Common Dolphin

Description:

This is a very abundant species, with many available estimates for the various areas where it occurs. In the Pacific, 2,963,000 (CV=24%) was estimated for the eastern tropical Pacific (Gerrodette and Forcada 2002), and an average of 352.000 (CV = 18%) was estimated for the US west coast based on surveys between 1991 and 2005 (Barlow and Forney in press). Off California, common dolphins show seasonal and inter-annual changes in abundance due to shifts in distribution (Forney and Barlow 1998).

Habitat:

Short-beaked common dolphins appear to have a preference for upwelling-modified waters, areas with steep sea floor relief, and extensive shelf areas, but they are widespread in warm temperate and tropical waters (Evans 1994). In the eastern tropical Pacific, they prefer equatorial and subtropical waters with a shallow thermocline, relatively large seasonal changes in surface temperature, and seasonal upwelling (Reilly 1990; Fiedler and Reilly 1994).

Notes:

On our way to the island of Santa Cruz in the Channel Islands, we saw common dolphins and they stayed with us for a while, swimming alongside the boat and swimming through the wakes behind us.