'Extinct' porpoise seen seven times off Costa del Sol
Sunday, October 28, 2018 @ 11:32 PM
A TYPE of dolphin believed to be extinct in the Mediterranean has been seen seven times off the Costa del Sol in recent months, according to the marine protection charity OceanSea.
The Common or Harbour Porpoise, one of the smallest mammals found in the sea and a species that stays close to the coast, has long been thought to have been wiped out in southern Europe, but the sightings have shown that it is alive and well and that habitats continue to survive in the Alborán Sea, between Almería and eastern Morocco.
The Phocoena Phocoena is one of six species considered 'endangered' and which are subject to special conservation orders, says OceanSea's Juan Manuel Salazar.
And in the past three years, 651 sightings of these six have been reported – most of them, 542 in total, of bottlenose dolphins, and another 79 of the Common or Atlantic Dolphin.
Rarer still are rorqual or blue-fin whale sightings – just 12 in three years – although a much higher number has been spotted off the Cabo de la Nao cape on the cusp of Dénia and Jávea (northern Alicante province), mainland Spain's easternmost tip, which is said to be on the so-called 'Whale Way', or migration path.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com