Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are mammals which, unlike seals, live out their entire life history in water. Cetaceans are commonly found on beaches, but such occurrences are the result of disorientation, illness, injury and death at sea - therefore cetaceans can not be considered as a normal part of Sable Island's wildlife. The island, however, provides a good opportunity for monitoring cetaceans in nearby waters, and information about species composition and seasonal movements, for example, can be gleaned from the beach surveys. Whenever possible, basic measurements (length, girth etc) and specimens (skull, teeth, skin tissue etc) are collected from the carcasses of stranded cetaceans. Skin tissues collected from fresh carcasses are used in studies employing molecular genetics to examine, amongst other things, social organization and stock structure in cetacean populations.

Since 1970, over 300 individual whales, dolphins and porpoises, comprising 19 species, have been found on the north and south sides of Sable Island. Most of these are "toothed whales" (Odontoceti) such as Sperm whales and dolphins; a much smaller number (4% of the total cetaceans recorded for the island) are "baleen whales" (Mysticeti) such as Fin and Humpback whales. Of the strandings reported from Sable Island, five species - Pygmy and Dwarf sperm whales, Sowerby's and Blainville's beaked whales, and Risso's dolphin - are not often found along Canada's eastern coastline.

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Nineteen Species of Whales & Dolphins found on Sable Island since 1970: Blue whale Balaenoptera musculus Fin whale Balaenoptera physalus Minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae Sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus Pygmy sperm whale Kogia breviceps Dwarf sperm whale Kogia sima Cuvier's beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus Blainville's beaked whale Mesoplodon densirostris Sowerby's beaked whale Mesoplodon bidens Killer whale Orcinus orca Long-finned pilot whale Globicephala melaena White-beaked dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris Atlantic white-sided dolphin Lagenorhynchus acutus Short-beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis Risso's dolphin Grampus griseus Striped dolphin Stenella coeruleoalba Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena


Additional Reading: Lucas, Z. N. & S. K. Hooker. 2000. Cetacean strandings on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, 1970-1998. Canadian Field-Naturalist 114: 45-61. Sergeant, D. E., A. W. Mansfield & B. Beck. 1970. Inshore records of Cetacea for Eastern Canada, 1949-68. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada 27: 1903-1915.
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