Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
| Scientific Name | Stenella frontalis |  | |
| English Common Name | Atlantic Spotted Dolphin | ||
| Taxonomy | Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Sub-order: Odontoceti Family: Delphinidae Genus: Stenella Species: frontalis | ||
| Behaviour | A keen bow-rider known to travel long-distances to hitch a ride with a high speed vessel. Very fast swimmers and exceptionally active at the surface | ||
| World Distribution | Found in the warm and tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean and particularly common in the western North Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Distribution further south is poorly documented. | ||
| Morphology | The Atlantic spotted dolphin looks very similar to the Pantropical spotted dolphin. The Atlantic spotted dolphin however tends to be more robust, has a light shoulder streak and spots on the belly that remain distinct. Atlantic spotted dolphins have dark purple/grey capes with light spots, and white undersides with dark spots. Along each side they have a wide grey stripe. Their beaks are quite long and thick with white tips and white "lips". There is a light grey stripe running from the eye to the flippers which are curved with a pointed tip and usually unspotted. As the dolphins get older, they develop more spots. Two ecotypes are recognised; the coastal and offshore form. These can be quite different to each other although the offshore form tends to be smaller than the coastal and has fewer spots. They also have narrower beaks and smaller teeth. Atlantic spotted dolphins have between 32 and 42 teeth in each row of the upper jaw and between 30 and 40 teeth in each row of the lower jaw. New-borns are between 80cm and 1.2 metres in length. Adults are between 1.7 and 2.3 metres and weigh between 100 and 140 kg. Atlantic spotted dolphins live on fish, squid and sometimes invertebrates. | ||
| Threats | The primary threat is incidental entanglement in fishing nets. | ||
| Status | No abundance estimate is available for this species however it is thought to be locally common. (Although Atlantic spotted dolphins are thought to be the most common offshore species in the Gulf of Mexico and off the south-eastern United States, efforts in the 1980s to estimate abundance in the Gulf and on the mid and North Atlantic continental shelf did not attempt to differentiate between this species and the Pantropical Spotted dolphin – no reliable abundance estimate therefore exists.) There is no data available from West Africa or South America but the few records suggest that it is not abundant or that it has an offshore distribution | ||
| Conservation Activities | CMS “not listed” IUCN – Data Deficient | ||
