 |
|
 |
Harbour porpoises are one of the world's smallest cetaceans, starting off at 67 to 85cm long as babies and growing to between 1.4 and 1.9 metres long. Adults weigh on average 55 kg that's just under 9 stone. Despite their small size they have robust little bodies with small rounded heads and no beak (unlike the bottlenose dolphin to whom they are closely related). Their mouths curve upwards slightly which make them look like they are smiling! They have a triangular shaped dorsal fin with a blunt tip, unlike the backwards curving fins of dolphins. |
Sources of Info: Porpoise Conservation Website: www.phocoena.org Whale and Dolphin Conservation website
|
|
|
||
| Harbour porpoises are found in the temperate waters of the Northern Hemisphere around the world. They tend to live in waters close to land and they take their name from the fact that they used to be regular visitors to bays and harbours. They occur right around the British Isles and used to be a common sight. Despite hugging coastlines it can be difficult to see them as they are very shy and mostly stay below the surface. However, they are slow swimmers and can occasionally be spotted when resting at the surface or when they roll. They are mammals, like whales and dolphins, and so have a blowhole and come up to the surface to breath. Their blow is difficult to see (no great spouting of air and water droplets!) but it can easily be heard, it makes a puffing sound (hence its other name of the puffing pig), rather like a sneeze. | International Fund for Animal Welfare leaflet: Help protect our porpoises. www.ifaw.org | |
It is thought that porpoises can live as long as 20 years but normally live to around 10 years old. They become capable of breeding between 3 and 5 years old, the females produce just one calf every year. They feed on fish like herring, capelin and pollack and also take squid. They can dive down to over 200 metres and can stay under for as long as 6 minutes before needing another breath. |
||
Porpoises under threat…… Sadly, porpoises are yet another species ‘living on the edge' as their numbers have dropped dramatically. They face exactly the same problems as bottlenose dolphins and if anything even more porpoises are accidentally killed by fisheries as they are more confined to shallow waters than the dolphins and are particularly vulnerable to bottom set gill nets. It is estimated that more than 10 000 porpoises are accidentally caught each year and that there are only around 350 000 left in the North Sea. They are listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as vulnerable throughout their range. Look up the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society website and the IFAW website to see how you can help by writing letters to the government. |
||
|
||
|
|
|
 |
||
 |
||