Translation 2783

111.04 240
Porpoises usually snatch their prey, but they have been.
ob•erved to suck fishes - into their Oral cavity from a uistance of up
to 10 cm, '2!hen fed twice a aay in an oceanarium narbour porpoises .
consume 3-5 kg of fish daily (up to 15p of bneir own weight).
Porpoises attain sexual maturity when their booy length is
about 145 cm. In the Black ea mating takes place from july to October.
The young are born after nine or-ten months of gestation, usually
from April to June inclusive.
Their average length at birth is 'about
75 cm, and their weight from 3 to 5 kg; they are s fed for four months
on the mother's milk, which has a fat content of up.to 46. By the
time that the young porpoise changes to an inaeDendent diet it has .
attained a Weight of 25 kg.
The females mate eVery year, or almost
every year, at a time when they are still suckling their young.
In the Bay of rundy region mating is observed from june to .
August; parturition takes .
place in june and July, after from 300 to
330 days of gestation. The . young porpoises measùre 60-90 cm at birth;
they are suckled for about eight months, and stay with the mother
for the next year.
Harbour pori.oises usually swim in small groups of ten or less,
but during the period when they feed on fish shoals they congregate.
in herds of several hundreds. When they dive tney seldom stay under
water for more than two or three minutes.
Numerous cases of stranding have been recorded. .
Their enemies are killer whales and sharks.
Porpoises were hunted in the Black Gea until 1965.
A small
number are tai.z.en by Danish fisherman in the Littlo.Belt. ..uhe largest
specimens (measuring 170-180 cm) weigh from 70 to 90 kg, but the avera,.
age weight of ivrt azovka is about 30 kg. .corpoisc-hunting was begun
as early as the ninth century. The flesh was used for food, .as a
delicacy,'and the oil for illuMination.
Porpoise-hunting has been 'prohibited in trio Black Sea since
1966 it is belioved tnat harbour.porpoiscs are less numerous tnan
common dolphins.
in ṅorm;mdy in 1090.
Yhe first prohibition of porpoi;:e-I:illin.,; 'as ifjsued'
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Common Ilackfish mclaena melacna )
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uommon blacfisn i.;.() far north ie summer ans mi ë,rate into more
southerly waters in autumn.
..chey usually appear in Lne newfounelanu
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