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Fraser's dolphin is found primarily in tropical and subtropical oceanic waters of the world. The majority of records are from 30ºN to 35ºS. Strandings in temperate regions are considered extra-limital and are usually associated with anomalously warm water temperatures (Van Bree et al., 1986; Praderi et al., 1992; Perrin et al., 1994). The range of this species is well documented only in the eastern and central tropical Pacific (Perrin et al., 1994) and around the central Visayas, Philippines (Leatherwood et al., 1992). In the south-western Atlantic the species was first recorded in Uruguay, where four specimens were stranded between 8 and 27 March 1991 (Praderi et al., 1992). According to de Bonis (1999), approximately 60 Fraser's dolphins were stranded, between 31 August and 3 October 1997, along 250 km of the Uruguayan coast of the La Plata River. In Brazil, Barros et al. (2001) reported a stranding of Lagenodelphis hosei for the north-eastern coast. The major strandings, however, occurred on the south-eastern and southern Brazilian coasts as observed in Moreno et al. (2003) which revised the available information on stranding data for L. hosei along the Brazilian waters, as well as data from analysis of stomach contents and reproductive status during systematic beach surveys of northern Rio Grande do Sul State coast, southern Brazil. In past years, new individual and mass strandings were reported for Brazil (Alvarenga et al., 2000; Barros et al., 2001; Di Beneditto et al., 2001; Pinedo et al., 2001; Van Bressen et al., 2001), Uruguay (Laporta et al., 2002) and Argentina (Van Bressen et al., 2001). The purpose of this work is to present information about the first stranding of Lagenodelphis hosei for the northern Brazilian coast.
The Maranhão State (01°31[variant prime]S 45°07[variant prime]W) is located on the northern coast of Brazil. It presents a very particular area with 640 km of sandy beaches, mangroves and small islands. The east coast, where data were collected, is located close to an environmental protected area (EPA) and a national...