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Mediterranean and Black Sea Cetacean Red List Assessment
Globicephala melas
Summary Documentation
Biome
Marine
Major Habitat(s)
Open sea
Geographic Range
Western Mediterranean Sea including Strait of Gibraltar (see ‘Range and Population’ below)
Population
Estimates of abundance are available only for the Strait of Gibraltar (260-270 animals for 1999-2005, see
details under ‘Range and population’) (Verborgh 2005; De Stephanis et al. 2005; Verborgh et al. in press).
Abundance for any other area of the Mediterranean is unknown.
Population structure is unknown. The working assumption is that only a single subpopulation is present in
the Mediterranean.
Very common in the Alborán Sea and adjacent waters (Cañadas and Sagarminaga 2000). Relatively
common to scarce in the rest of the western Mediterranean, but not recorded in the eastern basin. Relative
density unknown for most areas.
Population Trend
?
Detailed Documentation
Range and Population
There are no confirmed records of long-finned pilot whales from the eastern Mediterranean basin
(Marchessaux and Duguy 1978; Frantzis et al. 2003) other than a floating carcase reported from the
Gulf of Taranto off eastern Italy (Centro Studi Cetacei 1998), but a few unconfirmed sightings have been
reported from Turkish waters (A. Oztürk pers. comm.) and other unspecified areas (3 sightings; McBrearty
et al. 1986). The species therefore is considered to occur regularly only in the western Mediterranean Sea.
No information exists about its possible former presence in the eastern basin.
Confirmed records are from: Morocco (rare except in the Straits of Gibraltar; Bayed 1996; Verborgh 2005;
de Stephanis et al. 2005; Verborgh et al. in press), Algeria (scarce; Boutiba 1994), Tunis (rare; Lotfi et al.
1997), Spain (abundant in the Alborán Sea and Gulf of Vera but scarce northwards; Raga and Pantoja
2004; Cañadas et al. 2005), France (scarce; UNEP-RAC/SPA 1998; Gannier 2005) and Italy (regular to
scarce; e.g. Podestá et al. 1997).
Estimates of abundance are available only for the Strait of Gibraltar, where mark-recapture analysis on
well-marked animals gives estimates ranging from 249 to 270 animals (Verborgh 2005; Verborgh et al.
in press; De Stephanis et al. 2005). In the Alborán Sea numbers are possibly several hundred to a few
thousand (maximum number seen together was 350; Cañadas and Sagarminaga 2000) but no estimate
has been attempted yet from the available sightings data. Encounter rates are much higher in the Alborán
Sea than in any other part of the Mediterranean (Cañadas and Sagarminaga 2000). Pilot whales are
increasingly scarce in Spanish waters northwards from the Gulf of Vera, comprising only 2.1% - 2.5% of
cetacean sightings recorded there (Raga and Pantoja 2004). The percentages are also low in other areas
of the Mediterranean – e.g. 0.9 % for the Central Mediterranean, 2% for the NW Mediterranean, 3.6% for
North African waters and 7.9% south of the Balearic Islands, as compared to 18.3% for the Alborán Sea
(Cañadas and Sagarminaga 2000).
Strandings have been recorded in Algeria, Italy, France and Spain (Boutiba 1994; Podestá et al. 1997;
Annex 3: Regular Species 25