What type of dolphin and/or porpoise is it that inhabits the shore of Cape May Point, New Jersey?

Question

I always thought the were porpoise because they are in northern waters.

Answer 1

Tursiops truncatus other wise known as the bottlenose dolphins.

At birth, the bottlenose dolphin is 90-130 cm long and weighs about 30 kg. Gestation is 11-12 months. Calves usually start weaning at 4-12 months (Verwey and Wolff, 1981). They are fully weaned at 18-20 months. The oldest calf still nursing was 38 months old (Perring and Reilly, 1984) On the US Atlantic coast, the average size at birth is 117 cm and the average weight 20.4 kg. They are physically mature at 245 cm (age 13 years). Females become reproductively mature at about 10 years, which is when they are ovulating regularly. The first ovulation (sexual maturity) occurs at 5-7 years (Perrin and Reilly, 1984). Males become sexually mature at 10-15 years (Mead and Potter, 1990). Few studies have been done on bottlenose dolphin survival rates. Hersh et al (1990) determined an annual mortality rate of 0.069-0.092 (survival rate (ASR) 0.931-0.908) for the Indian-Banana River system in Florida. For Sarasota Bay, the annual loss rate was 0.039, which includes known deaths, assumed deaths and emigrations, although to date no evidence for emigration has been found (no known individuals lost from the Sarasota Bay population have been resighted in other populations), so the annual loss rate is probably the annual mortality rate (associated ASR: 0.961) (Wells and Scott, 1990). The ASR for bottlenose dolphins in oceanaria was calculated to be 0.951 for the period 1988-1992. There was no statistically significant difference between this ASR and the one calculated by Wells and Scott (1990) for the Sarasota population (Small and DeMaster, 1995). In Tampa Bay, dolphin schools consisted for 9.7% of calves (Weigl, 1990). In Sarasota Bay, the annual recruitement rate is 0.048. The crude birth rate is 0.055. There is a high variability in birth rate, resulting in varying numbers of calves in the population. The maximum calf ratio was 20% in 1986 (Wells and Scott, 1990). The mean annual immigration rate was 0.025.

Answer 2

there are bottlenose dolphines and harbor porpoises....in the winter, you can also find humpback whales

Answer 3

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/si...