Mass stranding of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) in the British Virgin Islands

Author(s):  
Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni ◽  
Gian M. Toyos-González ◽  
Janice Pérez-Padilla ◽  
Marta A. Rodríguez-López ◽  
Julie Overing

The pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata) is an offshore, tropical and subtropical delphinid found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The species has only recently been studied, mostly from specimens collected from strandings. While over 52 reports exist for the Atlantic Ocean, only one record exists for the Caribbean Sea. A new record of a mass stranding of pygmy killer whales from the British Virgin Islands is documented and the pathology and life history of the specimens is described, associating the stranding process with the meteorological and oceanographic disturbance of Hurricane Marilyn, which devastated the Virgin Islands a day prior to the stranding. This stranding event constitutes the sixth known mass stranding for the species worldwide, the first record for pygmy killer whales for the northeastern Caribbean and the second for the entire Caribbean Sea.

Author(s):  
Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni ◽  
Gian M. Toyos-González ◽  
Janice Pérez-Padilla ◽  
Marta A. Rodríguez-López ◽  
Julie Overing

The pygmy killer whale (Feresa attenuata) is an offshore, tropical and subtropical delphinid found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The species has only recently been studied, mostly from specimens collected from strandings. While over 52 reports exist for the Atlantic Ocean, only one record exists for the Caribbean Sea. A new record of a mass stranding of pygmy killer whales from the British Virgin Islands is documented and the pathology and life history of the specimens is described, associating the stranding process with the meteorological and oceanographic disturbance of Hurricane Marilyn, which devastated the Virgin Islands a day prior to the stranding. This stranding event constitutes the sixth known mass stranding for the species worldwide, the first record for pygmy killer whales for the northeastern Caribbean and the second for the entire Caribbean Sea.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
María Camila Gómez-Cubillos ◽  
Marcela Grijalba-Bendeck

The first record of Ruvettus pretiosus Cocco, 1833 for the Colombian continental Caribbean is presented. The specimen was collected at Los Cocos, department of Magdalena (11°16’33, 84’’ N 73°53’33, 01’’ W), using a demersal longline gear placed at 100 m depth. Biometrics, diagnosis and comments regarding its distribution, ecology and biology are included in the description. This new record expands the distribution of the species in the Caribbean Sea and increases the reported number of gempylids for Colombia to five.


Author(s):  
John M. Chenoweth

This introductory chapter sketches the questions and goals of the overall project and the needed background information about Quakerism. It introduces the Tortola Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (“Quakers”) which formed in the British Virgin Islands about 1740 and addresses how archaeology can approach the study of religion and religious communities. This chapter also serves as an introduction to Quakerism itself, including its ideology based on individual, un-mediated communion with God, and a brief history of the group from its foundation in the political and economic turmoil of mid-seventeenth-century England, to the “Quietism” of wealthy “Quaker Grandees” in Philadelphia, to a nineteenth and twentieth century history of schism and reunion around pacifism. The Quaker structure of Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly meetings is introduced, and connected to both community oversight and support structures. Finally, this chapter introduces three main Quaker ideals—simplicity, equality, and peace—which will be interrogated throughout the work as they change in their interactions with Caribbean slavery and geography.


1965 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1070-1073

The Caribbean Council held its fifth and last meeting in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, from November 30 to December 4, 1964. Attending the meeting were delegates from France on behalf of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; the Netherlands Antilles; Surinam; the British Virgin Islands; the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and the United States Virgin Islands. Representatives of Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, and St. Vincent, countries enjoying special observer status, attended the meeting. Also at the meeting were observers from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.


Zootaxa ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 379 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMAZONAS C. JUNIOR ◽  
ROWLAND M. SHELLEY

In Mexico, the newportiine scolopocryptopid genus Newportia Gervais, 1847, comprises 10 species: N. mexicana (Saussure, 1858); N. azteca Humbert & Saussure, 1869; N. stolli (Pocock, 1896); N. spinipes Pocock, 1896; N. oreina Chamberlin, 1915; N. sabina and pelaezi, both by Chamberlin, 1942; N. atoyaca and morela, both by Chamberlin, 1943, and N. troglobia, n. sp. The last occurs in caves in Tamaulipas and appears to be an obligate troglobite; N. sabina, known only from caves in San Luis Potosi, is redescribed and illustrated. Newportia azteca is revived and returned to its rightful position as the third oldest name in the genus; despite having priority by 27 years, it had been considered to be “the same” as N. spinipes and dropped from nomenclature. Although Newportia and the Newportiinae are not known from the continental United States, they do inhabit the country’s territories in the Caribbean; N. heteropoda Chamberlin, 1918, is reported from Puerto Rico, and N. longitarsis virginiensis Lewis, 1989, is recorded from St. Thomas and St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, and Tortola and Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. The northernmost Mexican record, of N. pelaezi in Nuevo León, is only 96 mi (154 km) south of the US border, suggesting that the taxa may potentially be discovered in the southern periphery of Texas; likewise, rafting from Cuba, where 4–5 species occur, could bring them to the Florida Keys. New localities from Mexico are presented for N. stolli, N. spinipes, N. oreina, N. atoyaca, and N. morela, and ranges are depicted on a distribution map.


2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Boyko ◽  
Jason Williams

AbstractA new species of dajid isopod in the genus Aspidophryxus G.O. Sars, 1883 is described from three females and one male found infesting the lateral carapace of Heteromysis (Olivemysis) actiniae Clarke, 1955 (Mysidae: Heteromysinae) associated with the corkscrew anemone Bartholomea annulata (Lesuer, 1817) (Anthozoa: Aiptasiidae) from the British Virgin Islands. This is the first record of the genus from the western Atlantic; three other species are known from northern European waters, the central Atlantic and Japan, all on mysid hosts. The new species is the first dajid recorded from tropical Caribbean waters. A key to species in the genus and a list of all known hosts with parasite orientation are provided.


Author(s):  
Lina M. Ramos Ortega ◽  
Luís A. Vidal V.

Three species of the genus Heterodinium Kofoid are reported for the first time in coastal waters of the Colombian Caribbean. The identified species are Heterodinium rigdenae Kofoid, 1906, Heterodinium agassizii Kofoid, 1907 and Heterodinium angulatum Kofoid y Michener, 1911. Information about distribution of these species in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico is given.


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