Barlow: Abundance of cetaceans in California waters: ship surveys 



nmi) from shore. Although striped dolphins 

 were known to inhabit this area (Leather- 

 wood et al., 1982), their frequency of occur- 

 rence was much greater than expected. Blue 

 whales were seen primarily in southern Cali- 

 fornia between 92 and 370 km (50-200 nmi) 

 offshore. In previous years, this species was 

 seen commonly in central California between 

 the coast and 92 km (50 nmi) offshore 

 (Calambokidis et al., 1990b). One species was 

 surprising in its absence: short-finned pilot 

 whales, Globicephala macrorhynchus, were 

 previously common in southern California, es- 

 pecially around the Channel Islands in winter 

 (Leatherwood et al., 1982). (Note: one group of 

 pilot whales was seen and photographed by 

 independent researchers between San Fran- 

 cisco and Monterey on 2 November 1991. 6 ) 



Abundance 



Abundance estimates from this study are also 

 in general agreement with previous esti- 



6 Jones, P. A, and I. D. Szczepaniak. 1992. Report on the 

 seabird and marine mammal censuses conducted for the 

 long-term management strategy (LTMS), August 1990 

 through November 1991, for the U.S. Environmental 

 Protection Agency, Region IX, San Francisco. July 1992. 



132" 130' 128' 126' 124' 122" 120' 118" 



Longitude 

 Figure 2 



Locations of on-effort sightings of short-beaked common dolphins 

 (x), long-beaked common dolphins (O), unidentified common dolphins 

 (A), and striped dolphins ( ). Scientific names are given in Table 1. 



