FISHERY BULLETIN; VOL. 69. NO. 



Physeter catodon (LINNAEUS) — 

 SPERM WHALE 



The Caldwells have the prepared lower jaw 

 (SV-l-PCA) and color photographs of the en- 

 tire carcass of a juvenile female (ca. 8 m in total 

 length) taken in the fishery on 23 May 1968. 

 The teeth were just beginning to erupt and their 

 pulp cavities were completely open. Mention 

 of the stump of the left pectoral flipper of this 

 animal, possibly missing as the result of a shark 

 bite, was made by Wood, Caldwell, and Caldwell 

 (1970), and a photograph of the carcass on the 

 beach was included by Caldwell and Caldwell 

 (in press). 



The Caldwells have partial sets of mandibular 

 teeth from two other sperm whales taken in the 

 fishery prior to 1968. In one set (SV-2-PCA) 

 the pulp cavities are fully open, while in the 

 other set (SV-3-PCA), actually smaller teeth, 

 the cavities are fully closed. 



The fishermen's records show the capture of 

 three sperm whales on 19 April 1967, two on 2 

 January 1969, and two on 25 April 1969 (a third 

 was harpooned on this latter occasion but was 

 lost with the boat). Mr. Griffith Arrindell, a 

 leader of the St. Vincent whale fishery, told us 

 that sperm whales are seen most commonly in 

 the region from October to late spring, although 

 some appear to be present year round. 



Jackson (see footnote 7) and Rath j en and Sul- 

 livan (1970) mentioned that sperm whales are 

 sometimes taken in the St. Vincent fishery and 

 the latter writers included a photograph of the 

 head of an 8-m male. Townsend (1935: chart B) 

 showed sperm whales between St. Vincent and 

 Barbados in January and February, Brown 

 (1942) noted that a few sperm whales once were 

 taken off the lee (western) side of Barbados 

 (toward St. Vincent) and Brown (1945) and 

 Fenger (1958: 44) recorded the fact that this 

 species sometimes is taken in the nearby waters 

 of Bequia and other islands of the Grenadines. 

 Clark (1887: pi. 183) showed active sperm 

 whaling grounds, fished by New England whal- 

 ers, all around the southern Lesser Antilles 

 in 1880, and this whaling continued thereon 

 into the first part of the 20th century. 



Ziphius cavirostrh G. CUVIER— GOOSE-BEAKED 

 WHALE OR CUVIER'S BEAKED WHALE 



The Caldwells have color photographs of the 

 head of a female (SV-l-ZC) and somewhat 

 longer views of the carcass of her nearly term 

 fetus calf (SV-2-ZC) of undetermined sex taken 

 in the fishery in late summer 1967. Although 

 it was recently reported from nearby Barbados 

 (Caldwell, Rathjen, and Caldwell, in press), 

 this species has not been reported previously 

 from St. Vincent. 



UNRECORDED 

 BUT EXPECTED SPECIES 



Both the descriptions given us by the whale- 

 men and distributional records from other lo- 

 calities in the region lead us to expect that 

 several additional species eventually will be re- 

 corded from St. Vincent. It is beyond the scope 

 of the present preliminaiy report to discuss 

 these, but a summary of all known records of 

 marine mammals from the West Indies and 

 Caribbean that is in preparation by the Cald- 

 wells suggests that the list from St. Vincent 

 might be expected to include any of several spe- 

 cies of Balaenoptera, Stenella caeruleoalba, Del- 

 phimis, and Mesoplodon. Kogia and Pepono- 

 cephala might also be expected, but the present 

 suggestive evidence is not as strong. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



A number of people at Barrouallie, the prin- 

 cipal and most active whaling ]5ort on St. Vin- 

 cent, have been of tremendous help in our study 

 in providing observations from their own direct 

 experience, access to records of the Barrouallie 

 Fishermen's Cooperative Society, and in the col- 

 lection and shipping of specimens. In this 

 regard Griffith Arrindell has given us unselfish 

 and unswerving assistance desjnte our constant 

 pressure and questions. Conrad Francis and 

 William O'Garro of that town also have given 

 much of their energy. Partial financial sup- 

 liort for certain jihases of the study has come 

 to DKC from the American Philosophical So- 



310 



