New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Antarctic orca in New Zealand waters?

INGRID N. VISSER

The Orca Project
`Aorangi', Matapouri Road
RD 3, Whangarei, New Zealand

Abstract  I report on a group of orca (Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758)) near the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, which were a lighter coloration than orca usually seen in these waters. Differences in pigmentation included a light grey caudal peduncle area and a dorsal cape, which has previously only been described for Antarctic orca. The size and shape of the eye patches were not consistent with orca photo-identified in New Zealand. I suggest that this group of orca, although observed in New Zealand waters, were of Antarctic origin.

Keywords  Orcinus orca; New Zealand; Antarctic; pigmentation; dorsal cape; eye patch; migration; photo-identification

M97066
Received 11 November 1997; accepted 4 February 1999

Short communication

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1174K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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