Cetaceans of Sao Paulo, southeastern Brazil

Twenty-two species of cetaceans have been recorded from the 550 km-long coast of Sao Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. The area receives both the influence of the warm Brazil current and the cold Malvinas current, the later prevailing during the austral winter. Both tropical and subantarctic species have been recorded, most of them migratory, like the baleen whales. The distribution of most species seems tied to the seasonal shifts of the sea currents and to the distribution of mangroves, although there are scanty information on some of them. Sao Paulo is the source of the sole Brazilian records of Lissodelphis peronii and Berardius ar arnuxii, and also harbors the southernmost Atlantic population of Stenella longirostris.