Abstract

(…) For five years we have systematically gathered information of every available kind related to these animals. Fifteen species have been observed in sufficient detail to be considered here. These are Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier, Stenella euphrosyne (Gray), Delphinus bairdi Dall, Tursiops truncatus (Montagu), Tursiops gilli Dall, Lissodelphis borealis (Peale), Lagenorhynchus obliquidens Gill, Orcinus orca (Linnaeus), Pseudorca crassidens (Owen), Globicephala scammoni Cope, Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus), Phocoena sinus Norris and McFarland, Phocoenoides dalli (True), Eschrichtius glaucus (Cope), and Balaenoptera acutorostrata Lacepede.
Even with our unusual opportunities for cetacean study, the bulk of our information has come from chance observations of short duration. As a result, our observations are mostly fragmentary, and are of many different kinds. Probably, understanding of cetacean ecology will continue to be built up in this unsystematic piecemeal fashion, particularly for species of little commercial or exhibition value. (…)