Franciscana Dolphin
What it is
One of the smallest dolphins in the world: adults measure between 1.3 and 1.7 m. It has the longest beak in proportion to body size of any cetacean. It is endemic to the south-west Atlantic: it lives only in the coastal strip running from the state of Espírito Santo (Brazil) to northern Patagonia, Argentina, and also enters estuaries such as the Río de la Plata. It almost always stays in waters shallower than 30–50 m, close to shore, in turbid water. Its range is divided into five management units (Franciscana Management Areas, FMA I to V), used for conservation and management purposes.
Conservation status
IUCN Red List, 2017 assessment (errata version published 2018), e.T17978A123792204, with a decreasing population trend. In Argentina: Vulnerable under the 2019 Categorisation of Argentine Mammals (SAyDS–SAREM), and Threatened under Resolution 316/2021 of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. It is considered the most threatened small cetacean of the south-west Atlantic.
Threats
Incidental capture in gillnets — from both commercial and artisanal fishing — is, by a wide margin, the main threat. Its range is narrow and overlaps almost point for point with the coastal fishing grounds of all three countries. Coastal habitat degradation and pollution add to the pressure.
The franciscana is shy, doesn't jump, doesn't approach boats, and lives in murky water. There can be franciscanas a few hundred metres from a beach full of people, and no one ever sees them. For most of the coastal population, the only possible encounter with the species is a stranding — a dead or distressed animal. That fact — that the only way to meet it is to find it stranded — is itself the message of the kit.
Related activities
- The shadow of the wave
- Who's left in the net?
- Eyes on the shoreline
- Zerbini, A.N., Secchi, E., Crespo, E., Danilewicz, D. & Reeves, R. (2017). Pontoporia blainvillei (errata version published 2018). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T17978A123792204.
- SAyDS–SAREM (2019). 2019 Categorisation of Argentine mammals by extinction risk.
- Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Argentina), Resolution 316/2021.