Harbour-porpoise
Phocoena phocoena
Small cetacean with its own taxonomic family: Phocoenidae. It is the smallest cetacean of our coast, having a robust body, without beak, and rarely reaching more than 2 metres in length. The mouth has, per hemi-maxilla, 22-27 spatula-shaped teeth. It displays a general dark grey coloration, lightening up to white in the ventral area, having a small triangular-shaped dorsal fin. They are solitary animals, shy and discrete, forming small family groups with fleeting immersions and rarely displaying aerial behaviour. With varied feeding habits, they are predominantly distributed in subpolar and temperate waters. Being particularly coastal, in mainland Portugal they occur mostly in the North region, where the slope is more abrupt. However, there are recurring records in the South region of Algarve, between Albufeira and Sagres.
