The harbor porpoise, PAofOfni3pAofOfmi i Linnaeus. 1758 ) on the other 

 hand, is a shallow water inhabitant usually restricted to waters less than 

 50 fms and almost always to water less than 100 fms deep. They are a 

 cold temperate/subarctic species whose normal range is well north of 

 Point Conception. Thev have been only rarely reported from south of 

 the point ( strandings in Los Angeles. Santa Barbara and Ventura ). No 

 live harbor porpoises have been reported from south of Morro Bay. 

 With such short distances between the SCB and the southern portions 

 of the species' range, however, it might be speculated that if the 

 population grows and a period of cooling of the ocean occurs in the 

 SCB then harbor porpoises may venture southward, in a reversal of the 

 trend exhibited recently by bottlenose dolphins which have mo\ed 

 north of Point Conception during periods ot warming. At present, 

 however, populations of harbor porpoises are depressed. The species is 

 victimized by gill nets set in the coastal waters for a variety of fishes. In 

 198), alone, an estimated ioo harbor porpoises were killed in such 

 fisheries. With this impact the future of an already small population off 

 California is in jeopardy. 



Figure 46. A harbor porpoise off Seaside, California m 197J (top) and 

 stranded near San Francisco (bottom). This species has never been reported 

 alive in the SCB but is represented here by at least three strandings. (Photo 

 by J. D. Hall, top: and M. Webber, bottom.) 



Rough toothed dolphins. Sleno brtdanimis, have never been seen and 

 positively identified alive in coastal temperate waters. Until recently, 

 one of two existing records from the northeast Pacific Ocean was from 

 Marin County. The other was from the Galapagos; so. the species has 

 been speculated to occur o\'er a broad range of temperate and tropical 

 waters. Although a few more specimens have recently been collected 

 from Central and Northern California these are believed to be extra- 

 limital strays as the growing number of sightings of live animals have 

 been in tropical waters warmer than 25 C. 



FlGUR£ 47. Rough-toothed dolphins have stranded north of the SCB. but 

 this tropical pelagic species 15 not likclv to be seen in the SCB. : Photos from 

 the eastern tropical Pacific by M. Webber (top) and R. L. Pitman.) 



33 



