First record of gillnet entanglement of a common minke whale calf (Balaenoptera acutorostrata, Lacépède, 1804) in Haiti, Greater Antilles, with a note on the local and regional fishing techniques

Abstract

week around the date of entanglement. So far, this is the first and only bycatch record available for the Caribbean Sea (see Bolaños-Jiménez et al., 2021), indicating a potentially low level of bycatch on the species in the region. This is consistent with Borobia et al. (2023), who found that the most important threats to marine mammals in the Caribbean Sea are noise pollution and vessel strikes. The date of this event (February) matches the peak of common minke whale presence in the Caribbean Sea (Mitchell, 1991; Bolaños-Jiménez et al., 2021). Interestingly, this is the first confirmed record of the presence of the species in Haitian waters, contributing to the growing knowledge of threats and the spatiotemporal distribution of the species in the WCR. Information on the presence of the minke whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ) in tropical waters is scarce, but the Caribbean Sea has historically been considered a wintering ground for the population of the North Atlantic Ocean (