Tabic 1 BotUcnose dolphin strandings from Texas coait January-June, 1986-1990. Mean a 1986-1990; S£. - standard erron 

 upper 95% confidence level (UCL) calculated with t(..ao}jif.4)-2.132. 



Sea and air temperature 



Monthly and annual mean sea surface 

 and air temperatures varied significantly among 

 months (Table 4), among years (Table 5), and 

 among months within years (Tables 6 and 7). 

 The regression slope of stranding against sea 

 surface temperature averaged for the entire 

 Texas coast was significant; however, low 

 correlation coefficients indicated that there was 

 no simple linear relationship between bottlenose 

 dolphin stranding and temperature variables 

 (Table 8). No significant relationships were 

 detected between dolphin stranding and 

 temperature variables for each section treated 

 individually. 



60 



50 



5 40 



30 



20 



10 



JAN 



V77> 1986 

 ES 1987 

 ^1988 

 ^^ 1989 

 ■1 1990 

 I 1 95X C.I 



FEB MAP APR 

 MONTH 



MAY JUN 



Figure 4. Bottlenose dolphin tlrandings on Tescas coast 

 by month, 1986 through 1990. 



Table 4. Monthly mean sea surface temperature (SST °C), air temperature (AIR °C), salinity (SAL °lg^ averaged from three 

 stations on the Texas Gulf Coast for January-June. 1986-1990 and monthly mean bottlenose dolphin strandings from the Texas 

 coast for the years 1986-1990. Values withm a column having the same letter were not tigniflcantly different (SNK test, a = 

 0.05, A = highest value, F « lowest value, N • number of data observations). 



38 



