This website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and ensure the functionality of our site. For more detailed information about the types of cookies we use and how we protect your privacy, please visit our Privacy Information page.
This website uses different types of cookies to enhance your experience. Please select your preferences below:
These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. For example, we use Google Analytics to generate web statistics, which helps us improve our website's performance and user experience. These cookies may track information such as the pages visited, time spent on the site, and any errors encountered.
Phocoena phocoena (Linnaeus, 1758) Harbour porpoise |
![]() |
photo by
FAO |
Family: | Phocoenidae (porpoises) | |||
Max. size: | 200 cm TL (male/unsexed); max.weight: 70 kg | |||
Environment: | pelagic; marine, oceanodromous | |||
Distribution: | Mediterranean and Black Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Arctic: Phocoena phocoena phocoena: Baffin Island, Labrador, Newfoundland, Gulf of St. Lawrence, North Carolina, Greenland, Iceland, Faroes, Russia, Portugal, Baltic Sea [Baltic Sea population: IUCN 2010 (Ref. 84930): CR, C2a(ii).], Gulf of Finland, Gulf of Bosnia, British Isles, Tunisia, Spain, Morocco, Senegal; Phocoena phocoena relicta: Black Sea, Sea of Azov, Bosporus (Turkey), Sea of Marmara, northern Aegean Sea; Phocoena phocoena subsp.: Russia, Aleutian Islands (Alaska), Sea of Okhotsk, Japan, Bering Strait; Phocoena phocoena vomerina: Pribilof Islands, USA, Canada (Ref. 1522). | |||
Diagnosis: | ||||
Biology: | Found in shallow water, most often nearshore, although they occasionally travel over deeper offshore waters (Ref. 1394). Uses echo-location for orientation and foraging by emitting high frequency click sounds (Ref. 96345). Feeds on a wide variety of fish and cephalopods; small, non-spiny schooling fish (such as herring and mackerel) (Ref. 1394). | |||
IUCN Red List Status: | (LC); Date assessed: 19 May 2020 Ref. 123251) | |||
Threat to humans: | ||||
Country info: |
|