The echolocation behavior of harbor porpoises Phocoena phocoena around gillnets was monitored to test their response to chemically (BaSO4) enhanced gill nets, designed to be more acoustically reflective than commercial…
Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) are small coastal cetaceans vulnerable to mortality in fishing operations. Not all interactions are fatal, however, and each year many porpoises swim into and are subsequently…
Natural hybridization occurs rarely in mammals compared with other taxonomic groups of animals. Cetaceans appear unique among mammals in exhibiting striking karyological uniformity, which suggests that they have the potential…
The bycatch of harbour porpoise in the Danish North Sea bottom-set gillnet fisheries between 1987-2001 is estimated using two methods involving extrapolation of observer data. When observed entanglements are extrapolated…
The taxonomic status of the 2 morphologically distinct forms of Dall's porpoises, Phocoenoides dalli (dalli- and truei-type) remains unresolved. To address this uncertainty, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were used to…
A captive harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) was monitored for 80 consecutive days, 10 days before attachment of a satellite dive recorder and a VHF-radio tag, 30 days during attachment and…
The most serious threat to the status of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is incidental mortalities caused by entanglement in fishing gear. As part of an ongoing study to evaluate the…
Current plans to utilise German offshore waters as sites for windmill parks as well as ongoing investigation of potential areas to implement Natura 2000 have led to an increased research…
Morphology of the modern cetaceans represents the results of adaptation of the ancestral terrestrial mammals to aquatic life through their evolutional processes. Some of the primitive fossil cetaceans are known…
Stranded harbour porpoises were analysed to investigate differences in stranding patterns along the North and Baltic Sea coasts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. A total of 1,015 stranded or bycaught harbour porpoises…