major considerations in the recent designation of the 'Coastal Shelf Waters of the South-east Levantine Sea' as a Mediterranean Important Marine Mammal Area. … (more)
- Is Part Of:
- Aquatic conservation. Volume 31(2021)Supplement 1
- Journal:
- Aquatic conservation
- Issue:
- Volume 31(2021)Supplement 1
- Issue Display:
- Volume 31, Issue 1 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0031-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 15
- Page End:
- 21
- Publication Date:
- 2019-10-22
- Subjects:
- coastal -- distribution -- feeding -- fish -- Levantine Basin -- mammals -- trawling
Aquatic ecology -- Periodicals
Conservation of natural resources -- Periodicals
Aquatic resources -- Periodicals
333.95216 - Journal URLs:
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ ↗
- DOI:
- 10.1002/aqc.3165 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1052-7613
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 1582.371000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 16650.xml