Stomach contents of long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas edwardii) mass-stranded on the Argentine Patagonian coast in 2009

Abstract

Pilot whales have a cosmopolitan distribution (Nores & Pérez, 1988). The genus Globicephala includes both the short-finned pilot whale, G. macrorhynchus, which is distributed tropically and subtropically, and long-finned pilot whale, G. melas, which comprises two subspecies with antitropical distribution, mainly in temperate and cold-temperate waters along the continental slope (Olson, 2018). These long-finned pilot whale subspecies are G. melas melas in the North Atlantic Ocean and G. melas edwardii in all Southern oceans between 30°S and the Antarctic Convergence, sometimes to 65°S or farther (Bernard & Reilly, 1999; Kasamatsu & Joyce, 1995). In South America, G. m. edwardii has been sighted or found stranded from southern Brazil to Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands and South Shetland Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and along the Chilean coast (Aguayo-Lobo et al., 1998; Aguiar dos Santos & Haimovici, 2001; Bastida & Rodríguez, 2003; Crespo et al., 1985; Fraga, 1992; Mansilla et al., 2012; Nores & Pérez, 1988; Otley et al., 2008; Piñero & Castello, 1975).