Marine Mammal FAQ’s

1. What are marine mammals ?

“Marine  mammals”  is  a  collective  term   pertaining  to  animals  that  have  the  following  characteristics:  (a) air  breathing (b) warm-­blooded  (endothermic)  vertebrates (c) have  hair  (for  whales  and  dolphins  these  are  just  a  few  hairs   around  the  upper  jaw  present  at  birth)   (d) feed  their  young  with  milk  produced  by  mammary  glands  of   the  female (e) rely  mainly  on  aquatic  habitats  for  their  food (f) have  evolved  anatomical  features  and  physiological   adaptations  to  live  in  the  aquatic  environment.

2. What are marine mammals of the Philippines?

Marine mammals of the Philippines comprise of 29 cetacean species and 1 sirenian (Aragones et al. 2013, 2017, 2022; Aragones and Laggui, 2019 – see resource center for links).

Family Delphinidae

1. Delphinus delphis (common dolphin)
2. Feresa attenuata (pygmy killer whale)
3. Globicephala macrorhynchus (short-finned pilot whale)
4. Grampus griseus (Risso’s dolphin)
5. Lagenodelphis hosei (Fraser’s dolphin)
6. Orcaella brevirostris (Irrawaddy dolphin)
7. Orcinus orca (killer whale)
8. Peponocephala electra (melon-headed whale)
9. Pseudorca crassidens (false killer whale)
10. Stenella attenuata (pantropical spotted dolphin)
11. Stenella coeruleoalba (striped dolphin)
12. Stenella longirostris (spinner dolphin)
13. Steno bredanensis (rough-toothed dolphin)
14. Tursiops aduncus (Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin)
15. Tursiops truncates (bottlenose dolphin)

Family Kogiidae        

16. Kogia breviceps (pygmy sperm whale)
17. Kogia sima (dwarf sperm whale)

Family Physeteridae

18. Physeter macrocephalus (sperm whale)

Family Ziphiidae (beaked whales)         

19. Indopacetus pacificus (Longman’s beaked whale)
20. Mesoplodon densirostris (Blainville’s beaked whale)
21. Mesoplodon gingkodens (Gingko-toothed whale)
22. Mesoplodon hotaula (Deraniyagala’s beaked whale)
23. Ziphius cavirostris (Cuvier’s beaked whale)        

Family Balaenopteridae (rorquals)      

24. Balaenoptera acutorostrata (common minke whale)
25. Balaenoptera edeni (Bryde’s whale)
26. Balaenoptera musculus (blue whale)
27. Balaenoptera omurai (Omura’s whale)
28. Balaenoptera physalus (fin whale)
29. Megaptera novaeangliae (humpback whale)

Family Dugongidae 

30. Dugong dugon (dugong)

3. What is PMMSN?

The Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network‘s (PMMSN) main objectives are to rescue, rehabilitate and release stranded marine mammals nationwide. It is a SEC registered non-profit organization established in October 2005 whose main member organizations include the DA-BFAR, Local Government Units (LGUs), UP Diliman’s Institute of Environmental Science & Meteorology (UPD IESM) and Ocean Adventure. The PMMSN’s core revolve in the 5 Rs: Rescue, Rehabilitation, Release/ Refloat, Repository and Research.

4. What are the relevant laws in the Philippines for marine mammal protection?

• Republic Act No. 9147: Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act
• Republic Act No. 8485: “The Animal Welfare Act of 1998”
• Republic Act No. 8550: “Fisheries Code of 1998”
• Fisheries Administrative Order No. 185 Series of 1992
  • ban on the taking or catching, selling, purchasing, possessing, transporting and exporting of dolphins
• Fisheries Administrative Order No. 185­-1 Series of 1997
  • amending sections 1 and 2 of FAO No. 185 by adding whales and porpoises
• Fisheries Administrative Order No. 208 Series of 2001
  • conservation and rare, threatened and endangered fishery species