Cetacean Mortality Related to Ship Traffic in the Mexican Central Pacific

Abstract

Ship traffic can negatively affect marine wildlife, including cetaceans, especially in areas where these mammals carry out relevant ecological activities (Halliday et al., 2022). Specifically, ship strikes can be caused by several types of large vessels (e.g., cargo, tankers, cruise ships, and fishing boats), as well as by smaller recreational boats (~10 m). Cetacean mortality caused by ship strikes has been documented on stranded carcasses collected from beaches or the bow of a vessel upon arrival at a port (Laist et al., 2001; Jensen et al., 2004; Silber et al., 2010; Schoeman et al., 2020; Ransome et al., 2021). Sometimes, the impact may leave no external evidence and cause of death must be confirmed via necropsy (Laist et al., 2001; Panigada et al., 2006); however, the carcass must be fresh since an advanced state of decomposition masks the signs of a ship strike (Glass et al., 2009).